Photograph by Martín Chambi (Peruvian, 1892–1973). Gift of Laurie Wilson, Robert Frerck, and family, 2015.
New Perspectives Talk: Martín Chambi
Rest as Resistance: Photography of Martín Chambi
Karla Aguilar Velásquez, PhD student in Hispanic Studies in Arts & Sciences, discusses the work of Indigenous photographer, Martín Chambi, who photographed Inca ruins and portraits of Andean communities in the early twentieth century. The talk challenges Chambi’s association with Peruvian Indigenism, a cultural-political movement that celebrated the place of the Indigenous community within national identity, and considers how the photographs function as forms of resistance to performing exceptionality as national pride through scenes of leisure.
Free and open to the public.
About the presenter
Karla Aguilar Velásquez is a fifth-year PhD student in the Hispanic Studies program at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research explores non-institutionalized forms of remembrance in witchcraft communities in the Caribbean. She was part of the organizing committee for the Hostile Terrain 94 exhibition, and she was the 2022 Museum Education Intern at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Currently, she is the Curator in Residence at Center of Creative Arts (COCA) and teaches an upper-level course on the graphic novel in Latin America.