Martín Chambi
Martín Chambi Jiménez | |
|---|---|
Martín Chambi, self-portrait (c. 1920). Photo: Main cloister of the Basilica of La Merced, Cusco, 1920. | |
| Born | Martín Chambi Jiménez 5 November 1891 Coaza, Puno, Peru |
| Died | 13 September 1973 (aged 81) Cuzco, Peru |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Years active | 1908–1958 |
| Known for | Portraits; documentary photography of Andean Indigenous peoples; landscape postcards; pioneering the postcard format in Peru |
| Movement | Documentary photography; portraiture |
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.
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.