Hector Fabio Zamora, the photojournalist genius who left an invaluable legacy for Colombian journalism

Before mentioning a small part of his legacy, it is necessary to recall a story that Héctor Fabio Zamora collected about the cats of Mompox (Bolivar) and which he accompanied, of course, by a gallery where the felines that guard the municipal cemetery were the models that could well appear in a bag of food for animals.

“The district cemetery of Mompox was founded in 1831 after José Celestino Mutis recommended to Viceroy Pedro de Mendinueta to build one outside the city for health reasons. But beyond its historical importance, it is also the center of a particular anecdote in which at least a dozen cats that live in the middle of centuries-old tombs are the protagonists.

Worthy of magical realism, its history dates back to the death of Alfredo Serrano Rubio, son of a former mayor of Mompox and known as the 'cat'. Her tomb was constantly visited by a black cat,” said the Armenian-born photojournalist who, since 1998, had been linked to the El Tiempo Publishing House, consolidating himself there as a reference in his craft, seeing through his lenses what others could not see: visual stories in unexpected places.

In the least thought out places are where the best stories occur, and Zamora did know how to materialize this premise more than enough, for a reason he was the teacher that dozens of students of the Universidad del Rosario took advantage of from start to finish, learning to have what the faculties of Social Communication call 'journalistic smell', that which he showed through photos that became stories, denunciations and facts.

Perhaps one of the most replicated - and remembered - captures was the one he obtained during the 2019 National Strike, when in Bogotá, an Esmad agent kicked him into the clean face of a young woman. In that scene, that day, Zamora was with her camera in hand, pulling the shutter that left a sequence of four images that once again gave an account of the police abuse that is constantly reported during demonstrations in the country.

Another of his visual stories was captured in 2013 and it was the one that he himself called 'The Kiss of Hope' (dubbed El Tiempo as 'The Kiss of the Bronx') and which was born in downtown Bogotá during police operations, headed by Mayor Gustavo Petro, in the sector known as 'La L'. There was the birth of the postcard that literally became a piece of art, because at the entrance to 26th Street there is a graffiti dedicated to that kiss between two street dwellers.

“(...) For me it is a clear reflection of what human beings are: I think the important thing about this moment is to think that in a place where there was so much destruction, so many human losses, where so many negative things have been found, there was this,” he says while showing the image printed on photographic paper. And I do believe that where there is love, there is faith and hope,” said the reporter for the same house who helped consolidate him as a teacher.

The teacher, the colleague, the friend, the teacher who became the companion of dozens of practitioners who walked through that media outlet, was remembered by many other journalists who learned, on the morning of this Monday, the 11th, of the death of one of the most valuable photojournalists in the country in Manizales due to natural causes.

Portraits of the armed conflict and manifestations, as well as natural, everyday and social landscapes were addressed by the photographer's medium and long-range lenses, who will not only be remembered for winning the Simon Bolivar Prize in 2019 and 2020, or for being worthy of Alfonso Bonilla Aragón, from the Cali Mayor's Office in 2005, but also for being that teacher and colleague who, despite national recognition, did not fail to treat students and graphic colleagues as equals.

Héctor Fabio Zamora was responsible for capturing unprecedented moments through photography, and his students and colleagues who have him as their source of inspiration will be responsible for keeping that legacy alive so that, based on the photo of a cat standing on a tombstone, a story that moves hundreds of people can be told.

Throughout this Monday, several handful of journalists, students and even political figures such as Gustavo Petro mourned the journalist's death, not before remembering part of his work that is the muse of many reporters.

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