Quebrada Malanche

During the 1980s, Peruvian photography experienced a change as it explored the borders of the capital, opening up to the vastness of the coastal desert. Although the reference of the coastline has appeared in many later proposals, in Billy Hare’s work at that moment it was highly significant in the construction of the image of the desert understood as a cultural elaboration. Nearly one decade before, in 1973, Hare had participated in an important workshop in the city of Huaraz directed by North American modernist photographer Minor White, in which Fernando La Rosa also participated. The influence of this renowned master is evident in his series Paisajes circulares [Circular Landscapes]. The narrowed framing limits the panoramic perspective usually used for conveying the wideness of the landscape, focusing on specific scenes or elements, highlighting them and reinforcing the sense of a reading that begins in the particular and is enlarged to the observation of a historically constructed image. (VQ)