Arequipa en blanco y negro — El Estudio de Arte Vargas Hnos. 1912–1930

In the highland city of Arequipa, between 1912 and 1930, the Vargas Brothers built one of Latin America’s most iconic photographic ateliers. Arequipa en blanco y negro gathers the visual legacy of that period—an archive that is at once poetic, theatrical, and deeply anthropological. Working with large-format cameras and dramatic lighting techniques influenced by pictorialism, the Vargas Brothers elevated portraiture to a form of national storytelling.

This volume, curated by Peter Yenne and Adelma Benavente, with a text by Mario Vargas Llosa, reveals the cultural ferment of a society negotiating modernity, race, and identity in the wake of independence and under the shadows of colonial memory. The images—ranging from portraits and social tableaux to staged allegories and urban scenes—reflect a hybrid sensibility: European in its technical aspirations, Andean in its spirit.

This book is not just a compilation, but a visual manifesto of a time when photography in Peru became an art of light, labor, and imagination. It is an indispensable volume for collectors of Latin American photography, cultural historians, and those captivated by the aesthetic of early studio photography.

Technical Sheet

• Object: Photographic Monograph
• Title: Arequipa en blanco y negro — El Estudio de Arte Vargas Hnos. 1912–1930
• Authors: Peter Yenne & Adelma Benavente
• Collaboration: Mario Vargas Llosa
• Date: 2005
• Technique: Black and white photography (reproductions)
• Medium / Materials: Printed paper, hardcover with dust jacket
• Language: Spanish
• Pages: Approx. 180 
• Publisher / Editor: TurnerPhoto PERÚ
• ISBN: 
• Condition: NEW
• Provenance: Darwin Collection