Description
OD Photo Prize 2025 | Shortlisted Artist
Florence Goupil [1990] is a French-Peruvian documentary photographer based in Peru. Through a multimedia approach, her work explores the intersection of ethnobotany, environmental and human rights, and the living memory of Indigenous communities. She is a National Geographic Explorer and contributor, a Pulitzer Center grantee and a 2024-2025 Magnum Foundation Fellow.
Artist Statement | Rain Callers is a multimedia project that documents the ancestral practice of Jarawi singers—Quechua and Wanka women in the Peruvian Andes who use polyphonic songs to summon the rain, synchronize with agricultural cycles, and care for the land. Faced with state neglect and devastating droughts, they recite pre-Columbian verses passed down from their grandmothers as a spiritual and ecological form of resistance. “We plant the seeds with the power of the song”, shares Magdalena. Together, their voices unveil their resilient responses to heat and drought, bringing ancient indigenous practices to face current climate issues that exacerbate poverty and social inequalities. I was first drawn to this practice through my bond with my grandmother, who used to whistle mysterious rhythms from her homeland in the Andes. Her voice, memory, and archive thread through this work as a personal and narrative bridge to explore the resilience of Quechua-Wanka women. By weaving together sound, photography, and printed matter, Rain Callers aims to take form as an immersive exhibition and a community-oriented publication—a visual and sonic archive that may serve not only as vessels of memory but also as tools for cultural continuity and education, especially as their ancestral songs edge toward disappearance. In times of environmental and cultural erosion, these women offer a vital form of resistance rooted in ancestral listening. This project aims to honor their legacy and ensure that these voices continue to resonate—both within their territory and beyond. Their voices embody the language of nature itself—the Jarawi is a timeless dialogue with the Earth.
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