Juliaca is a city of about 400,000 near Lake Titicaca in the altiplano of southern Peru. The city sits at the crossroads of trade and commerce between Cusco, Arequipa and Bolivia. Fueled by internal migration and economic activity of nearby mining (both legal and illegal), the city has grown quickly and informally, with little regard to urban amenities. The economy of Peru, as it has been since colonial times, is largely structured by the flows of global commodities, principally the price of copper and gold, which drives everything else. In Juliaca I am interested in what I see as a kind of local response or adaptation to these global conditions, in addition to the wind, the dust and the sharp, clear light in the high, thin atmosphere.

Printed Dec. 2021 in Medellín, Colombia on Reprograf Natural