Liz Tasa Palomino

6x6 South America Talent: Liz Tasa Palomino, Peru

In Tasa Palomino’s photos, poetry and raw metaphor flow in harmony to speak about invisible scars. Empathy and sensitivity are among her best credentials” - Raúl García Pereira, photographer and 6x6 nominator, Peru.

Liz Tasa studied Communication at the University of Piura, before completing a Master of Photo Documentary at Centro de la Imagen. She has worked as a photojournalist in different media in Peru, including Diario El Comercio and Correo. As a photographer, she has developed several documentary projects that revolve around social exclusion, racism, and human rights issues.  

Kápar

‘Kápar’, according to Quechua, means to ‘castrate’. When Alberto Fujimori was president of Peru from 1990 - 2000, the National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning was put in place to reduce poverty, with a concentration on rural women. According to the Ombudsman's Office, 272 028 women were sterilized, of which 2166 reported to having been subjected to deception or threats. Due to malpractice and negligence, many died and others have cancer of the uterus, or serious infections in the womb, that prevent them from returning to their former lives. My photographic project seeks to narrate visually, through analogies between the earth and the wounds, the physical and psychological consequences of the victims of forced sterilization.

Yapatera: The descendants of slavery

Currently, the largest number of Afro-descendants live in Lima, Ica and Piura; places that concentrated a large number of slaves because of their agricultural development. In Piura, specifically, Yapatera emerged from the vestiges of a former sugar plantation and many of its residents survive under the shadow of malnutrition and infant mortality thanks to subsistence agriculture and incipient trade. According to a study by Unicef and the ONG Plan International, there are 7,600 inhabitants whose ethnic origin has generated discriminatory treatment. This has forced the majority of young people to leave their hometown and go out in search of new opportunities, leaving their parents and grandparents in solitude.

Liz Tasa Palomino also received a nomination from Eefje Ludwig.

Discover work by the 6x6 South America talents, and find out about 6x6’s nomination and selection process.