New Photography Exhibit, Machu Picchu: A Lost City Uncovered,
Opens at National Geographic Museum June 24
A new photography exhibition, “Machu Picchu: A Lost City Uncovered, Photographs from the Hiram Bingham Expeditions 1911-15,” opens at the National Geographic Museum this month. The exhibition showcases photographs from the early expeditions to map and study the site and will run from June 24 to September 11 in the museum’s M Street gallery. It was developed in collaboration with the Embassy of Peru in Washington, DC, as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the world’s introduction to Machu Picchu.
On July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham, an assistant professor of Latin American history at Yale University, set out with two Peruvian companions to explore the reported ruins known as Machu Picchu. Though Bingham admitted he was not the first to discover the hidden city, he was the first to study it scientifically. Bingham returned to the site on two subsequent expeditions with archaeological grants awarded by the National Geographic Society and the continued support of Yale. Over the course of four years and three expeditions, Bingham cleared, mapped and photographed the ruins as well as collected artifacts from the area.
Machu Picchu: A Lost City Uncovered features forty black and white photographs from Bingham’s three expeditions. Panoramic shots are included to show the vast area of the ruins. With the exception of two images taken by expedition members, all the images were taken by Hiram Bingham during his time studying Machu Picchu.
National Geographic Live will host events throughout the summer in conjunction with the exhibition. On June 28, Hiram Bingham biographer Christopher Heaney will give his assessment of Bingham’s discovery. On June 30, University of Illinois professor emeritus R. Tom Zuidema will share his knowledge of the Inca calendar and what it tells us about Inca society and culture. On July 9, National Geographic Live will host a day-long film festival, “Peru on Film” with screenings of three films: Camino a la Escuela, Hananpacha and Inca Mummies: Secrets of a Lost World. A Peruvian dance festival will be held July 17 with dance workshops by Mamauca and demonstrations, including the spectacular Scissors Dance and a performance by dancer Cynthia Paniagua, screenings of the films Soy Andina (with filmmaker Mitchell Teplitsky) and Danzak and live Andean music. Tuesdays at Noon, the series of free film screenings, will also offer four screenings of films from and about Peru on June 28, July 5, 19 and 26, including Cooking Up Dreams, by Peruvian filmmaker Ernesto Cabellos, and Sax Country, by filmmaker Sonia Goldenberg, who will come from Lima to introduce her work in person. All of these events are presented in conjunction with the Embassy of Peru. For more information, including ticketing, visit www.nglive.com.
Visit www.ngmuseum.org or call (202) 857-7588 for ticketing information. The museum is located at 1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is closed Dec. 25. For more information on the exhibition, the public should call (202) 857-7588 or visit www.ngmuseum.org.
