national Geographics relationship with
photography and Peru are all intertwined
all of Peru
unbelievable country of mysteries and
surprises this is definitely one of the
centers of civilization it’s really
incredible to be able to look into the
eyes of an ancient ruler this is the
power of archaeology
thank you all for being here I want to
talk to you a little bit about being a
representative of National Geographic
and working in these great civilizations
and I like to bring storytelling to
these and I like to tell stories about
heroes national Geographics relationship
with photography and Peru are all
intertwined and I want to tell you that
little story and I actually want to
start by telling you a little bit about
Peru it’s extraordinarily photogenic
this is a photograph by Hiram Bingham
who documented the high mountains of
Peru and this is really what makes Peru
one of the great centers of civilization
is its geography the high mountains the
beautiful rich valleys between the
mountains and the coast the coastal
deserts which were once described in the
pages of National Geographic as being
small Nile Delta’s and in fact unlike
Egypt that has one Nile River northern
Peru has 20 of these Delta’s it’s
unbelievable you can have one foot in
the Fertile Delta and one foot in the
desert this is makes it an extraordinary
place for preservation and creation of
ancient civilization it’s a place where
archaeological sites tower above the
countryside this particular mound that
you see in the front is actually a
Peruvian pyramid here’s an example of
what one could imagine that looked like
in the past there are 20 such river
valleys in northern Peru it’s an
outstanding unbelievable relationship
and much of it has to do with the fact
that it is one of the largest most
productive coasts along the Pacific
coast of the new world is unbelievable
culture unbelievable country and it’s
that geographic relationship that we
like to explain helps explain how Peru
is a country that can both be described
as having over 10,000 archaeological
sites or as I like to say there’s only
one site in Peru all of Peru I mean it
is really you walk the Inca Trail and
you really can’t tell when you’re on a
site and off the site the entire country
from the north coast of
the south coast from east to west it’s
unbelievable country of mysteries and
surprises now I’m actually going to
start telling the story a little bit
before the founding of National
Geographic because so many travelers and
adventures have been attracted to Peru
it’s sort of mysterious and wonderful
it’s been attracting people for hundreds
of years and it’s history goes back more
than 3,000 years it has separate
cultural traditions on the north coast
the highlands and the south coast it’s
really phenomenal I have to take my hats
off to yet another set of incredible
heroes Julio Te’o
the father of Peruvian archaeologists he
was from the highlands and he really
introduced the idea of Indian
civilization he began to study the
cultures of ancient Peru he’s one of the
first researchers to come up with that
chronology and he had a partner Rafael
lark oh these two guys they kind of
fought over where the heart and soul of
Peru lay you had a tale who was from the
highlands who argued for temples and
islands and you had largo who came from
the coasts and uh no it’s the cool
cultures and that debate continues to
this day but we all were fascinated by
the mystery and culture and we all
thought that this site which tale worked
at that Larco worked at the famous
temple of chavin de huantar it was
really the heart
the essence of Andean civilization it
was so important and it was so
mysterious and so luxuries that it
actually became my introduction to
archaeology and my introduction to South
America I have the chance to visit well
ok it wasn’t last year all right so you
know you’re looking at this statute you
see this statue right it’s carved in
beautiful 3,500 years oh oh and yeah I
was a hippie once a little little while
ago but that’s djebena wander what an
introduction to South America what an
introduction to Peru to go visit a place
what a way to get in nor
into the wonders of archeology it’s
great and I became intrigued with the
history of all this exploration in hula
and went on and we all sort of looked
even further back into the pages like
who was exploring who was caught with
this mystery and wonder of the
archeology and culture and I became
enamored with this particular fellow
Ephraim Squire he was a wonderful
Explorer for the US government and he
was sent as the Commissioner to Peru by
none other than Abraham Lincoln in the
1860s this is how far the history goes
back in this and the wonderful story
town and as commissioner he wrote this
incredible book called the land of the
Incas illustrated with 500 wood cuts
really I mean it was the artistry the
magnificence the wonder of this country
that attracted people these wood cuts
were known and reproduced I mean this
was a very very popular book published
in 1877 people were so desired I became
fascinated because there was this
photograph of Ephraim Squire and being
here at National Geographic were
naturally very interested in photographs
but you know squired he made these
incredible illustrations that would cuts
in his book and we assumed that he must
have had a photographic memory look at
this bridge unbelievable you had to go
to Peru to imagine that something like
that was real it was so exciting for me
to see you know in a no wood cut like
this of Alta Peru which is today on the
other side of Lake Titicaca but still
part of this greater Peruvian can and I
became quite curious being here at
National Geographic
how did somebody record something like
this and it was only recently and I was
so excited to be able to find the photo
archives that were the basis for the 500
wood cuts in this it shows the
relationship between photography and
archaeology we have one of the great
photographers of National Geographic
Kenny Garrett who’s here who can attest
to the fact that photographing in Peru
is like photographing a wonderland it
was amazing to see how you
we produced the photographs here’s one
of the wood cuts from 1877 and here’s
one of the newly discovered photographs
that Squire – he was not only an
explorer he himself was a photographer I
became intrigued with this aspect this
relationship between photography and
archaeology I think it’s critical to our
understanding of the past
not only in Peru in Central America in
Egypt in Greece it’s so exciting and I
became attracted to another one of the
greatest photographers who ever crossed
into Peru Hiram Bingham
yes Hiram Bingham is known primarily for
describing Machu Picchu but do people
realize that he was an incredible
photographer at that time 1911 and 1912
being director of an expedition meant
that you were also the photography had
this incredible camera created by Kodak
for him and he took these pictures that
were not just documentation but we’re
art themselves and they were the first
rock star archaeology project in
National Geographic
but his photographs really aren’t
incredible we have about 2,000 of these
photographs here in the photo archives
and someday we’re going to do an
exhibition of the photo archives here
it’s just an incredible opportunity to
work with people like Bill Bonner here
in the photo archives and see exactly
what what the the genius of photography
is I mean if you look at this picture
taken by Bingham of Machu Picchu with
the mountains and the cloud and the
local personality on the right hand I
mean it just is such a story such a
photographic essay in one picture it’s
really very very inspirational he also
documented the people of Peru and for me
this is the real gift that Hiram Bingham
gave to Peru which is a wonderful photo
record of Peru and ancient Peru and the
people of Peru all living together with
an inspiration for cultural heritage but
this isn’t the only time that we’ve
photographed Peru in ancient Peru we’ve
been at the forefront and if we
fast-forward to really one of the first
color photos of an archaeological
Oh picture published in National
Geographic magazine and of course came
from Peru this is William Duncan strong
who in 1946 came to Peru and after
seeing all these wonderful artifacts
came to in hopes of finding the first
intact mochi barrel mochi is a northern
coast period in Peru about 2,000 years
old very mysterious only known from the
artifacts and his intention was to come
and document an intact barrier almost an
impossible feat but they found one on
the coast and to quote from the 1947
issue of the magazine a strong and Evans
found this bear and everybody was so
excited they’d never seen an intact
burial from 2,000 years ago and said
they opened it up and Evan said I’m
hungry let’s have lunch
yeah I’m tell you I love reading past
national Geographics it’s really great
and so all of his workmen were sitting
there confused because they just found
something that never been found before
and the next picture which was published
in the pages of National Geographic is
the first time you’re looking inside of
an intact mochi burial and I think that
this is something that National
Geographic has taken on as a cachet in
terms of telling the stories of the
ancient populations although this is a
unique picture you know 12 pots that
have never been seen together in situ
this documentation went around the world
in April 1947 these two people strong
and Evans became a hero of mine as we
pursued this past and here’s one of
their color plates now these color
plates had to be specially put into each
one of the millions of copies of
National Geographic magazine we have
even more advances in photography
archaeology and the understanding of
ancient Peru 1988 another intact mochi
burial from the north coast of Peru was
found and they gave a call to walter
alva to chris Donnan two researchers who
were funded by National Geographic said
please let’s go let’s go and we started
to document this in a way that I don’t
think
theology has ever been documented before
and this came out in a 1988 issue of the
magazine which just happened to be on
the hundredth anniversary of National
Geographic I don’t know how that came
about but I mean it’s really incredible
in the first time to be able to look
into the eyes of an ancient ruler of
Peru and see the archaeologists at the
same time and to come up with this new
way to communicate not only through
photographs but through these iconic
drawings this instantly became the
classic model for how archaeology is
presented not only on the pages of
National Geographic but in every
textbook and all the way around the
world I think it’s really kind of cool
on the right-hand side you see the
different layers from the original
coffin box to the way the textiles were
laid down to the way the artifacts were
laid in to the way the body was put in
everything done in exquisite scientific
and artistic detail it became one of the
caches of National Geographic and Peru
these large-scale photographs this is I
think the first time we had a centerfold
in National Geographic this was a three
page picture of this burial I don’t know
how they took this picture in the in
1988 but it is so detailed and so
incredible and what it is for us who are
looking at the beautiful specimens in
the museum’s of the and and the pieces
that you’ve burrow and and the pieces
that you see on display is it it really
gives us a key it allows us to have an
aha moment when you go back to the
exhibition and you see things like a
nose piece and you say aha now I
understand why it’s there now I
understand why it means something for
ancient Peru or we see this beautiful
turquoise petrol and we just have seen
it in the picture of the Lord of Sipan
we say aha now I understand where it
come from
now I understand its cultural
significance this is the power of
archaeology as presented in National
I’ll tell you one more story about the
history and it’s both a good and bad
history is that this wealth of Peru has
invited looters to come this is where
Professor Izumi schemata works and this
is whose photograph which he uses to
illustrate the fact that the
archeological site where he works at has
somewhere in he said he counted himself
personally over 100,000 looters pets I
mean it’s unbelievable and it is from
this site that we know that this famous
mask we call it the Italian mask at this
point because it became known that it
was from secong we knew where it was
from thanks to the work of Professor
Izumi schemata and this piece actually
the the back story of of it is is that
as soon as it became known that it came
from a certain site in Peru it became a
celebrity in Italy it was as well-known
as a movie star it was kind of neat to
see archaeological but its portrait was
on the front page of magazines and
here’s the president of Italy with that
handoff moment to ambassador Forsythe I
think it’s incredible moment of cultures
ancient cultures understanding one
another but it was shimada’s excavations
Shimada and carlos alehrer director ii
museum who really spent a time to
understand that context digging down
down down 20 30 feet deep in the ground
I mean these are really heroic
excavations going down in hopes of being
able to find the context and telling the
story in 1991 that drew dream for Izumi
schemata started to come true he looked
down and he saw something that glittered
something that you really hadn’t
expected to see and this is Professor
schemata you can see so to the 24 feet
of earth above him
I asked assuming today weren’t you a
little worried and he said ah we checked
every day not to worry not to worry but
I mean it was really incredible and
there he found this piece with its photo
showing exactly how is found in situ in
a way that reminds me so much of strong
and Evan’s description of the first
mochi mask the first mochi intact burial
written on the pages of National
Geographic in 1947 the thing about the
strong and evidence article in 1947
there was a description but no
photograph of the mask here it is
magnificent
ornamental elaborate headdress that
really shows the power of the individual
and the power that gold exudes and the
importance that this material is in
fruit don’t forget in Peru gold was
never a commodity it was never traded
for its value it was never stored as
wealth it was always used to symbolize
power and that connection with the Sun
and when you see it in its original
cultural context with the flames coming
off and the bursts and an incredible
wolf like animal who professor shimada’s
has promised me whose tongue still wags
back and forth you understand that power
well just like to end with a little bit
about the way that National Geographic
and archaeologists continue to work in
Peru and continue to innovate in
archaeology but especially through the
lens and we’re really happy to have on
staff at National Geographic some
innovators in photography this is Fabio
Amador who works for the Waite National
Geographic Grant Program and his camera
there is something very very special
called the GigaPan and he is taking a
picture this is just a few months ago at
the famous site of huaca de la luna and
these murals which i have never really
been thoroughly documented but these
type of advances in photography and in
the way we visualize the past they mean
so much to archaeology to Peru and to
science thank you very much
Oh
photography and Peru are all intertwined
all of Peru
unbelievable country of mysteries and
surprises this is definitely one of the
centers of civilization it’s really
incredible to be able to look into the
eyes of an ancient ruler this is the
power of archaeology
thank you all for being here I want to
talk to you a little bit about being a
representative of National Geographic
and working in these great civilizations
and I like to bring storytelling to
these and I like to tell stories about
heroes national Geographics relationship
with photography and Peru are all
intertwined and I want to tell you that
little story and I actually want to
start by telling you a little bit about
Peru it’s extraordinarily photogenic
this is a photograph by Hiram Bingham
who documented the high mountains of
Peru and this is really what makes Peru
one of the great centers of civilization
is its geography the high mountains the
beautiful rich valleys between the
mountains and the coast the coastal
deserts which were once described in the
pages of National Geographic as being
small Nile Delta’s and in fact unlike
Egypt that has one Nile River northern
Peru has 20 of these Delta’s it’s
unbelievable you can have one foot in
the Fertile Delta and one foot in the
desert this is makes it an extraordinary
place for preservation and creation of
ancient civilization it’s a place where
archaeological sites tower above the
countryside this particular mound that
you see in the front is actually a
Peruvian pyramid here’s an example of
what one could imagine that looked like
in the past there are 20 such river
valleys in northern Peru it’s an
outstanding unbelievable relationship
and much of it has to do with the fact
that it is one of the largest most
productive coasts along the Pacific
coast of the new world is unbelievable
culture unbelievable country and it’s
that geographic relationship that we
like to explain helps explain how Peru
is a country that can both be described
as having over 10,000 archaeological
sites or as I like to say there’s only
one site in Peru all of Peru I mean it
is really you walk the Inca Trail and
you really can’t tell when you’re on a
site and off the site the entire country
from the north coast of
the south coast from east to west it’s
unbelievable country of mysteries and
surprises now I’m actually going to
start telling the story a little bit
before the founding of National
Geographic because so many travelers and
adventures have been attracted to Peru
it’s sort of mysterious and wonderful
it’s been attracting people for hundreds
of years and it’s history goes back more
than 3,000 years it has separate
cultural traditions on the north coast
the highlands and the south coast it’s
really phenomenal I have to take my hats
off to yet another set of incredible
heroes Julio Te’o
the father of Peruvian archaeologists he
was from the highlands and he really
introduced the idea of Indian
civilization he began to study the
cultures of ancient Peru he’s one of the
first researchers to come up with that
chronology and he had a partner Rafael
lark oh these two guys they kind of
fought over where the heart and soul of
Peru lay you had a tale who was from the
highlands who argued for temples and
islands and you had largo who came from
the coasts and uh no it’s the cool
cultures and that debate continues to
this day but we all were fascinated by
the mystery and culture and we all
thought that this site which tale worked
at that Larco worked at the famous
temple of chavin de huantar it was
really the heart
the essence of Andean civilization it
was so important and it was so
mysterious and so luxuries that it
actually became my introduction to
archaeology and my introduction to South
America I have the chance to visit well
ok it wasn’t last year all right so you
know you’re looking at this statute you
see this statue right it’s carved in
beautiful 3,500 years oh oh and yeah I
was a hippie once a little little while
ago but that’s djebena wander what an
introduction to South America what an
introduction to Peru to go visit a place
what a way to get in nor
into the wonders of archeology it’s
great and I became intrigued with the
history of all this exploration in hula
and went on and we all sort of looked
even further back into the pages like
who was exploring who was caught with
this mystery and wonder of the
archeology and culture and I became
enamored with this particular fellow
Ephraim Squire he was a wonderful
Explorer for the US government and he
was sent as the Commissioner to Peru by
none other than Abraham Lincoln in the
1860s this is how far the history goes
back in this and the wonderful story
town and as commissioner he wrote this
incredible book called the land of the
Incas illustrated with 500 wood cuts
really I mean it was the artistry the
magnificence the wonder of this country
that attracted people these wood cuts
were known and reproduced I mean this
was a very very popular book published
in 1877 people were so desired I became
fascinated because there was this
photograph of Ephraim Squire and being
here at National Geographic were
naturally very interested in photographs
but you know squired he made these
incredible illustrations that would cuts
in his book and we assumed that he must
have had a photographic memory look at
this bridge unbelievable you had to go
to Peru to imagine that something like
that was real it was so exciting for me
to see you know in a no wood cut like
this of Alta Peru which is today on the
other side of Lake Titicaca but still
part of this greater Peruvian can and I
became quite curious being here at
National Geographic
how did somebody record something like
this and it was only recently and I was
so excited to be able to find the photo
archives that were the basis for the 500
wood cuts in this it shows the
relationship between photography and
archaeology we have one of the great
photographers of National Geographic
Kenny Garrett who’s here who can attest
to the fact that photographing in Peru
is like photographing a wonderland it
was amazing to see how you
we produced the photographs here’s one
of the wood cuts from 1877 and here’s
one of the newly discovered photographs
that Squire – he was not only an
explorer he himself was a photographer I
became intrigued with this aspect this
relationship between photography and
archaeology I think it’s critical to our
understanding of the past
not only in Peru in Central America in
Egypt in Greece it’s so exciting and I
became attracted to another one of the
greatest photographers who ever crossed
into Peru Hiram Bingham
yes Hiram Bingham is known primarily for
describing Machu Picchu but do people
realize that he was an incredible
photographer at that time 1911 and 1912
being director of an expedition meant
that you were also the photography had
this incredible camera created by Kodak
for him and he took these pictures that
were not just documentation but we’re
art themselves and they were the first
rock star archaeology project in
National Geographic
but his photographs really aren’t
incredible we have about 2,000 of these
photographs here in the photo archives
and someday we’re going to do an
exhibition of the photo archives here
it’s just an incredible opportunity to
work with people like Bill Bonner here
in the photo archives and see exactly
what what the the genius of photography
is I mean if you look at this picture
taken by Bingham of Machu Picchu with
the mountains and the cloud and the
local personality on the right hand I
mean it just is such a story such a
photographic essay in one picture it’s
really very very inspirational he also
documented the people of Peru and for me
this is the real gift that Hiram Bingham
gave to Peru which is a wonderful photo
record of Peru and ancient Peru and the
people of Peru all living together with
an inspiration for cultural heritage but
this isn’t the only time that we’ve
photographed Peru in ancient Peru we’ve
been at the forefront and if we
fast-forward to really one of the first
color photos of an archaeological
Oh picture published in National
Geographic magazine and of course came
from Peru this is William Duncan strong
who in 1946 came to Peru and after
seeing all these wonderful artifacts
came to in hopes of finding the first
intact mochi barrel mochi is a northern
coast period in Peru about 2,000 years
old very mysterious only known from the
artifacts and his intention was to come
and document an intact barrier almost an
impossible feat but they found one on
the coast and to quote from the 1947
issue of the magazine a strong and Evans
found this bear and everybody was so
excited they’d never seen an intact
burial from 2,000 years ago and said
they opened it up and Evan said I’m
hungry let’s have lunch
yeah I’m tell you I love reading past
national Geographics it’s really great
and so all of his workmen were sitting
there confused because they just found
something that never been found before
and the next picture which was published
in the pages of National Geographic is
the first time you’re looking inside of
an intact mochi burial and I think that
this is something that National
Geographic has taken on as a cachet in
terms of telling the stories of the
ancient populations although this is a
unique picture you know 12 pots that
have never been seen together in situ
this documentation went around the world
in April 1947 these two people strong
and Evans became a hero of mine as we
pursued this past and here’s one of
their color plates now these color
plates had to be specially put into each
one of the millions of copies of
National Geographic magazine we have
even more advances in photography
archaeology and the understanding of
ancient Peru 1988 another intact mochi
burial from the north coast of Peru was
found and they gave a call to walter
alva to chris Donnan two researchers who
were funded by National Geographic said
please let’s go let’s go and we started
to document this in a way that I don’t
think
theology has ever been documented before
and this came out in a 1988 issue of the
magazine which just happened to be on
the hundredth anniversary of National
Geographic I don’t know how that came
about but I mean it’s really incredible
in the first time to be able to look
into the eyes of an ancient ruler of
Peru and see the archaeologists at the
same time and to come up with this new
way to communicate not only through
photographs but through these iconic
drawings this instantly became the
classic model for how archaeology is
presented not only on the pages of
National Geographic but in every
textbook and all the way around the
world I think it’s really kind of cool
on the right-hand side you see the
different layers from the original
coffin box to the way the textiles were
laid down to the way the artifacts were
laid in to the way the body was put in
everything done in exquisite scientific
and artistic detail it became one of the
caches of National Geographic and Peru
these large-scale photographs this is I
think the first time we had a centerfold
in National Geographic this was a three
page picture of this burial I don’t know
how they took this picture in the in
1988 but it is so detailed and so
incredible and what it is for us who are
looking at the beautiful specimens in
the museum’s of the and and the pieces
that you’ve burrow and and the pieces
that you see on display is it it really
gives us a key it allows us to have an
aha moment when you go back to the
exhibition and you see things like a
nose piece and you say aha now I
understand why it’s there now I
understand why it means something for
ancient Peru or we see this beautiful
turquoise petrol and we just have seen
it in the picture of the Lord of Sipan
we say aha now I understand where it
come from
now I understand its cultural
significance this is the power of
archaeology as presented in National
I’ll tell you one more story about the
history and it’s both a good and bad
history is that this wealth of Peru has
invited looters to come this is where
Professor Izumi schemata works and this
is whose photograph which he uses to
illustrate the fact that the
archeological site where he works at has
somewhere in he said he counted himself
personally over 100,000 looters pets I
mean it’s unbelievable and it is from
this site that we know that this famous
mask we call it the Italian mask at this
point because it became known that it
was from secong we knew where it was
from thanks to the work of Professor
Izumi schemata and this piece actually
the the back story of of it is is that
as soon as it became known that it came
from a certain site in Peru it became a
celebrity in Italy it was as well-known
as a movie star it was kind of neat to
see archaeological but its portrait was
on the front page of magazines and
here’s the president of Italy with that
handoff moment to ambassador Forsythe I
think it’s incredible moment of cultures
ancient cultures understanding one
another but it was shimada’s excavations
Shimada and carlos alehrer director ii
museum who really spent a time to
understand that context digging down
down down 20 30 feet deep in the ground
I mean these are really heroic
excavations going down in hopes of being
able to find the context and telling the
story in 1991 that drew dream for Izumi
schemata started to come true he looked
down and he saw something that glittered
something that you really hadn’t
expected to see and this is Professor
schemata you can see so to the 24 feet
of earth above him
I asked assuming today weren’t you a
little worried and he said ah we checked
every day not to worry not to worry but
I mean it was really incredible and
there he found this piece with its photo
showing exactly how is found in situ in
a way that reminds me so much of strong
and Evan’s description of the first
mochi mask the first mochi intact burial
written on the pages of National
Geographic in 1947 the thing about the
strong and evidence article in 1947
there was a description but no
photograph of the mask here it is
magnificent
ornamental elaborate headdress that
really shows the power of the individual
and the power that gold exudes and the
importance that this material is in
fruit don’t forget in Peru gold was
never a commodity it was never traded
for its value it was never stored as
wealth it was always used to symbolize
power and that connection with the Sun
and when you see it in its original
cultural context with the flames coming
off and the bursts and an incredible
wolf like animal who professor shimada’s
has promised me whose tongue still wags
back and forth you understand that power
well just like to end with a little bit
about the way that National Geographic
and archaeologists continue to work in
Peru and continue to innovate in
archaeology but especially through the
lens and we’re really happy to have on
staff at National Geographic some
innovators in photography this is Fabio
Amador who works for the Waite National
Geographic Grant Program and his camera
there is something very very special
called the GigaPan and he is taking a
picture this is just a few months ago at
the famous site of huaca de la luna and
these murals which i have never really
been thoroughly documented but these
type of advances in photography and in
the way we visualize the past they mean
so much to archaeology to Peru and to
science thank you very much
Oh
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