Ramiro llona
A visual passion
Embassy of Peru in the usa
THE CAPTIVE IMAGE RAMIRO LLONA
A PHOTO EXHIBIT
by
RAMIRO
LLONA
Lima under the eyes of an artist 2
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Ramiro Llona is one of the most important Peruvian visual artists. Born in Lima in 1947, his work is worldwide recognized. But his secret passion is photography. In this first edition of The Virtual Eye, we uncover some of his pictures that reveal Llona’s passion in capturing moments, colors, and volumes, as part of his daily activities as an artist. The Embassy of Peru in the United States starts today its monthly virtual gallery, which will be dedicated to promoting the work of the most representative Peruvian artists. 3
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“If you want to know about my life, go and look at the sea” Martín Adán, Peruvian poet (1908-1985)
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Ramiro Llona captures in an instant volumes, colors, and situations.
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Barranco City is permanently present in the photographic work of Llona. The artist walks daily through the streets, equipped with a camera. He is always lurking —watching the unfolding of the shapes and colors of the day. And maybe, some of those pictures will be transformed into an oil painting that will become then the remembrance of his morning walks. 5
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“The pictures are the same as those taken by a walker. I have always had the habit of identifying in the streets, situations, characters, forms, and volumes.
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“I like to see how the sun reaches the texture of a battered wall and C the way the story changes depending on what side of the street you were walking on. There are years of training behind this. The street is my natural habitat.” 6
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“In Lima one must walk early, when the city hasn’t yet been taken by traffic. One is able to see how the city was before and discover a mood stuck in time. The fog in Lima conceals forms but accentuates the ambiance of the city. Lima is a city in a permanent process of disappearance and transformation, and if one pays close attention, the protagonist is the nostalgia. And soon I felt the need to capture that feeling. At first, in a very casual manner, always early between 7 and 8 am when I would walk my kids to the corner where the school bus picked them up at 6:45 am.”
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“While walking my dog I began to take steps that would take me each time further, always to the border of the Barranco’s Canyons. The first pictures I took were related to the ocean, the sand, and the cliffs. Every day I walk under the Puente de los Suspiros towards to the beach. What started out as something casual became a passionate mood, filled with purpose. The idea is to capture a mood and a state of animation.” 8
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“During my years in New York City I always walked with a camera in my pocket and always had on my desk dozens of pictures that I sorted in black notebooks, one per page.”
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“Since that time in NYC, I have always tried to organize the images in an abstract way, forgetting that they were roads or parks and looking instead at forms, compositions, colors, contrasts. It was my way of being a painter. Many times I would find the imaginary that would appear afterwards in my paintings.”
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“All of the images are done with an iPhone5 and edited on Instagram, a very small few, with iPhoto. All have been printed in the format of 9 x 9 cms. At home I used a CANON Selphy.”
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“The idea was to do a photo exhibit at the MAC in Barranco and also print a book. Incredibly enough, a photography book of Barranco does not exist.”
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“ I have around 500 pictures. It is already a document of an era, full of sensitivity.
� Digital Diplomacy Embassy of Peru in the USA 1700 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20036