Don Manuel Gómez Miralles

Don Manuel Gómez Miralles, (1886-1965), began studying photography at 15 years of age under the tutelage of Mr. Harrison Nathaniel Rudd, a New Yorker who had a farm in Costa Rica from 1873-1913. In 1916 he established his own photo studio next to the Variedades Movie Theater in downtown San José, and in 1940 moved the studio to the working class La California neighborhood in San José.

Don Manuel’s portfolio is diverse. As the official photographer of several Costa Rican presidents, he documented their electoral campaigns, celebrations, and cabinets. He also photographed shop clerks, factory workers, marching bands, Central American Indians, farmhands, planter families on their estates, and Costa Rican society. His photos are testament to his technical expertise, his gift for composition, and his devotion to preserving images of Old Costa Rica for generations to come.