Événement

Riberenos: The River People of the Peruvian Amazon

Riberenos: The River People of the Peruvian Amazon
Exhibit Opening Reception: Tuesday, November 3,2015 - 6 p.m.
Instituto Cervantes. 31 West Ohio St. Chicago, IL 60654
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

This exhibit will run until December 3, 2015. Gallery hours: Mon-Thur 9:30 am-6:30 pm / Fri 9:30 am -2:30 pm / Sat 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Peru is a "developing" country emerging over the past twenty years from a legacy of violence and turmoil propagated by the Communist inspired "Shining Path" terrorists. Much of the country's population lives in the jungles of the Amazon River Basin. With no employment the "Riberenos" live entirely on the natural resources of their surroundings. Since the government's defeat of the terrorists and building of primary schools in the jungle, these families continue to live in their small self-supporting communities and, when possible, send some of their children and young adults over the Andes Mountains to shantytowns in Lima. Here, in spite of abject poverty, they support one another and strive to improve the quality of their lives.
As a surgeon I am a visual person, and that internal skill is required to successfully care for each patient. As an artist, I use my visual skills to create photographic images of these people and their communities. Their stories are told in their surroundings and in their faces.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Larry Ross is a urologic surgeon, a past head of a university urology department and past president of the world's largest urology association. He is also an artist, coming from a family of artists. His mother was and his sister is a painter. He studied drawing and painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, sculpture with the artist Harry Green, and advanced digital photography at Columbia College of Chicago.

In both his work in surgery and his personal life, he has traveled throughout the world . The camera has been his artistic tool of choice and with it he works to learn about the world and its people and to capture them and their lives in vibrant images. "Although I work daily with my patients, I have had to learn the skill of approaching total strangers in remote villages, unable to speak their language, earn their trust and confidence, through a smile or gesture, so that they are comfortable with the camera as I photograph them".

His work can be seen at National Geographic "Your Shot": http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/74595/