Macarena Tabja

Macarena Tabja (@macarenatabja) is a Peruvian photographer amused by human behavior and certain habits that human beings have. She always finds a way to incorporate sarcasm in her work even when the themes in her projects vary from one another.

Growing up as the granddaughter and niece of farmers, she spent most of her childhood on ranches, swimming in lakes and rivers and in long car trips to small towns in Peru. When she was a child, she was fascinated by a story that was told to her about a man who had died from a plane crash in the Peruvian Amazon. His little daughter had survived the crash and made her way to find help after a few days of wandering through the jungle. This story became an obsession of hers, and while little, she would play in her garden pretending she had survived a plane crash. She spent hours creating water puddles with water from a hose to simulate rivers, making dolls out of mud and preparing salads made with leaves and flowers. Now, as an adult, Macarena takes pictures and juxtaposes them with photographs of herself as a little girl to recreate this inner world she had while growing up. She tries to show these surreal situations that in her world were totally realistic. The result is a colorful habitat, a playful scenery which reminds us of our own childhood.

Macarena uses photography as a way to lean more about herself and how she relates to the places she goes and the people she encounters. Her vision always tends to be ironic and she is discovering that her inner world she had as a child is still very present.