DILMAR M. GAMERO S. - PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO
MFA THESIS SHOW - MARCH 2019
TEMPLE CONTEMPORARY - TYLER SCHOOL OF ART - PHILADELPHIA, PA

MAMACHA CARMEN
“If you only pray, you pray once;
if you pray and sing, you pray twice;
but if you pray, sing and dance,
you pray three times.”
(traditional Paucartambo saying). 

Every July in the Peruvian Andes the village of Paucartambo celebrates its miracle mother Mamacha Carmen (The Lady of Mount Carmel). For over 300 years nineteen groups of masked dancers have gathered to celebrate their devotion to the Mamachaby singing, dancing and praying using traditional costuming and ornamentation. 

During the procession the devotees carry spiritual altarpieces, demandas,that contain the sacred figure of the Mamacha Carmen. These demandas preserve the sense of community and identity that integrates Catholic tradition with Andean rituality.

I constructed five boxes based upon those demandas that represent the figure of the Mamacha Carmen and her dancers. They are a culmination of personal photographs, alternative processes, and costume embroidery from the celebration. Each box contains one volume of a photobook describing the history and story of the festival.

​After thirteen years of participating in this ritual, I discovered that the real miracle of Mamacha Carmen is how it spiritually and physically engages everyone with color, movement, and the devotion of the dancers and their families.

"Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like" (David Alan Harvey - NGP)