Guatemalan Weaver — Chichicastenango Backstrap Loom
649.00 د.إ
A Maya Kaqchikel weaver at her backstrap loom in the Chichicastenango market — the traditional huipil pattern emerging thread by thread from the loom, her concentration absolute, the textile’s geometric complexity visible in progress.
Description
Maya textile weaving on the backstrap loom is a practice that has continued in the Guatemalan highlands without significant technical change for over two thousand years — the same loom structure, the same pick-up stick techniques for creating complex geometric patterns, the same natural dye traditions that defined pre-Columbian Maya weaving. This documentary portrait was made at the Thursday market of Chichicastenango — the most important highland market in Guatemala — where textile producers bring their work for sale and sometimes weave at their stalls. The subject is in the middle of a complex geometric section, the backstrap loom anchored to a post and her body providing the warp tension. The partially completed huipil reveals the progress of the pattern. Shot on a 35mm prime at f/2.8 in the available market light filtering through the canvas stall roof.
