Paccarik Orue

Delivering cheese and milk, Cerro de Pasco, Peru. 2013

Paccarik Orue (b.1976, Peru) currently resides in San Francisco where he earned a BFA in photography from the Academy of Art University. As an immigrant, Paccarik is interested in themes of social relevance and the relationship between people and the environment. His work has been shown at SF Camerawork, Book & Job Gallery, Carte Blanche, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans and it has been featured in Conscientious, Fototazo, Feature Shoot and Lenscratch among others. He is the recipient of En Foco’s NewWorks Photography Award Fellowship #17. Paccarik’s first monograph, There is Nothing Beautiful Around here, was published by Owl & Tiger Books in 2012.

About the Photograph:

“This image, Repartiendo queso y leche (delivering cheese and milk,) is from my ongoing project entitled El Muqui. The project is about environmental problems, folkloric and cultural traditions in the mining city of Cerro de Paso, in the Peruvian Andes, and how these elements coexist with each other. It is important for me that this body of work captures the desire of the inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco to live a normal life under such harsh conditions caused by the pollution of mining activities. The image speaks about such desire. I had seen this woman making deliveries earlier but I was unable to catch up with her. A few days later I happened to be taking photos near the home of one of her customers and finally made her portrait.”