Presbítero Maestro

In 1973 Fernando La Rosa took part in a group workshop led by the United States photographer Minor White in the city of Huaraz, an experience that would be decisive in the rest of his trajectory. He would take as his own White’s understanding of the medium as a form of personal expression, a notion that was one of the central pillars of the North American modernist tradition. Together with a group f colleagues, La Rosa would establish Secuencia Fotogalería four years later, the first exhibition gallery in Peru dedicated exclusively to photography. A generational movement would be formed around it that sought to articulate an autonomous space for the artistic practice of photography. The series Presbítero Maestro was completed one year before the opening of Secuencia, but already shows the intention to deny the documentary aspect of photography. Through lack of focus and fragmentation, La Rosa creates a spectral atmosphere that emphasizes the subjective character of these images. (RK)