Wong Rengifo, Antonio

Antonio Wong Rengifo was a film director, photographer, musician, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered the pioneer of Amazonian cinematography and photography in Iquitos. The importance of Wong Rengifo's photographic work, according to art historian Giuliana Vidarte, lies in the construction of a new imaginary of the Amazon region in opposition to the established paradigm of the "devil's paradise." By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rubber boom had cemented the image of the Peruvian Amazon as an uncivilized and wild place. Antonio Wong proposes a vindicatory representation of Amazonian societies, aestheticizing the Amazonian landscape and documenting everyday life in Loreto through the portrayal of a dignified and hardworking inhabitant with the aim of consolidating a new regional identity. Antonio Wong acquired his first camera in 1920. In 1924, he traveled to Europe and upon returning to Iquitos in 1927, he set up his first studio, Foto Wong, dedicating himself to both cinema and photography. In 1936, he produced "Under the Sun of Loreto," the first color feature film of the Peruvian Amazon, featuring color images that Wong intervened with watercolors on Kodak film. In 1951, he presented the exhibition "Get to Know Loreto" in Lima, a photographic display of the Peruvian Jungle composed of photos of flora and fauna, landscapes, and portraits taken in Loreto in the 1940s. Wong Rengifo passed away suddenly in 1965, leaving behind a great legacy of photographs and films of the Peruvian Amazon.