“SERGIO LARRAIN. EL VAGABUNDO DE VALPARAÍSO. RETROSPECTIVA”
(Sergio Larrain. The vagabond of Valparaíso. A retrospective)
«A good image comes from a state of grace. Grace arises when you have managed to free yourself from conventions, obligations, comfort, rivalry… and you are as free as a child who is discovering the real world. Then, play consists of organising the frame.»
S. L.
Coming from a family of the Chilean haute bourgeoisie, Sergio Larrain (Chile, 1931-2012) quickly left behind the stifling, mundane world of his home life. Despite the rocky relationship with his father, a renowned architect and collector, the photographer acknowledged that he was able to train his artistic gaze and embrace photography thanks to the family’s significant library at home.
Educated in the United States, captivated by urban life, Larrain started to take photographs in the 1950s as he strolled through the streets of his hometown, Santiago. He worked as a freelance photographer for the Brazilian magazine O Cruzeiro and travelled throughout South America, while two of his photographs were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) in 1956.
In 1958, he received a grant from the British Council to produce a photographic series in London. That same year, Henri Cartier-Bresson became familiar with his work and invited him to form part of the Magnum Agency. He settled in Paris for two years; from there he travelled to different countries to make press reports intended for an array of international publications. In 1961, he returned to Chile when the poet Pablo Neruda invited the photographer to portray him at his home, while two years later, he finalised his work on Valparaíso, one of the most important in his photographic career.
He soon understood that the world of the press, with the pressure of immediacy, economic interests, fame and excess that surrounded it, was not for him and he left photography behind in 1968. In the end, he withdrew to Tulahuén, where he dedicated himself to meditation, yoga and drawing, and became committed to the idea of saving the planet from the devastation wrought by mankind.
This retrospective follows the photographer’s brief but successful career and showcases his most essential images, characterised by an intimate and mysterious lyricism, bold frames that renounced academic art and shattered the standards of his time, reflecting the creative freedom and attitude of an artist who sought to convey everything he saw and experienced.
The exhibition has been produced by Magnum Photos, commissioned by Agnès Sire, and organized by the Biennal de Fotografia Xavier Miserachs in collaboration with the Fundació Foto Colectania.
CHILOÉ
1957-1963
«On leaving the army, I set off for Chiloé Island and my love of photography, a profession that I hoped would give me great freedom, slowly grew into a vocation.»
S. L.
STREETS CHILDREN
1955-1963
«In the streets of Santiago, children who have left home through poverty and, worse than that, lack of love, sleep in the shelter of doorways and beneath bridges; they live by begging and over time become delinquent. They are fed until around the age of fourteen.»
S. L.
BUENOS AIRES
1957-1958
«I wander around Buenos Aires, I never know what I will be doing the next day, I am alone, with no money, and each day I meet people, I rush here and there; the only thing (it seems) that I really focus on with any consistency is a photo essay on the town. I spend the whole day roaming the alleyways and wandering in the suburbs, it is a pure joy…»
S. L.
BOLIVIA
1958
«I am now passing through Bolivia. Today, I made my way down from the frozen Altiplano and began to feel the tropical heat; tomorrow I will photograph one of the places that inspired me to make this trip, the market at Tarabuco, near Sucre. The local people living there are extraordinary and I think the results will be very compelling.»
S. L.
LONDON
1958-1959
ALGERIA
1959
PERU
1960
«Four hundred years after the Spanish arrived in Peru, installing their government and dispossessing and killing the Incas, the Inca empire still remains. Like a body without a head, the former Inca culture continues, despite the changes imposed; its rhythms and customs persist, hidden behind the contrivances of the 20th century.
These images were taken purely as photographs in their own right, not to illustrate a story or an article.»
S. L.
ITALY
1959
VALPARAÍSO
1954-1963
«It was in Valparaíso that I started taking photographs, walking up and down its hills, around 1951…. The image of the young girls descending the steps was the first of the ‘magic’ images that came to me…. It’s only in Valparaíso that such things can happen.»
S. L.
«The houses of prostitutes, the poor and the innocent, trying to move up in the world by copying the rich, have large mirrors with gold frames on their walls. At Los Siete Espejos, they were suspended by ropes, at a slight slant, reflecting each other as well as the whole of the room, like a kaleidoscope.»
S. L.
«It was an incredible place, with a large room for dancing and chairs lined up along the walls, where the clients could sit and the girls … and always one or two homosexuals, dressed as women, and acting like women, but poor, very often wearing second-hand clothes yet trying to be glamorous despite their great poverty; it was extremely poignant.»
S. L.
SANTIAGO
1963
My
shade
enters
and
comes
out,
of the shades
of buildings
and trees,
on the sidewalk.
Below
are
the shoes,
above
the hair
in between
that which
I call
‘me’.
S. L.
Curated by
Agnès Sire
Produced by
Magnum Photos
Exhibition design by
Biennal de Fotografia Xavier Miserachs
Graphic design
Carles Reig
Linguistic advice and translations by
Núria Sàbat, Daniel Parsons and Aina Pubill
Texts printed by
Gràfiques Agustí
Assembly
Museu del Suro de Catalunya
Transport
Santi Léonard