In March 1971, Michael Mauney (North Carolina, USA, 1937) arrived in Chile as a Life photographer to capture Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist head of state. The Chile he encountered was filled with hope. In the streets of Santiago, people walked with the certainty that they were witnessing a historic moment. There were no signs of what was to come—no shortages, no polarisation, no queues, no looming strikes. The word coup was merely a distant whisper.

Carlos ‘El Negro’ Jorquera, Allende’s press chief and right-hand man, would cancel meetings at the last minute, carefully assessing every move they made. In those years, any American could be a CIA agent disguised as a journalist. Mauney turned those waiting periods into opportunities. With his camera, he wandered the capital, capturing the daily life of a country in transformation: executives and workers sharing the early morning hours, children playing in working-class neighbourhoods, newsstand vendors and shoeshine boys in the Plaza de Armas, passengers clinging to overcrowded buses.

When Jorquera finally granted him access to the presidential office, Mauney embarked on an intimate journey through Allende’s days. He accompanied him as he announced the new Indigenous Law in Temuco and attended a wedding in El Monte. He saw him relax with his family at the presidential palace in Viña del Mar, stroll through La Moneda, and play with his dogs at his private residence.

After Life published the feature, Mauney kept 461 color photographs in his personal archive. Unlike the rest of his work, these images remained with him for over five decades. Fifty-three years later, the photographs he preserved like a treasure were donated to the National Library of Chile and are now being shown to the public for the first time.