PETROPERU will present first photographic showcase with images taken by amazon communities

This Wednesday, May 9 at 7.30 p.m. the photographic exhibition "Ojos de la Amazonia" will be presented in the Art Gallery of PETROPERU, at Av. Canaval y Moreyra 150, San Isidro, Lima. Admission is free.

The exhibition collects the photography workshops held with the enthusiastic participation of the Nueva Musa Candashi and Kigkis communities in Loreto. Thanks to these, the customs, experiences, traditions and daily activities of the Amazonian peoples, taken by themselves and in their own environment, are reflected in images to witness their lives and show them to the world.

These visual testimonies relate the emotions of their protagonists, through their own compositions, to represent scenes of indigenous life, creating small family and community stories that allow knowing their experiences, concerns and customs around the space in which they live.

There were 111 inhabitants, who thanks to the support of their authorities (apus), undertook this adventure to leave a visual testimony of their relationship with nature, representing what for them means the forest, the rivers, the sky, the soil, and Give them their true value and respect, as an essential part of their life.

The students and the protagonists of the images were children as young as five years old to adults in their seventies, who took them while they participated in the photography workshop carried out by the Ojos Propios association, in November of 2017, on behalf of PETROPERU.

This first approach of the indigenous communities with photography allows the recognition that our Amazonian people deserve and respect for their ancestral culture and traditions. It also manages to share feelings and create with them a coexistence in harmony and balance with their environment.

Beatriz Alva Hart, manager of Social Management and Communications of PETROPERU, said that this project was undertaken as part of the Company's social vision, summarized in the slogan "The way we want", a strategy that has been developed to strengthen relations with the communities neighboring its operations. "To portray the forest and the families of our brothers Awajun and Shapras, who are also our neighbors of the Norperuano Pipeline, is to tell a work story of an optimistic people that respects and preserves their traditions," he explained.

Of the more than six thousand photos registered by the communities, almost 70 were selected to be exhibited in the "Ojos de la Amazonia" exhibition. The exhibition is divided into four scenarios and moments: the forest, daily life, family and the river. It also includes a central installation in the form of a tree that serves as a support for the assembly of the photos and represents life in the Amazon.

This remarkable activity is part of the policy of PETROPERU that seeks to promote the culture and arts of the communities and Amazonian peoples, respecting their customs, biodiversity, landscape and the environment in general.

Alva Hart invited the public to visit this wonderful exhibition. "To look at our Amazon is to look at the life and culture of the communities transformed into pieces of art, told by themselves and that we should all know," he said.

About Ojos Propios

An association that for seven years has been developing participatory photography workshops, making use of its own methodology in different regions of the country to generate photographic exhibitions. It proposes a horizontal way of taking a camera and involves the inhabitants of the communities to make known the strengths of their peoples, through their eyes, to spread their culture and way of life.

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