| Martín Chambi Jiménez | |
| Birth Date: | 5 November 1891 |
| Birth Place: | Coaza, Puno, Peru |
| Death Place: | Cuzco, Peru |
| Known For: | photography |
Martín Chambi Jiménez (November 5, 1891 – September 13, 1973) was a Peruvian photographer, originally from Puno, in southern Peru. He was one of the first major Indigenous Latin American photographers.
Recognized for the profound historic and ethnic documentary value of his photographs, he was a prolific portrait photographer in the towns and countryside of the Peruvian Andes. As well as being the leading portrait photographer in Cuzco, Chambi made many landscape photographs, which he sold mainly in the form of postcards, a format he pioneered in Peru.[1]
In 1979, New York's Museum of Modern Art held a Chambi retrospective, which later traveled to various locations and inspired other international expositions of his work.
Martín Chambi was born into a Quechua-speaking peasant family in Puno, one of the poorest regions of Peru, on November 5, 1891. When his father went to work in a Carabaya Province gold mine on a small tributary of the Inambari River, Martin went along.
There he had his first contact with photography, learning the rudiments from the photographer of the Santo Domingo Mine near Coaza (owned by the Inca Mining Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania). This chance encounter planted the spark that made him seek to support himself as a professional photographer. With that idea in mind, he headed in 1908 to the city of Arequipa, where photography was more developed and where there were established photographers who had taken the time to develop individual photographic styles and impeccable technique.
Chambi began his work as a photographer as an apprentice to Max T. Vargas (the father of Alberto Vargas) in Arequipa, Peru.[2] During this time as an apprentice, Chambi learned different ways of manipulating light for portraits in the studio.[3] His daughter, Julia Chambi, is quoted as saying, "my father was enchanted by light."[4] His studio in Cuzco included a set of blinds and shutters made specifically so that he could alter the natural lighting to best suit his photographs.[5] Most of Chambi's photos of Indigenous people were taken outside so that he could use only natural lighting.[6]
After nine years set up his own studio in Sicuani in 1917, publishing his first postcards in November of that year. In 1923 he moved to Cuzco and opened a studio there, photographing both society figures and his Indigenous compatriots. During his career, Chambi also traveled the Andes extensively, photographing landscapes, Inca ruins, and local people.[1]
Chambi traveled to Chile to exhibit some of his artworks, and used his artistic skills to allow the audience to understand how the photographer prioritized the Indigenous outcome that relates to the Peruvians and the Chileans.[7]
Chambi produced a variety of works over his career as a photographer.In his studio, he took many portraits of wealthy and elite members of society as well as the Indigenous people. He also shot many self-portraits. Chambi is well-known for his work in documenting the Indigenous culture, including Machu Picchu and other prehispanic ruins. In a magazine interview in 1936, he is quoted saying "in my archive I have more than two hundred photographs of diverse aspects of the Quechua culture."[8] He took pictures of ruins and architecture, but also tried to capture the events of everyday life. Addressing Chambi's diverse work, Jorge Heredia said, "He has been the photographer of whites who seek after his images, but also of Indians and Mestizos."[9]
In addition to taking photographs for individual commissions or for his own personal interests, Chambi also used his photographs in other publications. One such publication was the use of his photographs in postcards. His photographs frequently appeared in La Nación ("The Nation"), an Argentine weekly newspaper. They published his photographs of artists, writers, and any other assignments he was commissioned to do.[10]
"It is wrong to focus too much on the testimonial value of his photos. They have that, indeed, but, in equal measure they express the milieu in which he lived and they show (...) that when he got behind a camera, he became a giant, a true inventor, a veritable force of invention, a recreator of life."
On November 5, 2020, Google celebrated his 129th birthday with a Google Doodle.[11]