Colombia by Reojo

Santiago Harker—perhaps the most important Colombian documentary photographer of his generation—has followed for several years in the footsteps of the Chorographic Commission, that important group of scientists, chroniclers and artists who, led by Agustín Codazzi, traveled, on mule back, six provinces of Colombia starting in 1850, for almost 9 years, with the task of drawing up maps of those provinces and recording their inhabitants, their landscapes, their customs and their ways of life. All this has been possible, thanks to the support that Terpel gave to this book, since its distribution points are throughout the country.

Many of the images that Harker captured on his tours appear here compared with original plates from the Commission, creating an interesting reading of both the changes and the permanences that have occurred in the country over the centuries. In Colombia out of the corner of his eye Harker, always in search of our roots and always with a very Colombian sense of humor, compares 52 plates from the Commission—whose original title is respected—with the photographs taken by him of the same places and other aspects of the regions, 160 years later.

Furthermore, in fair tribute to Codazzi, Harker also documents here some places on the Caribbean coast, that amazing region of our territory that Codazzi dreamed of visiting but could not, since death surprised him in 1859 while he was already in the town of Espíritu Santo ( today Codazzi), near Valledupar.