Participatory photography in the Peruvian Andes

A collaborative project giving local youngsters their first experience with photography.

Charlotte Kesl

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In 2015, in collaboration with documentary photographer Charlotte Kesl and a group of students from the University of Cambridge, we provided cameras to young people in a community in the high Andes of Perú. The aim was to see what their everyday lives are like, from their perspectives, and to empower them to work with photography as a way of expressing what's important to them. These moments give us a unique glimpse of what life is like for young people and their families living above 3,700m (12,000ft) high in the Cordillera Blanca.

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The view up the mountainside and into the Llaca Valley, with the white mountains of Vallunaraju, Ocshapalca and Ranrapalca beyond. This is a landscape of stricken boulders and low impact subsistence agriculture, with looming lakes, glaciers and snowy peaks overhead.

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The first hills of the Cordillera Negra, the snowless mountain range that runs parallel with the Cordillera Blanca to the west, seen through a window.

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One of many local leats, designed to hold fresh water in the fields on these extremely steep hillsides. This leat system is crucial to the low impact agriculture of this community, where maize, potatoes and quinoa are among a variety of chops grown.

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Long shadows and long faces with the black rock mountains in the background, as the weather draws in. This area is frequented by extreme weather patterns - which have become increasingly severe with climate change - including torrential rains from October to March, and a baking hot dry season from April to September.

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The view westward towards the Cordillera Negra as the sun begins to descend through the clouds. Beyond these hills is the Peruvian desert extending from the mountains down towards the Pacific Ocean. With the Amazon Rainforest to the west, on the other side of the Cordillera Blanca, this is a region of the world with huge, but finely tuned, landscapes and ecosystems. These are also some of the places on Earth most effected climate change.

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Members of the community smile after finishing lunch in the afternoon sunshine.

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A child plays with a frisby on walled steps, which are built to protect the agricultural landscape. The soil in this area gets extremely dry, becoming prone to being washed away in the intense wet season rain.

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Hand-picked flowers in the intense sun, a constant feature of life at this altitude.

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Yesenia, one of the participants of the project, climbs a huge local boulder, which are scattered across the hillsides, in the village. Both international visitors and locals climb the surrounding boulders and mountains.

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A local woman washes buckets and cooking equipment off the main road that runs up the hillside from the deep valley below.

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A woman constructs a small outhouse for livestock.

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Abode building bricks dry in the sun as part of a local construction project in the village.

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Chase, a University of Cambridge student involved in this project, plays with some of the children in the community.

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Cecily, another University of Cambridge student, smiles as she learns to milk a cow from her local host.

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These vibrant photos show daily activities in the mountainous environment. The importance of water featured heavily in everyone's photos. Animals and plants also featured heavily and it was interesting to see that very few photos featured houses or buildings, most were outdoors. The photos capture a sense of space and openness evidently felt by the photographers, as well as a sense of the immense power of the sun at this height. Many thanks to all that were involved.

Charlotte Kesl

Renowned international photo journalist, editor, and social communicator, Charlotte passion is portrait and social photography, and she's equally adept at capturing the spirit of adventure in people and places all over the world.

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