A "SI" campaign spot on television. Pinochet is seen with an inset of himself after the 1973 coup in which President Salvador Allende was killed. Each of the campaigns had 15 minute TV spots, 1988
Water cannons disperse people who are celebrating victory for the "No" campaign, which ousted President Augusto Pinochet from power, 1988
Police question passersby in downtown Santiago, 1988
I had been working in Latin America through the late 70s into the 80s, very focused on human rights throughout Latin America and thinking about popular movements. I had been in Central America and also in Colombia, documenting the disappeared at a very early period. I wanted to go to the South to understand what had happened in the decade just previously.
In those years, it was extremely difficult to go to Chile until 1988. So at that time when it opened up for the press and outsiders, I went down.
The photographs that stay with me the most are the ones of people in public spaces. The "sense of people” in the plural; This sense of collectivity in the streets -- it was very strong.
-S.M.
Frame from Chile contact sheet, 1988
Frame from Chile contact sheet, 1988
Families of "desaparecidos" (the disappeared) put up posters on walls in downtown Santiago. Women are arrested when police quickly move in to rip them up the posters, 1988
A rally for the "No" campaign to vote President Augusto Pinochet out of office, 1988
The "NO" campaign on TV, 1988