The sun is barely breaking through the cloud cover over this hilly historic town high in the foothills of the Andes. I made this shot from the top of our hotel, shooting through a window with an iPhone camera. I use the tiled rooftops in the foreground to draw the eye into the image. These roofs fill half the frame and provide the interpretive content of the image. This is not a typical descriptive post-card view of Sucre. The flow of what seems to be randomly placed tiles speak of the passage of time itself – the wear and tear of nature, exposure to wind and rain, years of simply making do with what is there. The red roofs contrast to the pristine buildings of what is known as “The White City.” Such is the nature of Sucre, and indeed Bolivia itself.

Dominating the Plaza 25 de Mayo in the center of the old city is a statue of Mariscal Antonio Jose de Sucre, the Venezuelan-born hero of South America’s independence. He was Bolivia’s first president, and namesake of the city. Pigeons gather on the great general’s head, shoulders, arms and hand, creating a crown, epaulets and a perfect takeoff and landing spot. I converted this image to black and white, taking the statue back to its 19th century roots. I took many images of pigeons aloft and seated, and eventually was able to bring the scene to life by stopping one of them coming in for a landing.

The highlight of this fascinating museum is a stunning collection of masks and headdresses showcasing Bolivia’s cultural diversity. I found this mask to be the most striking, and using my spot-metering mode, I was able to make it dramatically pop out of the dark background. The bizarrely elongated mask offers an incongruously dramatic contrast to the tiny bush held before it. Meanwhile, local context is provided by the traditionally designed shirt.

This woman mourns near a tomb at Sucre’s General Cemetery. She is one of the many “professional mourners” hired by others to move from tomb to tomb, honoring the memory of those who rest within them. I photographed this mourner by reflecting her in a tomb’s glass window. The reflection adds a spiritual suggestion to my interpretation. I intensify that suggestion by processing the image as a black and white abstraction.

Many of the tombs here are set among magnificent old trees. This monument is bathed in shadows cast by a canopy of leaves. I use the play of light and shadow to abstract the monument. I intend my interpretation to suggest the cycle of life itself as the shadows come and go with the passing of the day and the seasons.

I was photographing a continual stream of shoppers moving between floors in Sucre’s central market eye – a parade of vivid colors in motion. When I viewed this particular image on my computer screen, I saw for the first time that the woman in the foreground is not only shopping – she is simultaneously nursing a baby. Meanwhile, the baby itself is lost amidst the lavishly colored bundling. I add context to the scene by including two additional shoppers moving up the steps behind her. To Bolivian eyes, the scene would appear routine. Bolivians are conditioned to seeing such colors, and nursing babies is common in public places. Because public nursing is not as common a practice in the US, my own interpretation of this multi-tasking subject is based on the incongruity of the scene.