07-SEP-2011
A brief moment with an angel, Biblian, Ecuador, 2011
The skies had been gray, with a light drizzle falling, during much of the long religious procession that commemorated the Virgin of Rocio in this small mountain village about an hour from Cuenca. My photographs of the parade were colorful, but devoid of lighting contrast. As the long procession neared the end of its two-hour route of march, the sun finally made a brief appearance. I was shooting from the town square with a long telephoto lens as the head of the parade suddenly appeared in a street far below my position. At the head of the parade, a young girl dressed an angel, carrying a basket of small red flowers, hesitantly stood for a moment in a pool of rare sunlight, surrounded by red and green balloons. I was able to make this shot an instant before the marchers closed ranks, and the angel was swallowed up in the crowd. I had at least one image of the procession where the light was able to make all the difference.
15-SEP-2011
Protest, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2001
An angry political protest swept through the central square of Cuenca in a massive parade of chanting citizens. I was photographing in the square as the marchers appeared and made this shot in the late afternoon light. The dark shadows abstract the marchers, while the rim light illuminates the profiles of two of them bearing an organization’s red and white banner. One of the men is shouting, while the other claps. Later, there were a series of speeches, and the crowd dispersed. When I asked our tour leader what it was all about, she told me simply “It’s a dispute about community van services.” It was an anticlimactic definition of a turbulent afternoon.
20-SEP-2011
Joyful rider, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
I made this image from the balcony of my Cuenca apartment, overlooking the central square of the city. A cavalcade of double-decked busses rolled below me, carrying members of a local civic organization. Carrying balloons and singing songs, the busses passed directly underneath my camera, allowing me to shoot straight down on them. As one woman saw my camera, she extended her arms towards me and shouted something. I could not hear what she said but this image tells us how she felt.
13-SEP-2011
Traffic woes, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
I was waiting to cross the street, but the traffic was too heavy to take my chance. Cuenca’s streets were designed for horses and carriages. They are still paved in cobblestones, and are very narrow. There are stoplights, but often cars are backed up for blocks and pedestrians can cross only at their own risk. Turning cars are even more hazardous – you have to look in three directions at once while crossing a street. (One member of our tour group did not see a turning taxi while trying to weave her way around a stopped bus during a downpour. The taxi’s driver did not see her, either, until it snapped her leg, and abruptly ended her trip.) I tried in this image to express how the drivers must feel as they navigate the dicey streets. I shoot two vehicles virtually abreast. The red car is moving quickly, while the driver of the white truck, featuring a large advertisement about sausage making, slaps his own head in frustration. The two drivers look forward, while the sausage maker in the ad looks backwards. The flow of energy moves in two directions at once, catching the viewer in the middle.
21-SEP-2011
Dogs at play, Paccha, Ecuador, 2011
I think I saw more dogs than people while visiting Paccha, a small village just outside of Cuenca. They run freely in packs through the town, expressing themselves in every possible way. Using a long telephoto lens, I found three of them running down a curving road, happily jousting with each other as they raced along the concrete. I was able to find a moment in time where they were dodging each other, yet each looking in a different direction. I had been waiting for a bus back to Cuenca. However it departed without me, since I was otherwise occupied, photographing dogs at play. I used the bus as background for this shot.
03-SEP-2011
Waiting for customers, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This café, known for its Spanish tapas dishes, is part of Cuenca’s Inca Real Hotel. The hotel and café were built 20 years ago within a 19th century colonial home. I was passing during a light rain, and found this man looking through the glass window of the café’s door. His body language and the gleaming brass doorknob drew my eye, and I made this portrait of him. He seemed lost in his thoughts. I liked the way his white shirt echoes the white lettering on the window. He waits for his customers with dignity and patience.
01-SEP-2011
The pink sash, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
Even from far across the street, her pink sash commands our attention. She was waiting for a bus, impassive and immaculate in her appearance. The brown fedora, along with the golden chains and earrings, complement the pink sash, adding up to a costume that defines my own perception of Ecuadorian fashion.
22-SEP-2011
Gourmet, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This man has just finished tasting one of the desserts being served in the city’s main square during a culinary festival. His expression seems to tell us that he is still making up his mind about the treat he has just sampled. The incongruity of the miniature napkin also helps illuminate the moment.
09-SEP-2011
Alpaca, near Cajas National Park, Ecuador, 2011
As we arrived for lunch just outside Cajas National Park, an alpaca greeted our bus by rolling on the puddled driveway right in front of us. It seemed to enjoy scratching its back on its gravel surface. Some of us initially thought it was a llama, but I subsequently learned that alpacas are smaller than llamas, and are not bred to be beasts of burden. They are bred for their fiber, which can be turned into knitted and woven items similar to wool.
09-SEP-2011
Cajas National Park, Ecuador, 2011
I spotted this quartet of climbers standing on a high ridge under an enormous cloud. The scale of the ridge and cloud, compared to the size of the climbers, is massively incongruous. Cajas National Park, about 20 miles west of Cuenca, is in the Andes Mountains. Parts of it soar to nearly 15,000 feet. It gets nearly 3 feet of rain a year, providing 60 per cent of Cuenca’s drinking water.
11-SEP-2011
Laughing llama, Ingapirca, Ecuador, 2011
While Ingapirca is the site of Ecuador’s largest known Inca ruins, it also hosts a herd of llamas, one of which apparently finds visitors very amusing. Others in the herd sprawl on the ground near the curving Inca walls in the background.
11-SEP-2011
Temple of the sun, Ingapirca, Ecuador
The temple of the sun is positioned so that sunlight will fall into the small chamber on top of the temple at exactly the right time of day during the June and December solstices. The temple and the walls that surround it were built without mortar – the stones were carefully chiseled and fit together perfectly. While the temple itself dominates this image of Ingapirca, the massive clouds that hang over the complex, as well the intricate network of foundation walls that surround it, add striking context, and create a layered landscape that defines the site more expressively than a close up view of the primary structure.