Martin Chambi was born in 1891 in a small Quechua-speaking Indian village in the Peruvian Andes. Raised in a peasant family, the community survived on farming, agriculture and mining. In 1908, Chambi left for the city of Arequipa and joined the studio of Max T Vargas as an apprentice. After nine years, Chambi was able to set up his own studio in Cuzco, a thriving cultural city which was once the centre of the Inca empire. Chambi began photographing the elite of the city posed in studio portraits, at religious, civic or family occasions. These lively images reveal a wide range of events including beauty contests, wedding processions, deathbed images and saints' day celebrations. Chambi's success in the city had much to do with the indigenismo movement. The movement was an attempt by the middle classes - the mestizo (mixed race) elite of the city - to improve the rights of the indigenous Indians and to celebrate their Inca heritage. As a Spanish-speaking Indian, married to a mestiza...