Walking Around Santiago

Walking Around SantiagoSecond Walk

Photographs1988-1994

Marcelo Montecino

Walking Around SantiagoSecond Walk

Photographs1988-1994

Marcelo Montecino

For Tomás who’s kept me on my toes for many years

The Rex

1988 –1994 Santiago, Chile

In early 1988 I returned to Chile after a long stay in the US. After covering the proxy “low intensity” wars in Central America, I wanted to live in Santiago and photograph that year’s plebiscite in Chile, which would decide whether Augusto Pinochet would stay in power or there was to be democratic elections. Anything could happen. I knew this would be the last big story I would cover.

I came back to an effervescent country. In 1988 and 1989 there were of almost daily demonstrations, tear gas, and confrontations in the street calling for the resignation of Pinochet. As a working photojournalist I covered most of them.

But this is not a book about that historic moment. I’ve included a few images just to set the tone. This is a book about Santiago, that, in retrospect, has been the main theme of my work.

I was also beginning to discover how little I knew my people and my city. Soon the excite-ment of politics and demonstrations began to wane and I began to shoot my own obses-sions: the small back streets, flea markets, that curious sensation of winter in Santiago where you can never shake the chill, the smoky shanties, hospitals... I wanted to docu-ment the city of my birth.

These photographs are my “walking around pictures” of that period of my life. It’s a gloomy book that reflects the present rather than those delirious days when we shook off a dictatorship.

Marcelo Montecino

The Sycophants

Human Rights Demonstration

Pious chat between Minister of Justice and Military Vicar at a Te Deum

The occupationtary Parade

Gen. Sinclair

Soldiers running away with the bank

Game of Chance

General Cemetery

The Elevator

The old Nazis

Paseo Ahumada

Downtown

Merced Street

Car minders

Singing for your lunch

Franklin flea market

Estación Central

All Saints Day, Catholic Cemetery

Catholic Cemetery

Diez de julio

Ahumada Street

Catholic Cemetery

McIver Street

The house of the sick

Hot Chestnuts salesman

The poet Armando UribeHot Chestnuts salesman

Metro

Forgotten Location

Sad cueca

Frnklin Flea Market

The metro

Vivaceta neighborhood

Consttotution Square

Winter

Winter in Santiago

Transplants in Nuñoa

La Palmera

Catedral Street

Yrarrázabal Street

Juani

Allende’s funeral