Local Voices: Peruvian Imagescape(s)

"Local Voices" is the digital media platform that narrates the creative horizon of image culture, country by country: showcasing the photographers, institutions, and independent players shaping the contemporary imagescape(s). Today, we will introduce Peru and its contemporary photographic scene. This article is an exercise in co-writing, aimed at creating an ever-growing digital archive on the world of contemporary photography and visual culture, highlighting the makers and key players in specific areas.

In this article, you will find a review of some contemporary photographers who have previously submitted to our calls. From Alejandra Orosco Venero's representation of human symptoms to climate change events, to Ian Tevo's photographs reflecting on bodies beyond desire and satisfaction, to Lucero Del Castillo Ames' visual poetry, Gihan Tubbe's poetics of time and landscape, and Fiorella Del Castillo's experimentations, Peruvian imagescape(s) is explored in its multiple manifestations.

Before the 1970s, photography in Peru was mostly seen as a documentary medium. The first portrait studio in Lima was established in 1842. However, during that decade, photographers and critics began challenging this perception and started recognizing photography as an art form in its own right, alongside literature and painting. In the 1980s, Peru faced violence and political turmoil due to the guerrilla war led by Maoism-inspired insurgents known as Sendero Luminoso. During this time, photojournalism played a crucial role in the country, providing visual evidence of the violence and also condemning it.

KWY Ediciones, a contemporary Peruvian publishing house, released a volume titled "El Arte Fotográfico en el Perú. Balance y Perspectivas (1990-2018)" (2023). This compelling research aims to fill a gap in Peru's photography history and sheds light on a new series of publications dedicated to theoretical reflections on photography by "El Pensamiento de la Imagen". At the heart of the book is the evaluation of a group of photographers referred to as the “Undisciplined" by the editor Alejandro Léon Cannock. These photographers, including Roberto Huarcaya, Luz María Bedoya, Flavia Gandolfo, Juan Enrique Bedoya, and Milagros de la Torre, emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, bridging the gap between photography and contemporary art. It is worth mentioning that Huarcaya has been selected to represent Peru in the 2024 Biennale di Venezia.

These “Undisciplined” artists introduced conceptual practices and new ways of thinking about the image and have played a significant role in establishing a local photography tradition, also contributing to education through the Centro de la Imagen, Lima's once most influential photography which recently lost its experimental and critic-nurturing nature to turn into a business when bought by Intercop in 2022.

In the 1990s, the photographic scene in Peru began to decentralize. A group of artists gathered in Cusco and started printing and cataloging glass-plate negatives at an old photographic studio. This process of decentralization has continued to develop up until now. According to Peruvian artist Alejandra Orosco Venero, "photographic practice in Peru is becoming more and more decentralized.” As an example, she speaks of Maleza, an artist-led cultural space in the Sacred Valley of Cusco, which she founded with artist Paul Gambin in 2022 to bring together the local creative community and foster a self-sustaining artistic ecosystem that recognizes the work of local, national, and international artists. They promote the current community of photographic artists in the area through their public library specializing in art books and activities such as talks, workshops, exhibitions, and visits to local schools.

Cusco is home to several other photography-related institutions. Taller de Fotografia offers various photography courses, Kanay Lab provides a darkroom facility, and the Fototeca Andina houses over 30,000 images from the Cusco School of Photography spanning 1890 to 1970. Additionally, Augusta Espacio in Cusco supports emerging voices in photography by hosting exhibitions and talks for the local community.

As artist Fiorella Del Castillo mentions, a great sense of community arises around local art-publishing gatherings, all managed independently. The biggest event is set around Festival Léeme in Lima, a festival for independent publishers which sees a great turnover of artists and photographers to share their practices and publications.

On the other hand, as artist Ian Tevo highlights, there are a few institutions that are worth mentioning: MALI (Lima Museum of Art), which has a clear historical heritage of contemporary photography in the country; and the LUM (Lugar de la Memoria), a state institution that exhibits photographic documents and art. While the former is engaged in hosting auctions exclusively of photography and buying photographs for its collection of contemporary art, the latter preserves the history of the country through documentary archival photography collections.

Alejandra Orosco Venero’s latest work, "Symptoms," was created in Bellwald, Switzerland, where she spent three months examining the reactions of human bodies to climate change. She sought to find similarities between human and plant organisms and their respective environments. Through her artistic practice, she aims to explore and expose the tensions that arise between scientific language and personal experiences. She employs a documentary approach to convey the transformation of the landscape and the effects of climate change on mental health.

Lucero Del Castillo Ames graduated with a Master's degree in Anthropology and also holds a Master's degree in Contemporary Photography from the Centro de la Imagen. Thus, her practice as a photographer is nourished by anthropological thought, critical theory, and political work with various social collectives. Her last project and photobook, "Contrapunto", questions the dialogue between image and poetry and deconstructs the opposition between looking and reading, in an attempt to understand personal and political narratives of that which is yet untold and unseen.

Ian Tevo’s near-sociological interests have covered the questioning of "the industry that generates images of consumption as elements of sexual detonation." His series "Mercenario II" (2015-2018) was inspired by his interest in unveiling the complexities of sex work, desire, and masculinity in contemporary society. Navigating the blur between what is deemed pornographic and what is considered acceptable, Tevo seeks to understand the lure of today's image-saturated world.

Gihan Tubbeh’s practice draws on text and photography, while her research projects focus on myths and poetry of time in relation to the territory, as evidenced by her project "The Anatomy of Time" (2022). Departing from pure photography and narrativity, the series constructs an alternative cartography and record of extraction, reproduction, consumption, and degradation of nature's resources. "My works attempt to capture the way time is inscribed on the territory, both naturally and provoked by humanity," she explains. "The tracks and movements I make are also recorded and measured, becoming cartographic drawings."

Fiorella Del Castillo works with analogue photography. Series such as “Interferencias” (2017) demonstrate her breadth and fondness for experimentation, playing with photomontages, in this particular case constructed by means of fragments of medium format negatives obtained by burning, tearing, sanding, folding and melting. Del Castillo is currently experimenting with the medium and her body, exploring how the two intersect.