Latin American photography became more com-
plex and syncretic. It often portrayed the many pro-
blems and contradictions of societies that combined
indigenous,colonial,andmodernindustrialelements.
In the early twentieth century, documentary
photography grew in importance in Latin America.
Already by the late nineteenth century, Latin Amer-
icans had become increasingly interested in visual
records of contemporary events, as was seen, for
example, in the many combat photographers who
recordedtheregion’sconflicts.Documentaryphoto-
graphy became more widespread as travel became
easier with construction of roads and rail lines. Also,
the appearance of illustrated periodicals such as
Caras y Caretasin Argentina andEl Cojo Ilustrado
inVenezuela createdmore demand for photographs.
The beginnings of documentary photography
can perhaps best be seen in Mexico and Brazil
during the late nineteenth century. In Mexico, doc-
umentary photography prospered under the dicta-
torship of Porfirio Dı ́az. This photographic style
suited the needs of the dictatorship, showing off
public works, parades, and orderly citizens, all in
line with the positivism of the era. In Brazil, Marc
Ferrez, the best-known nineteenth-century Latin
American photographer, recorded economic develop-
ment and modernization starting in the 1860s and
continuing into the early twentieth century.
It was during the period of the Mexican Revolu-
tion that began in 1910 when documentary pho-
tography matured in Mexico. The best example of
an early Mexican photojournalist is Agustı ́n Victor
Casasola, who left an archive of more than 600,000
plates. He photographed some of the key revolu-
tionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata and Pan-
cho Villa. Casasola, who sometimes traveled with
troops, showed the human side of the conflict and
focused on the life of ordinary soldiers. He often
photographed women, both soldiers and those
accompanying the men. Casasola’s photographs
also demonstrated the horrors of war, as seen in
his images of executions. His work shows how
photography can be used to aid in the construction
of political history and national identity.
The early twentieth-century also saw the flour-
ishing of portraiture in Latin America, a trend that
began in the late-nineteenth century and was part of
a world-wide phenomenon. These early portraits
often depicted members of a new urban society
that was growing in size, power, and wealth. This
trend can be seen in the work of photographers
such as Melito ́n Rodrı ́guez and Benjamı ́ndela
Calle in Colombia, Alejandro Witcomb in Argen-
tina, Romualdo Garcı ́a in Mexico, and Eugene
Courret in Peru.
As might be expected in a region in which Cath-
olicism predominates, many early Latin American
photographers used their medium to examine the
place of the Catholic Church. Among the most
notable early examples is the work of Juan Jose ́
de Jesu ́s Yas, who was born in Japan, moved to
Guatemala in 1877, and converted to Catholicism.
Starting in the 1880s and continuing until the sec-
ond decade of the twentieth century, he frequently
photographed the clergy, churches, and ritual
objects. Missionaries in the remote parts of Latin
America also used photography to document and
legitimate a European presence among indigenous
populations. Missionaries used their cameras to
record the lives, rituals, and cultures of native inha-
bitants and the transformations that took place
with the arrival of so-called ‘‘civilization.’’
In the post-World War I period, there were lim-
ited options for photographers in Latin America.
Relatively few photographers were able to both earn
a living and maintain any sense of artistic vision.
There was no counterpart to the photographic
experimentation that took place in Europe and the
United States, as seen in the work of photographers
such as Alfred Stieglitz. Furthermore, the nihilism
and pessimism of the European avant-garde was not
present in Latin America, as the region did not
experience the same death and destruction. Rather,
themes such as pan-Americanism andIndigenismo
permeated Latin American photography.
Despite the limited opportunities for photogra-
phers in general in the post-WWI period, the 1920s
did see the emergence of the so-called Cuzco School.
Centered in Cuzco, the photographers associated
with this school—Native Americans from the high-
lands of Peru—produced images that were modern
and ethnographic. These men used old equipment
and earned a living as traditional village studio
photographers, working under difficult economic
situations. Furthermore, each of them came from
the same social and ethnic groups as many of their
subjects. None of them became rich nor famous in
their lifetime. It was only later in the twentieth
century that these men were recognized as impor-
tant photographers.
The most well-known of the Cuzco School photo-
graphers is Martı ́n Chambi. Chambi, the son of
peasants from the village of Coaza, began working
during the 1920s. He began his career as an appren-
tice for a photographer working for a British mining
company. He later moved to Cuzco, where he made
a modest living as a studio photographer. Chambi
also traveled widely and produced thousands of
documentary photographs. His body of work was
influenced by theindigenismoideology prevalent atLATIN AMERICA: AN OVERVIEW, PHOTOGRAPHY IN