Photography as a Platform for Transitional Justice: Peru’s Case

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Peruvian photographic exhibition Yuyanapaq: Para Recordar (To Remember) as one of the first post-conflict public and official efforts created by Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It argues that photography is a platform for transitional justice that facilitates, extends, and even challenges the work of official institutions. The Yuyanapaq photographs, first encoded as news in a variety of print outlets, have traversed the purpose for which they were initially made, becoming a tool that shapes collective remembrance as part of a larger historical, cultural, political, technological, and economic framework. In doing so, Yuyanapaq exemplifies how photojournalistic work can be repurposed within a transitional justice framework and be used as a political project for truth and reconciliation.