fotojournalismus:

Life under Pinochet : 

Chile 40 Years On

 

‘The day we buried our freedom’ — Isabel Allende

On September 11, 1973, Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power in a U.S.-backed coup that deposed the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, who committed suicide rather than surrender and led to 17 years of military rule.

Some 40,000 people suffered human rights abuses in Chile from 1973 to 1990. More than 3,000 were killed or forcibly disappeared, their bodies buried in unmarked graves or dumped at sea.

• In commemoration of the anniversary, the collaborative project “Chile from within,” edited by the Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas, is being released in a digital edition. Originally published in 1990 and now out of print, the book compiled the previously unseen work of sixteen Chilean photographers, who documented their experience during this tumultuous era. Meiselas’s project provided them with a medium to share their own experiences, previously suppressed by the government. (more)

• Photojournalist Julio Etchart spent the 70s and 80s documenting Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile and, by “keeping a low profile and my head down”, he says he was able to capture much of the rising resistance on camera. In memory of his victims, Amnesty International UK is hosting an updated version of Julio’s 1988 exhibition Chile’s 9/11 at the Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch, London, on weekdays from 9-20 September. (more)