Ever since he took up photography, more than 40 years ago, Mario Testino has been in perpetual motion—circling the world, working weekends, constantly jetting to just about anywhere. With his latest exhibition, “South Americana,” on now at Hamiltons Gallery, in London’s Mayfair, the Peruvian-born photographer makes a triumphant return to his home hemisphere.
What drew Testino, master of portraiture and the fashion shoot, back to Latin America? Gravity, of a sort. In the last decade, he has increasingly focused on projects in his native Peru. “I started being a photographer in England, and I was so in awe of the English and their culture, so at first I tried to emulate them,” Testino tells AIR MAIL. “But I’m not English and I never will be. I needed to go into my essence to really discover who I was and find the ‘Mario Testino’ photograph.” In this dazzling new show he celebrates the culture that formed him, breaking new ground in the process.
