An Interview With Christian Lombardi

Today’s featured photographer is Christian Lombardi, who worked as Bolivian general Hugo Banzer’s personal photographer in the late 90s. That’s pretty impressive, considering he started out as a gravedigger in France. For this year’s Photo Issue, Lombardi shared the taking photos in the Chapare Jungle? I assume it was pretty dangerous.
Those were taken from 1997 to 2001. We were always on edge. I learned to eat with my left hand so I could use my right hand for my .45. We would work from 4AM to 10PM – sometimes without any food – through rain or shine, tear gas, people throwing rocks at us, booby traps, ambushes, bullets… It was exhausting.

What was the scariest thing that happened to you while working there?
One time we were returning from a regular patrol with eight guys when we ran into hundreds of cocaleros (coca growers) blocking the highway. It was fucking scary. I was there with my “gringo” face, and I almost shit my pants. The sergeant got out of our truck and walked right up to them. Who knows what he told them, but he came back and told me to cover my face (even though I had camo paint all over). I covered myself with my hat and we drove very, very slowly. If anyone had seen me and said “he’s from the DEA, let’s kill him!” that would have been the end. We got out of it and I smoked half a pack of cigarettes immediately.

Have you ever gone back?
I went back to the coca-growing region of El Chapare with President Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez. I stayed close to them at all times. Nowadays, every time I get hired for a job I state upfront that I will shoot anywhere except in that region.

What’s your favorite photo from that time?
There’s a photo I took of a kid sticking his finger up his nose. He’s looking at me like nothing is going on. I took that photo during a heated political rally. Evo Morales went to this tiny town in the Altiplano where no one had ever seen him except in political posters. This kid couldn’t care less that Evo was speaking. He didn’t give a fuck. He was like, “I’m just gonna pick my nose here, ten inches away from this foreign photographer.” That’s the right attitude for me.

BERNARDO LOYOLA