During a visit to San Miguel de Los Colorados – a town located in the Province of Jujuy, at the far north of Argentina, near the border with Bolivia – Stefano Ortega documents Kolla people
Stefano Ortega for Lampoon Digital Edition
Title: Kolla people
I took these images during my visit to San Miguel de Los Colorados, a town located in the Province of Jujuy, at the far north of Argentina, near the border with Bolivia.
The town, approximately 3,600 of altitude, it’s populated exclusively by Kolla people and it’s one of the 35 communities of native people which live within the area.
They work mostly in the nearby salt flats (la Salina Grande) or for the community doing construction for the town, processing the Alpaca wool, farming and taking care of the livestock; they are also involved in politics and local elections.
The Kolla live in a part of Argentina popular for the extraction of Lithium, this topic seems to have brought a bit of conflict in between the local indigenous communities and has divided who’s pro lithium from who’s against it.
Stefano Ortega
Italian born with Argentinean roots, Stefano Ortega graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Bologna in Italy and moved to New York to pursue Photography at the age of 24. Stefano’s vision is characterized by narrative and irony. His imagery is an equilibrated union between graphic elements and effortless human gestures framed in a natural environment, bridging the divide between portrait and documentary.
Editorial Team
