Born 1931 in Santiago, Chile, Larrain took up photography following a family visit to Europe and the Middle East. He lived in London in the late 1950's for a year and in 1960 joined Magnum Photos carrying out a number of commissions for the Agency. He returned to his home Country in 1963 settling in and photographing extensively Valparaiso where in collaboration with the poet Pablo Peruda he produced an extensive photographic essay. This work was eventually published on the occasion of his work being shown at the Rencontres d'Arles in 1991. The exhibition at Arles in 2013 is a retrospective of his work . He died in Chile in 2012.
My overall impression was one of the simplicity, almost naiveté, of the images as though Larrain had grabbed at his camera and taken the shots almost on instinct. Some have parts of the image that are out of focus and yet this lack of focus adds to the effect of the image rather than detracting from it. Despite the perceived simplicity there is a sense of strength almost power that grabs your attention. You find yourself being drawn into the image either because of the angle from which it was taken or because you feel the need to explore the detail - to try to make sense of what you see before you. Here was a man who clearly understood the conventions of photography but who was secure in his own beliefs to do what he wanted.
'Passage Bavestrello, Valparaiso, Chile 1952 is an image that at first glance is simply of two young girls walking through a passage. The strength of the image lies in the position of the two girls drawing the eye into the picture. The young girl in the foreground is in shadow and slightly out of focus and detail is unclear. There arises in the mind of the viewer why is she carrying the bottle in her left hand and what does it contain? The second girl is in the sunlight and although she has her back towards us we feel that we can 'know' more about her. The much sharper definition of her image makes her the focal point. Both girls are walking away from the camera which adds to the interest.
The rest of the image is a combination of light and dark with the shadows having, in the main, sharp edges indicating the 'brutality' of the architecture. It does not give the sense of being somewhere where one would feel comfortable. Yet the shapes created by the shadows add significantly to the whole effect.
The second image that particularly caught my attention was 'Chiloe Island Chile 1957'. My interest was aroused because almost two-thirds of the image is black with no detail at all. The rest of the image is difficult to interpret in terms of what the viewer is seeing. What can be seen is three young children apparently asleep on some sort of platform/shelf/table. Of the child on the left we can see most of the lower part of his body from the back; the second child appears to be squatting but again we can only see the lower part of his body apart from his right arm and hand but my interest was piqued because he is in the process of picking up (or possibly putting down) some object; the third child is again seen from the back and we see his bare feet and his posterior. All three are bare footed and that, together with the quality of the clothing that we see, suggests considerable poverty. There is a sense of complete exhaustion in the position of the three and I found the whole image disturbing and challenging.
The tonal values across the image are well represented and the quality of the image is such that one feels that one could feel the texture of the clothing. It was an image that stayed with me.
The third and final image that I have chosen from those that I saw is 'Bar, Valparaiso Chile, 1963'. It is so different from the other two both in terms of subject matter but also in the quality of the image. What we see is a young lady facing the camera although looking to the photographers left with a half smile on her face looking somewhat wistful/thoughtful. Her hands are clasped tightly in front of her suggesting tension and a certain level of discomfort; although what is the cause of this discomfort is less than clear. The other two main elements of the image are three crates of 'Limon' Soda and a head and shoulders shot of a man in profile. What is surprising is that most of the elements of the image are out of focus to varying degrees as though the image was 'snatched' quickly. This probability is also suggested by the very poor overall lighting with ugly shadows distorting the woman's face.
His work raised the question for me - Why do we adhere to the 'established rules' of photography when breaching the conventions leads to challenging and exciting work? I have heard often the statement that we cannot break the rules until we fully understand their purpose but at what point does this happen - if ever. Not the understanding but the acceptance by others that doing your own thing is not only healthy but part of 'growing up.
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