martinchambí

I learned about this photographer by chance. Shortly after I first got to Madrid, the Telefónica Foundation made a retrospective of his work. I was impressed by his images and the way he worked with the light. All this aside from the natural fascination some of us have with old pictures.

But then I looked into his story a bit. He was indigenous. At the end of the 19th century that was not an easy thing to be. It's not an easy thing to be now. Still, he managed not only to become a photographer, but to actually get acknowledged.

I've always thought that when a photographer takes a picture, he comes trough it. You can tell who he is and where he comes from, and what his intentions are. Given the background Chambí had, his pictures have a quality not easy to find in other photographs taken in his time.

He took the photograph of relevant and rich folks, the ones who could afford having their picture taken... and then he captured the other side of his reality: the one he had come from. The idigenous, the poor, the illiterate, the people who no one had known existed if it weren't for the fact that they were captured by Chambí. To a point, I think he ended up relating to both worlds, but not feeling like he belonged in either.

Anyway, check him out.