Get To Know: Martín Chambi

According to the Martín Chambi website, Mr. Chambi was the first indigenous photographer, known for the high quality and sensitive capture of his portrait subjects. He was born near Lake Titicaca, in Peru, in 1891. His father was a gold miner, and it was at the mine where he saw his first photograph. After years of study and practice, he travelled to Sicuani, a provincial Capitol, and opened his studio.

When he wasn’t busy making studio portraits, he would travel the countryside to show his own people in a manner that reflected their pride and dignity. Starting with small shows in homes, he eventually held exhibitions in galleries, such as MOMA, and publications such as National Geographic. His work has been compared to August Sander, Nadar, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Irving Penn, and Abraham Guillen.

His Andean archive contains almost 30,000 glass plates and pieces of film in varying sizes. He passed this archive to his daughter, Julia, when he died in 1973. For more information, click here.

Tristeza Andina Prueba, post 1920, from the Chambri website