A year ago, recognized fashion photographer Rafo Iparraguirre propound himself on taking a series of images which reflected “Peruvian Beauty” outside the common fashion standards. With this purpose and a will to immortalize in an honest way Peru´s diversity, Rafo explored Lima´s most iconic neighborhood´s and Peru´s main regions (Coast, Jungle, and “Sierra”).
Peruvian Biuti is a photographic stroll across Peru through its people, people chosen specifically by Rafo, which projected their character and what identifies them; suggesting how identity is a duality that manifests the peculiarity of each individual, and at the same time identifies them with a particular group, in this case, having similar characteristics as Peruvians.
Beauty responds to different judgments and the disposition of the person or thing, to conveniences that we´ve acquired during our life and our cultural background. From static facts and hierarchies, beauty has been officialized in concrete forms of what is beautiful and what is not. This Project is an invitation to reflect trying to break with these concepts, to legitimize another type of beauty, equally valid and heterogeneous.
The technique used by Iparraguirre in this pieces also respond to the value of authenticity: they are the same as he uses for this editorial work, putting the protagonist in the spotlight, introducing to us the characters in their true light. The characters pose in front of the camera as they were, with no extra makeup or styling, trusting a perfect stranger: the photographer who captures their personality with the sole purpose of showing us.
The result of this series of portraits transcends purely aesthetic appreciation to show us some sort of mapping of beauty which transcends the common canons and show the true diversity in beauty through many colors.
Spanish
Inés Hernández López
Cultural Promoter
