Witch Hunt Vol. I
The Banished of Balsapuerto
Christo Geoghegan
Christo Geoghegan (born 1988) is a British and Irish documentary photographer, filmmaker and visual journalist based in London. Recently he completed his first book, Witch Hunt Vol. I: The Banished of Balsapuerto. The book is the first instalment of a larger body of work investigating the global rise in human rights abuse through harmful practices related to manifestations of belief in witchcraft.
At the end of 2011, Peruvian national news broke a story about a series of barbaric murders that took place deep in the Peruvian Amazon in a region called Balsapuerto. Home to the indigenous Shawi. In a period of just ten months, fourteen traditional Shawi healers (or ‘curanderos’, as they are known locally) were reported to have become victims of a wave of brutal killings. According to local reports, the suspected orchestrator behind these murders was Balsapuerto’s mayor. He was accused of carrying out a politically motivated campaign of witch killings.
Witch Hunt is an ongoing investigation into these deaths and theories behind them, using a mix of on-location interviews, previously unreleased police and court materials, excerpts from local press coverage as well as original photographs and illustrations.
In Balsapuerto a number of, for the Shawi people, inexplicable deaths occurred. Some of these deaths, especially among children, were caused by poisoned water. Due to the belief system of the Shawi people, a mix between Christianity and animistic cosmological beliefs, some attributed these deaths to witches. Because a legal and law-enforcing infrastructure is largely absent, people handle their own justice. Resulting in witch hunts.
Witch Hunt is split in two sections housed in a cardboard cover. The main one is about the context of the murders and the tribulations surrounding the investigations. The second booklet contains the investigation files of the murdered healers. Each containing their portrait, when available, a forensic sketch of their body at the crime scene, and related material such as official documents. Several of these files contains nothing but the victim’s basic information.
Witch Hunt Vol. I: The Banished of Balsapuerto
Photographer: Christo Geoghegan
Published by Editorial RM
Published in 2022
Hardcover, 16,5 x 23,5 cm, 424 pages, 191 images
Winner of the 2023 Author Book Award at the Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles