MARTÍN CHAMBI AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES IN AN EXHIBITION AT CASA DE AMERICA

Between the 1920s and 1950s, Martín Chambi established himself as the most important photographer in Peru and Latin America, extensively documenting Andean life. He portrayed rural activities, landscapes, countless archaeological sites, popular and urban festivals, the arrival of modernity with airplanes, motorcycles, highways and factories, as well as the native groups and types he considered significant. His studio in Cusco was his center of operations, where he met a great demand for artistic portraits, as well as official and private commissions.

On display in this exhibition is a selection of works by photographers contemporary to Chambi, such as Max T. Vargas and Luigi Gismondi in his early years, and outstanding mid-century figures such as Robert Frank, Irving Penn and Pierre Verger, who shared the common scenario of Cusco and the Andes. All the photographs on display belong to the Jan Mulder Collection, including more than 80 vintage images of Chambi.

The exhibition contains around 130 photographs, among which there are 90 images by Martin Chambi and the rest by other authors, taking as a starting point some of Martin Chambi's teachers, such as Max T. Vargas. The oldest photograph in the exhibition is precisely by this author, in the city of Cuzco in 1897. According to Stefano Klima, Vargas probably showed it to his pupil Chambi in Arequipa, which led the latter to be interested in traveling there as well and documenting it.