Charles Kroehle is regarded as one of the pioneering photographers of the Amazon region. He participated in several expeditions through the Amazon Basin, Ecuador, and Bolivia, producing some of the earliest photographic records of Indigenous communities in these areas. 
Kroehle was the first to document the Peruvian Amazon on camera and is viewed as a pioneer of photography in this region. From 1888 to 1891 Kroehle accompanied Georg Hübner on trips to the Peruvian Amazon. Some of his images were later published by Fernando Garreaud in the illustrated book “República Peruana” (Lima 1900) – under Garreaud’s name, however.
The rare portraits presented here were taken primarily in the Peruvian Amazon and depict members of various Indigenous groups, including the Pirus (Río Pichis), Canelos (Río Pastaza), Múra-Pirahã (Río Pachitea), Huasheri (Río Napo), Campa (Río Palcazu), Cunibo (Río Ucayali), Lorenzo (Río Mayra), Cachivo (Río Pachitea), Chipivas (Río Ucayali), and Cashiva (Chonta Isla, Río Pachitea). 
Lit.: Musée du quai Branly. D’un regard l’Autre: Photographies XIXe siècle. Arles: Actes Sud, 2006, ill. p. 90.
Séverine Charon, ed. L’Amazonie disparue: Indiens et explorateurs 1825-1930. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2005, ill. pp. 94, 95, 98, 100.