Photographers in Andean visual culture

Abstract

One of the most striking facts of Andean cultural history is the virtual absence, until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, of local representations of the natural scenery of the Andes. 1 Indeed, landscape as a form of visual and literary representation only entered the Andean region towards the end of the century, evolving, even since then, as a fragile and marginal tradition.2 But the mounting interest in nineteenth-century Andean photography since the late 1970s has revealed a series of views of local scenery associated with railroad development and scientific exploration that appears to deny this general statement.3 At first glance, this expanded visual repertory could allow us to name photography as the single most important medium for representing landscape in the region. Yet this initial impression is deceptive. Careful observation demonstrates that the landscape itself is rarely the main subject of these photographs and that natural scenery surfaces only as a subsidiary element that frames and contains other narratives.