3600/4800 m s.n.m.

We need an instrument
We need an instrument
To take a measurement
To find out if loss could weigh

 Instrument, Fugazi, 1993


The 56 photographs in 3600 / 4800 m s.n.m.** were taken between 2017 and 2019 in the central highlands of the department of Lima, during three walks from Ticlio, Yauli and the Quiulla road toll to the city of La Oroya, and various later travels across one of the most intensively exploited mining areas of Peru. An intersection of roads that go to the Pacific Coast, to the Northern and Southern Andes, and to the Amazon rainforest, the city, refinery and polymetallic foundry of La Oroya, on the shores of the Mantaro river, has been one of the main protagonists of the mining history of the country. Lead, arsenic, cadmium and sulfur dioxide in the air, water and land, turned it into one of the most contaminated places in the world. Today it is paralyzed and undergoing liquidation.

(text from the book of the same name published by Meier Ramirez & Toromuerto Press)