Héctor Méndez Caratini is one of Latin America’s masters of contemporary photography. Inkaterra: A Suite in Three Movements is a compilation of three individual photo exhibits—Incas, Amazonia, and Pachamama—into one. This trilogy spans a period of thirty-five years of creative work exploring the indigenous cultures of today and yesterday in Peru. These memorable photographs were exhibited in the Museo de las Américas, in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2009–2010.

Incas consists of the seminal photographic documentation that Méndez Caratini did on Inca culture in 1974. Thirty-four years later, the artist-photographer returned to Peru to produce variations in color of those original photographs of the ancestral stonework at UNESCO World Heritage Site Machu Picchu and other Inca sites.

In 2008 he travelled to the Amazon to work on Amazonia. There, in the dense tropical forest and on the majestic rivers, he was able to document not just the jungle’s colorful endemic flora and fauna but also the native peoples living in their villages. In this part of the saga he trained his lenses on the importance of nature conservation.

From 2006 to 2009 Méndez Caratini worked on the final movement, titled Pachamama, which is the name of the mother-earth deity in Quechua, the Inca language. This section is composed of several digital collages printed on canvas along with large-format single images, diptychs, and triptychs.

This book includes 126 striking photographs representative of this trilogy, as well as an illustrated conversation between renowned photography curator Ricardo Viera and Méndez Caratini. The interview offers a rare insight into the artist’s creative processes.