In the 1970s, studio photographer Arthuro Gaëtan captured hundreds of identity portraits for members of the local Guatemalan community, who visited his studio to obtain photographs required for their official documents. All portraits were taken with a chamber camera and developed in his dark room.
But after his death, his legacy was nearly erased. Arthuro’s grandson, eager to transform the family studio into a hair salon, discarded his grandfather’s work without a second thought. Among the discarded items was a shoebox holding the negatives of Arthuro’s best portraits, carefully selected over 30 years of career.
By an extraordinary twist of fate, I discovered that same shoebox in a garbage dump in 2000 while I was photographing this dump with my Rolleiflex.
This series is more than a collection of portraits—it is the revival of a forgotten heritage and a tribute to a photographer whose work is now shared with the world.
