Photographer Page

Alessandro Cinque

Workers from a funeral home in Huancavelica wait until the end of a service to move a coffin into a grave at a city cemetery in April 2021. Much like the rest of the country, this city in central Peru has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alfonso Sellano, age 64, battles COVID-19 while his wife and a nurse tend to him in Espinar, Peru. As of March 2022, the country has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world, which experts say can be attributed to the country’s weak health-care system and pervasive social inequalities that make it difficult for marginalized people to protect themselves from the virus. For instance, many had to continue commuting to work even during lockdown in order to provide for their families.

Some alpaca breeding families must migrate their herds up and down the mountains four times a year as climate change makes it harder to find good food for the animals. Families can be displaced for up to three months during the seasonal movements.

During the rainy season jackets are placed on the alpacas to protect them from cold and frosty weather. Families that manage the herds move them to higher altitudes to prevent the alpacas from eating the grasses that grow further down the mountains, since the animals will need that pasture later in the year.

An alpaca is sheared of its fleece.

Due to the closure of Peruvian borders and travel restrictions during the pandemic, markets for handicrafts made from Alpaca fiber collapsed. Artisans like this one who sell crafts were most affected by the decline of tourists.

A drone view of the city of Antabamba in the province of Apurimac. Antabamba is an important outlet for alpaca farmers to sell their products.

An alpaca that died the night before is kept by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Descosur for research.

A baby alpaca receives an injection of medicine during transhumance, a seasonal migration.

Alina Surquislla Gomez cradles a baby alpaca. Her family has worked with alpacas for three generations and has witnessed the impacts of climate change in Peru on the herds, from unpredictable rainy seasons to pastures drying up.