Sergio Larraín Echeñique (1931 – 7 February 2012) was a Chilean photographer. [1] [2] He was a member of Magnum Photos during the 1960s. [3] He is considered the most important Chilean photographer in history, [3] [4] making street photography, often of street children, using "shadow and angles in a way few had tried before." [1]
Photographs he took in Paris by Notre Dame Cathedral, which revealed scenes of a couple only upon processing, became the basis for Julio Cortázar's story, "Las Babas del Diablo", "The Devil's Drool", which in turn inspired Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup. [5]
Larraín was born in 1931 in Santiago, [1] [3] into one of Chile's wealthiest families. [2] He joined Magnum Photos as an associate in 1959 and became a full member in 1961. [3] He worked professionally for a little over ten years, stopping in 1972. [1] [3] Larraín is best known for his street photography, [1] often of street children, [3] "and use of shadow and angles in a way few had tried before." [1]
Following the Bolivian guru Oscar Ichazo, he retreated from public and professional life to live in a Chilean mountain village, Tulahuén, and at an even more remote refuge that he built, taking up calligraphy and meditation. [2] [1] He also wrote and continued to make personal photography, including that of the Chilean port of Valparaíso. [2] He died in 2012 at the age of 80. [1]
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