In this photo, we can see four riders with an extra mule coming down a snow mountain in the Peruvian Andes; they leave behind a cross on the top of the hill that is disappearing with the snow and the first rays of the sun that are coming up behind the cross. The mestizo Peruvian photographer Martin Chambi took this portrait in 1938 in the highest lands of Cusco, the old capital of the Incas Empire. This photo’s importance is that it represents the Andean society’s fight at the beginning of the Twenty century. The indigenous community was margined and oppressed by the church during all the Spanish Colonial occupation, finished in 1821, a little more than one hundred years before this picture.
To understand this picture better, we need to know the racism in Peru. Martin Chambi was a mestizo-creole person and suffered in person all the struggles of being a mestizo in Peru. He was part of an artistic movement with other painters and writers that faced the oppression of the indigenous people in Peru and talked about Social inequalities; some of them had been assassinated by their sexual inclinations or socialist ideas. Martin Chambi always took black and white pictures, and his domain of the light and his views combined created real masterpieces that portrayed the life of the Andean communities.
This picture shows the silhouette of 4 men wearing traditional Andean clothes like the ponchos covering their bodies and the hats that identify their different communities; we can say that they are farmers or labor workers. This is a complicated environment over ten thousand ft. over sea level; the situation happens on a steep mountain with dangerous rocks all the way, and the route is covered with snow. This is a cold place, and during the days, the sun is so intense because of the altitude and the reflection in the snow and ice, so people travel before the sunshine.
The photo has a person cut in the right size, the same person riding with an extra mule near him; the action can be understandable for the place’s difficulties, and it can also mean that they are coming to visit the grave of one of them. The half-man and the mule without a rider mean the loss of someone.
The cross can be the sign of a cemetery; it also represents an essential symbol in the contemporary Andean culture; the syncretism with Catholicism converted the “God Apu” into the Christian God (Apu means mountain in Incas language.)
If we applied the “Rule of Thirds” in this composition, the cross would occupy the primary position in the top right intersection, and the head of the man with a hat looking at the cross is occupying the top-left corner. The photographer Martin Chambi was proud of his Andean roots and traditions with all the God’s representations, including mountains, lakes, and of course, the main god, the sun. The riders are giving back to the cross as they realize themselves from the chain of the Christian church that took the life of many of them for more than four hundred years.
Chambi uses the contrast from the light source behind the cross to provide the correct details of the riders and the mountain. This scene happened in the early 1930s; I can not consider it a cliché because it is black and white in the snow; the mechanical film produces the grain, and the lens used looks 35mm. Very popular at that time and the most accessible.
The cross can signify a cemetery and also represent an important symbol in contemporary Andean culture; the syncretism with Catholicism converted the “God Apu” into the Christian God (Apu means mountain in Inca language.) If we apply the “Rule of Thirds” in this composition, the cross will occupy the central position in the intersection of the top right, and the head of the man with a hat looking at the cross will occupy the top-left corner. The photographer Martin Chambi was proud of his Andean roots and traditions with all the Gods representations, including mountains, lakes, and of course, the primary God, the sun. The riders are giving back to the cross as they realize themselves from the chain of the Christian church that took the lives of many of them for more than four hundred years. Chambi uses the contrast from the light source behind the cross to see the riders’ details and the mountain. Considering that this scene happened in the early 1930s, I can not believe it is a cliché because it is black and white in the snow; the mechanical film produces the grain, and the lens used looks 35mm. Very popular at that time and the most accessible.
This photo has the characteristic that represents a scene that can happen right now because there are traditions that don’t change with time, only add new elements from new cultures.
Walther Vera
Cite
“MARTIN CHAMBI Photographic Archive.” Martín Chambi Archivo Fotográfico, martinchambi.org/en/.
“Martín Chambi: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, http://www.moma.org/artists/1063.
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