Corocoro: La Tierra de Chuta

A film I shot in Bolivia with Canon G-12 camera.

Has echos of my Mummer's Films from the early eighties.

There was Who's Havin' Fun made with good friend Johnathan Greene who just passed away and also We're # 1--my master thesis film for my MA degree in Visual Anthropolgy.

You will find traces of these earlier works in this recently created work from Bolivia where I spent 10-12 days in February-March 2013.

I had wanted to get a Fulbright grant to return there to do more work.

It is kind of like a wild country. I was fortunate to be there for one the many festivals that occur throughout the year.

The Chutas of Corocoro is one of them.

I had made many photographs but till now have hardly looked at them.

The Chuta edited by James T. Rowland I just revisited after not having looked at it for past two years.

Let me know what you think. A few corrections are needed. One is that 'bears' is said when the translator should have said 'beards'.

The translation made by Bruno Rath--a young Peruvian whose grandmother I had photographed in Solca, Romania in the mid seventies. The Rath Family invited me to visit them in Arequipa, Peru and thus began a new venture which led me to Bolivia. I had once spent a day there and was totally fascinated by the music and the people there. It is another world. I hope to return there this coming winter when I will be in Peru again.

Laurence Salzmann