Cusco City Market (Chiaroscuros)

The images in this series come from Mercado Central San Pedro in the city of Cusco, Peru. The market was designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel in 1925. Until a few years ago, Cusco City Market was a traditional popular market. But then the market was “upgraded” and modernized. It has lost the traditional /popular feeling that it used to have. In other words, this body of work is a documentation of something that almost disappeared a couple of years later. A premise that guides my practice as a photographer is to never re-arrange anything about the subject I am photographing. In order to compose these photographs, I had to go for several days to San Pedro Central Market between 6 and 8 in the morning and position my camera in a way that captures the natural light that filtered through the windows. It is an extraordinary fine light that crosses the market like spotlights. When I was lucky, the light fell on to interesting objects that appear like a chiaroscuro still life.