1852–1934 · United States · Photographer
Gertrude Kasebier
Soft-focus Pictorialist portraits of mothers, children and sitters at rest.
The Manger, 1899Source: Wikipedia
PHOTOGRAPHER · 1891–1973 · PERU
Martin Chambi
Portraits and landscapes of the Peruvian Andes, lit with natural light.
- Born
- 1891
- Died
- 1973
- Country
- Peru
- Field
- Photographer
KNOWN FOR
- 1925The Giant of Paruro (Juan de la Cruz Sihuana)
- 1928Machu Picchu
WHY THEY MATTER
One of the first major Indigenous Latin American photographers; the Museum of Modern Art held a Chambi retrospective in 1979, which travelled widely.
THE LIFE
Chambi was born into a Quechua-speaking peasant family in Puno and first encountered photography at a gold mine where his father worked. He apprenticed with the photographer Max Vargas in Arequipa, opened a studio in Sicuani in 1917, and moved to Cuzco in 1923. He became the leading portrait photographer there and documented Indigenous culture and ruins such as Machu Picchu, selling landscapes as postcards, a format he pioneered in Peru. A retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1979 brought him international attention.
Also born in 1850–1899
1857–1927 · France · Photographer
Eugene Atget
Patient, empty-street records of old Paris before modernisation.
Avenue des Gobelins, 1927Source: Wikipedia
1864–1946 · United States · Photographer
Alfred Stieglitz
From Pictorialism to sharp modernism, with a deep belief in photography as art.
The Steerage, 1907Source: Wikipedia
1874–1940 · United States · Photographer
Lewis Hine
Direct, dignified portraits of working children and labourers.
Young Doffers in the Elk Cotton Mills, 1910Source: Wikipedia
1876–1964 · Germany · Photographer
August Sander
Typological portraits of every class and trade, frontal and calm.
Face of Our Time (Antlitz der Zeit), 1929Source: Wikipedia
1879–1973 · United States · Photographer
Edward Steichen
Painterly early work, then glossy modern fashion and celebrity portraits.
The Flatiron, 1904Source: Wikipedia