Martin Chambi in New York

October 27th, 2006

A selection of Martín Chambi’s images, Peru’s greatest photographer, are currently exhibited in New York’s Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery. The exhibition, “Vista de Peru - Photographs by Martin Chambi”, can be seen until November, 11th. Press release follows.

Throckmorton Fine Art is pleased to announce our Fall photography exhibition, Vistas de Peru. Highlighted in this exhibition are vintage photographs by Martin Chambi. Generally considered to be the greatest Peruvian photographer, Martin Chambi is now ranked among luminaries like Eugene Atget, August Sander, and Walker Evans to name only a few. Virtually unknown outside his native country, his work became widely shown abroad some years after his death culminating with the retrospective exhibition held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1979.

Martin Chambi (1891 - 1973) was born near Coaza, a small Quechua Indian village to the north of Lake Titicaca in the high Andes, to a peasant family. He accompanied his father who went to work for a gold mine in the Carabaya Province. There he had his first contact with photography, learning the rudiments from the staff photographer of the mine. This chance encounter planted the spark that he might support himself one day as a professional photographer. With that idea in mind he set out for the city of Arequipa and became an apprentice and later assistant to photographer, Max T. Vargas. Nine years later he opened his own studio in the busy market town of Sicuani. In 1920 he moved to Cuzco and after a brief collaboration with Juan Manuel Figueroa Aznar, Chambi set up his studio in the Calle Marques. Over the next twenty years he traveled extensively throughout the region and became widely known within Peru as the only major indigenous photographer of his time. Writers, artists, journalists, and others made a point of visiting his house when in Cuzco. In 1950 a massive earthquake devastated Cuzco. Chambi’s health began to worsen during this period, which subsequently led to the decline of his photography output. Several exhibitions followed over the next few years. He died in his old studio on Calle Marques in Cuzco in 1973.

Throckmorton Fine Art
145 East 57th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10022
Phone 212 223.1059 | Fax 212 223.1937
Hours: Tue-Sat, 11am-5pm

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