The Peruvian photographer without a camera who succeeds and will exhibit his work in France: How does he work?

It is already more than 10 years that Robert Huarcaya (Lima, 1959) is essentially a photographer without a camera. His working method is based on monumental stills: large-format photosensitive papers, which he usually spreads out in the open, in a situation of controlled light –at night or with tents, using manual flashes or lighting from the moon or storms– to capture the suggestive shadows of the space where he settles to work.

A project that Huarcaya began with his well-known “Amazogramas”, which immortalize –if that is possible at all– the wild and overwhelming beauty of the jungle, and which he has continued to explore both in the Peruvian Andes and along the coast. A journey that has covered the coast-mountain-jungle scheme (Although it is true that it has been scientifically outdated, it is still very current in the popular imagination: from school books where they are painted yellow, brown and green, to a ubiquitous hymn like “Contigo Perú”).

“Somehow, these three types of images allude to three types of link that culture establishes with nature –explains the photographer about this work–. The first, that of the Amazon, corresponds to a nature reserve [Bahuaja Sonene], and represents absolute respect for nature; the second, in the Andes, are some eucalyptus trees in Cusco, planted by the communities, and speak of nature placed at the service of man; and the third, which corresponds to a set of plastic waste that I collected from the sea, from the beach, symbolizes the destruction of nature. There are three ways of connecting with nature”.

Until now, the three “geographical” projects had been exhibited independently. And for the first time they are intertwined for the exhibition that Huarcaya will present at one of the oldest and most prestigious photography festivals in the world: Les Rencontres d’Arles (Meetings of Arles)which opens on July 3.

There, in the south of France, the Peruvian photographer will display his frames in a room 7 meters wide by 23 meters long. “It will be a very important space to make the proposal visible. And it is turning out particularly well, since the place converses with the body of work, it becomes a kind of space for reflection for the spectators, with a very dim light, with chiaroscuro areas, so that what is exposed detonates in the public, Let’s say. First from emotion, to later use reason so that you can understand what is hanging there”, says Huarcaya from Arles, in full assembly work.

NEW WAYS

The central piece of “Rastros” –that is the name given to the installation– is precisely the conjunction of the frames that go from the jungle to the coast with a degrading notion. “It is a kind of organic rhythm, unfolded in an undulating path, as if it were a snake or the bed of a riverwith these curves that go towards the bottom”, points out Huarcaya.

The serpentine piece is complemented by two others located at each of the ends: one is the 10 m by 2.20 m frame of a group of scissors dancers who left their marks on the paper, which also went through a second Van Dyke browning process to obtain its particular tone. “After painting them, they were exposed to the sun again, leaving the mark of the textile, the weft of the fabric, but also reinforcing the intensity and rhythm of the dance with the brush stroke. It is a piece halfway between the pictorial and the photographic”, describes its author.

The other, the remaining one, is the frame of a band of musicians from Coyllurqui, in the Andes of Apurímac. “Here you see a group with drums, flutes, with all its sound scaffolding. In some way, what it represents is the containment of a primitive culture with a healthier and more festive link with nature”, says Huarcaya.

The photographer also highlights the material peculiarity of his stills, which have been able to be transported to France like rolls of paper stuffed into briefcases. Luckily, as Huarcaya details, “the paper does not weigh much and they have the curious organic characteristic of be reduced to very small spaces and then spread out to occupy large areas”.

“Another very interesting thing in this process is that not only does the trace of light remain, but as these pieces travel from one side to the other, they rest on top of each other, they are also full of scars from their own processes. They are handmade pieces, very difficult to produce, or in any case with a very marked difference between the original and the copy”, adds the artist.

Is a cycle closed with this meeting of the frames produced over the last few years? Or is there still room for exploration? “I have found a form of representation in the still,” answers Huarcaya, “that Finally, they are the shadows of what I decide to investigate, the most fragile aspects of any object or subject to which one pays attention.. And I think there is still room to continue investigating and using it for a long time”.