Boliwia ma do zaoferowania nie tylko piekne krajobrazy czy kolorowa tradycje, ale rowniez nowoczesna kulture i sztuke. W ciagu roku mialam szczescie uczestniczyc w kilku wydarzeniach kulturalnych, odwiedzic kilka wystaw oraz zapoznac sie z tutejszymi artystami – przez internet oraz osobiscie. Jednym z artystow, ktorego sztuke poznalam na samym poczatku pobytu w Boliwii byl Alvaro Gumucio Li – Fotograf.
Bolivia has to offer not only beautiful landscapes and colorful traditions, but also the modern culture and art. During the year, I was fortunate to attend a number of cultural events, visit several exhibitions and get acquainted with local artists – through the Internet and in person. One of the artists, whose works I get acquainted with at the very beginning of my stay in Bolivia was Alvaro Gumucio Li – the photographer.
Urodził się on w Cochabambie w 1985 roku, gdzie studiowal reklame i marketing. Zainspirowany pracami innego boliwijskiego fotografa a zarazem przyjaciela rodziny – Eduardo Ruis Gumiel (przyznaje, ze wzgledu na pewne pokrewienstwo nazwisk, na poczatku ich ze soba mylilam:) – zakupil swoj pierwszy aparat fotografczny za wyplate ‘barmana’ w wieku 21 lat i zaczal ksztalcic sie z zakresu fotografii w wolnym czasie.
Alvaro was born in Cochabamba in 1985, where he studied advertising and marketing. Inspired by the work of another Bolivian photographer and a friend of the family – Eduardo Ruis Gumiel (I admit that due to some similarity of their surnames I was confusing them with each other at the beginning:) – he bought his first camera for a first bartender’s salary at the age of 21 and began to educate himself in the field of photography in his spare time.
Dzis jest jednym z najbardziej znanych i cenionych fotografow mlodego pokolenia, specjalizujacym się w fotografii portretowej i mody, pracujacym miedzy innymi dla ‘Los Tiempos’ w Cochabambie. Alvaro Gumucio Li wspolpracuje rowniez z kolektywem “Sinmotivo” oraz nauczycza fotografii. Jego prace ukazaly sie w niedawno wydanej ksiazce “Fotografia Boliviana”.
W ostatnich dniach mial on swoja pierwsza indywidualna wystawa w ‘Centro Cultural Simón I. Patiño‘ w Santa Cruz zatytuowana “Bifurcaciones temporales”. Czarno-biale zdjecia pochodzace z prywatnego archiwum artysty, ukazuja Boliwie w calej swej roznorodnosci. Czesc zdjec powstala ‘w drodze’ po pieknych zakatkach tego kraju – sa wiec ujecia z okien autobusu (jak i jego wnetrza) oraz krajobrazy. Jednak Alvaro Gumucio Li fotografuje przede wszystkim ‘ulice’, a jego wprawne oko wylapuje niezwykle momenty z zycia mieszkancow Boliwii – czasem nostalgiczne, innym razem humorystyczne.
Today Alvaro Gumucio Li is a well known and respected photographer of the young generation, specializing in portraiture and fashion, working for ‘Los Tiempos’ in Cochabamba among others. He also collaborates with the collective “Sinmotivo” and is a photography tutor. His work has appeared in the recently released book “Fotografia Boliviana“.
In recent days, GUMO (that’s his artistic pseudonym) had had his first solo exhibition in ‘Centro Cultural Simón I. Patiño’ in Santa Cruz entitled “Bifurcaciones temporales“. Black-and-white images from the private archive of the artist, show Bolivia in all its variety. Part of this collection was created ‘on the way’, travelling across the country – so there are shots taken from the window of the bus and landscapes. However, Alvaro Gumucio Li is photographing mostly ‘streets’, and his keen eye captures special moments in life of the Bolivians – sometimes nostalgic, sometimes humorous.
Przegladajac galerie jego prac (‘Mi Tierra’ w szczegolnosci) wciaz powtarzam – ‘szkoda, ze to nie ja zrobilam to zdjecie’. Trudno mi sie jednak dziwic – Alvaro Gumucio Li nawiazuje w swoich zdjeciach do tradycji wielkich mistrzow ‘fotografii ulicznej’ jak chociazby Henri Cartier-Bresson czy Robert Frank. I mimo iz korzysta z nowoczesnych zdobyczy technicznych, jego prace maja ten ‘szorstki urok’ typowy dla fotografii analogowej.
Looking over his galleries (especially ‘Mi Tierra’), I keep saying to myself: I wish I had taken that picture!’:) I don’t find it surprising though – Alvaro Gumucio Li in his photographs revives the tradition of the great masters of ‘street photography’ like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. And although he uses modern technology, his work has this ‘rough charm’ typical for film photography.
Urzekala mnie rowniez jego sesja zdjeciowa ‘nowoczesnej’ interpretacji tradycyjnych tancow boliwisjkich w projekcie ‘CARNAVAL GLAM’ , z niezwykle kreatywna stylizacja Nita Tapia dla ‘Revista OH!’
I was also captivated by his photo session of ‘modern’ interpretation of traditional Bolivian dances from the project ‘CARNAVAL GLAM’ with incredibly creative styling and MUA by Nita Tapia for ‘Revista OH!‘
W wywiadzie dla dziennika ‘El Dia’ GUMO powiedzial: “Nie chcę wielkich tematów i wspaniałych rzeczy, chce po prostu pokazac to, co mnie porusza”. I o to przeciez (nam wszystkim) chodzi! Z cala pewnoscia uslyszymy wiecej o tym mlodym (tak, mlodszym ode mnie!), utalentowanym i wszechstronnym fotografie w przyszlosci, a na razie zapraszam do przyjrzenia sie jego pracom na Facebooku oraz Behance.
In an interview with the newspaper ‘El Dia’ the artist said: “I don’t want great themes nor great things, I just want to show what moves me.” And that is the point! I am sure we would see more from this young (yeap, younger than me:), talented and versatile photographer in a future, but for now you can see more of his works on his Facebook fan page and on Behance.
Fantastic! Danuta, thanks again! This is information that I was missing, while reading about and looking for through Bolivian webpages. And I didn’t believe that there were no talented Bolivian modern photographers and artists. What about writers though? Haven’t you found any? And musicians? Up to now I have found only Kjarkas and Octavia which seems interesting, different, at the same time Bolivian and decently professional. But should be more. Probably I haven’t found yet. And, yes, I hope you don’t mind if I reblog this post to my site. Chao!
feel free, of course;) There is many artists here – I know two writters myself, but to be honest I can’t say they are any good as I don’t read Spanish (not yet, anyway:). There is many panters that works I could see in a museums that I need to learn about more.About musicians – I love Los Kjarkas myself, but haven’t got opportunity to see them life yet – when I do, I will write something about them for sure:) I’ve never heard any of a modern bolivian music that I really liked though – I am not abig fan of a pop or latino. I’ve found recently nice radio station with a Spanish reggae and rock, but all bands seem to be foreign…Anyway, slowly I will get into that too:)
Thank you for the answer. I am browsing internet in search for contemporary gifted Bolivians, but I cannot find any and as I said I didn’t believe that there are none. I found only one acknowledged photographer – Willem Kunnings, if I remember correctly and now from your site I know another on, but there should be more. Gamo’s fashion photographies are really stunning, he’s really good. I think my limited Spanish has to be blamed that I cannot find them, and they as a rule don’t write English. So I am trying to make English speaking public to make to know Spanish speaking culture, as you can see on my site. It is only beginning of course. Bur you can see some musicians there who are popular in Spanish speaking world, but not in English speaking part of it, but even I with my limited Spanish can tell that they are good. I think there is a big gap between these two worlds, and it would be great to bring them together.
Sorry for a late (very late) reply! You are right, there is a gap between Spanish speaking world and English one, the same as between Europe, America, Africa etc. To be honest I know more bands from Spain than from Bolivia, but it’s only because I have Spanish friends who shared with me music they liked. But for example, my friends in Bolivia don’t know any of them, even thought they’re quite aquinted with European music. So, it’s not only a language, but also personal taste. Recenly, there was a big concert of Marc Anthony, who is a ‘God’ here, but for me he will always be Jennifer Lopez’s ex-husband:) I would like to do more research however, on music I enjoy, because there are a lot of bands, not only Bolivian, that I hear on the radio and I love:) Unfortunately, they randomly say the name of the band so it’s hard to research them!