(18 July 2016) Humberstone is located in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, near the port of Iquique. The history of this city is a complex one: built in the late nineteenth century with the purpose of exploiting the world largest potassium nitrate field, Humberstone has experienced its golden age in the forties, when it came to host a population of 3700 inhabitants. Before long, however, things changed: the city built for the miners fell to ruins, and in 1970 it was already completely empty. A photo exhibition inaugurated yesterday in Sofia Today tells us what has become a ghost town, with no sign of civilization whatsoever, and totally abandoned. “The ghost town of Humberstone” is a 24 photographs exhibition: hosted (until August 31) by the Sliven Art Gallery “Dimitar Dobrovich”. Organized in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture in Sofia, the exhibition brings together life shots caught in the fragmentary nature of everyday life: the sensitive eye of the Italian photographer Marco Bartolini makes them immortal, giving us stories and characters that do not appear but linger strongly in every image of Humberstone. UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, this ancient northern Chile saltpeter refinery was declared a national monument and opened to tourism since 1970. Today one can still get a clear idea of what life was like in the refineries heyday. In addition to the mines and the workplaces, one can still visit houses, the school office, the church, the tennis courts, the market, the theater and the hotel with an adjacent pool. Its charm lies in this well-being essence that transpires beneath the remains and the photographs in the various rooms. (Red)
