12-MAY-2014
Mini-Eiffel Tower, Parque Simon Bolivar, Sucre, Bolivia
A popular feature in the center of this park is this miniature version of the Eiffel Tower. French engineer Gustav Eiffel designed both this replica, as well as the original tower in Paris. Eiffel shipped this little tower to Bolivia in 1908, where it was assembled by local engineers. For the first 16 years of its life, the tower functioned as a weather station. The tower was relocated to Sucre's Parque Simón Bolívar in 1925. Sucre’s Eiffel Tower now functions solely as a tourist attraction. It is possible to climb the two-story tall tower via an internal spiral staircase for a view over the park and city. My interpretation of Eiffel’s miniature tower is based on abstraction. I waited until a visitor climbed to the top and looked down. Shooting into the sun, which is hiding behind the swirling clouds overhead, I turn both tower and visitor into silhouettes, making them symbols of pleasure at the park. The turbulent movement within the clouds adds energy to the scene. To complete my interpretation, I abstract the image even more by converting it to black and white.
12-MAY-2014
Recycling, Park Simon Bolivar, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
I usually use the spot-metering mode of my camera, primarily to emphasize the brightest area of an image, contrasting it to the darker surroundings. This image is a good example. By exposing this image on these green, yellow, and blue recycling bins, which help keep the lawns of Sucre’s magnificent Parque Simon Bolivar pristine, I underscore the importance of the cans and create an interpretation of this scene. If I had routinely used the standard multi-area metering mode, preferred by the great majority of photographers, to make this image, the abstracted people in the background would have been given equal emphasis, and the image would be more descriptive and less interpretive.
12-MAY-2014
At dusk, Plaza 25 de Mayo, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
The sun has already set, yet the sky behind the clock tower of Sucre’s historic cathedral is alive with vivid color. The interpretive power of this image rests in the juxtaposition of its layers. The silhouetted trees create a frame within a frame, forcing the eye to move beyond them into the heart of the image. The palms on the right hand edge tell us that we are in a temperate place. The pair of 19th century lampposts diminishes in size, and echo the vertical thrust of the most important landmark in Sucre, the cathedral’s famous bell tower, along with the statues that cling to it. The background layer is filled with vivid purple and orange colors, as well as clouds that explode into the sky overhead. The crowning touch is the vertical cloud that seems to twist directly out of the tower itself. The entire image comes together as an interpretation of historic Sucre, symbolizing a place of great beauty that seems to live in another time.
21-MAY-2014
Educational dialogue, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Sucre has a modest population of only 225,000 people. Almost 15 per cent of them – more than 30,000 – take courses at its San Francisco Xavier University. Founded here in 1624, the university has campuses all over Sucre, virtually creating a city within a city. In this photograph, a student is engaged in a dialogue with a teacher just outside one of its walled campuses. The teacher listens as the student uses an emphatic hand gesture to drive home his point. I anchor the scene by filling my foreground with the woman wearing a red vest. It identifies her as a Sucre city employee. She seems to be thinking about joining the discussion across the street, yet her hand gesture indicates hesitance. This image interprets an aspect of education as viewed in a somewhat incongruous context. I make use of my vantage point behind the city employee to thrust my viewers into the mix, encouraging us to join the conversation as well.
13-MAY-2014
Bus Stop, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Two indigenous women converse just outside the wall of one of San Francisco Xavier University’s campuses. They are waiting for a bus. Their body language is expectant, and they wear the clothing and hats of their ethnic tradition. (Most of the indigenous population of Bolivia is either Quechua or Aymara.) They represent the historic roots of this nation, while the writing and drawing on the university’s wall behind them encapsulate a view of Bolivian university students towards nationhood. The words tell us “Freedom is not doing what you want…freedom is knowing what to do.” In this image I contrast Bolivian tradition with the future of Bolivian education.
13-MAY-2014
A wall speaks, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
The wall surrounding one of San Francisco Xavier University’s campuses is covered with murals, most of which are political in nature. I use one of those murals as a background for this image of a student who reads as she walks to class. The mural conveys an emphatic symbol of the power of communication as an agent of change. A loud voice of the “common man,” symbolizing free speech, thunders towards top-hatted symbols of the “establishment.” This wall is speaking to all of us. Yet in my interpretive photograph, the woman walking with papers in her hand seems to hear or see none of it. She takes free speech for granted, and remains solely concerned with her own priorities and goals.
13-MAY-2014
Demonstration, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
A crowd of passionate parents marches on behalf of educational reform through the streets of Sucre. I photographed them as they paraded past the mural filled wall bordering one of San Francisco Xavier University’s campuses. This photograph offers considerable interpretive content. The flag, poster, even the murals on the wall are all extensions of political statements. The marchers are all women, except for the man who is shepherding them down the street. The image is filled with words, symbols, drawings, colors, and people expressing a range of attitudes and emotions.
13-MAY-2014
The test of time, San Francisco Xavier University, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
A sole student walks his way to class at one of the oldest universities in the Americas. This university itself dates back to the Spanish conquest, and this particular campus celebrated its centennial in 2009. To commemorate the event, students painted murals on the exterior walls bounding the campus. I made this image from a tiny park just across the street from the university. I included some of the park’s decorative wire fence in the foreground to echo the flow of murals across the way. The yellow flowers behind the fence echo the yellow in some of the murals. These murals went up five years ago, most likely before the lone figure walking past them was even a student. Great changes have come to this institution and to Bolivia since then, but he seems oblivious to them. My interpretation deals with the nature of time, and the test it applies to the institutions of man.
13-MAY-2014
Choices, San Antonio Market, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
When we capture an emotional response in a certain context, our viewers are given an opportunity to interpret the image for themselves. I made this photograph of a shopper in Sucre’s San Antonio Market. She wears a fedora hat, and cloaks herself in a vivid pink shawl. She is trying to make a decision about a purchase. She reveals her emotions at the moment by placing her hands on her hips and pursing her lips. When you look at this picture, you can identify with her quandary. We have all been there ourselves.
13-MAY-2014
Butcher, San Antonio Market, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Whenever we base a photo on human values, we are likely to create an interpretive image. I photographed this butcher at rest behind her stacks of red meat. (The red in her hat and in the meat seems to go together, and when we add the yellow bag and her blue sweater to the mix, we build this image around the three primary colors.) Meanwhile, she waits patiently for a customer – the market is quiet on this morning. Her body language and her expression convey a patient attitude. Patience is a human value – it is something we all wish we had more of at times. By photographing this patient butcher, I interpret an aspect of her job for my viewers. She seems highly experienced, as well. Her product is perishable -- if she fails to sell it within a certain amount of time, it will spoil. She or her employer would have to throw it out and lose money. Yet she reveals no sense of urgency here. She knows her business well, and seems to have the confidence to maintain her composure in the face of any anxiety.
15-MAY-2014
Environmental portrait, Central Market, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Environmental portraits are often quite interpretive. They do more than just portray the likeness of person. They can instead tell us who that person is, and what he or she does. When I am considering making an environmental portrait, I look first for any symbolic values in the setting that I can use to enrich the context (also called the “environment”) that we bring to our subject. While walking through Sucre’s Central Market, I came to an area featuring recycled woven fiber baskets piled from floor to ceiling. Various vendors had set up their fruit stalls in front of these baskets. Such baskets can symbolize the essence of a marketplace, and here they provide the entire background layer for this image. This fruit vendor is also completely surrounded by the things she sells. She wears the costume of a vendor. Her response is neutral, which is critical to my interpretation. If she was grinning at my camera (most portraits often feature smiling people posing for a picture) it would just be another picture of someone having her picture taken. Interpretive photography can offer much more than that. By remaining emotionally neutral, she is saying to us that the camera is symbolically invisible to her. Her body language remains pensive and anticipatory. She wears a plastic bag over one hand so she can safely dispense the fruit to her customers. She holds her head off to one side, as if to tell us that she may also be a bit on the tired side. She has a business to run here, and the amply filled environment tells us that it is a multi-faceted business. This interpretive environmental portrait was among the most expressive images I made in Bolivia. It takes the measure of not only the person, but also the task.
13-MAY-2014
Interpreting through perspective, San Antonio Market, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Many markets in Bolivia are essentially pedestrian-only streets lined with buildings. When the market opens, steel doors roll up to reveal the shops within, tables filled with items for sale are pulled out into the street, and other products are displayed on overhead racks. The sun can be merciless at ten thousand feet, so translucent tarps are hung as continuous awnings between the buildings. I noticed this shopkeeper sitting on a tiny bench in the street in front of her shop. I built my image around her as she turned her head and gazed towards a silhouetted shopper leading her child towards the street’s exit. The shopper wants to go one way, the child another. The interpretive power of this image is based on my use of perspective. By shooting this image from behind the shopkeeper, I allow my viewers to see the silhouetted shopper and her child as the shopkeeper must see her. I tell my story here by linking these dual subjects, caught in time within a glowing tunnel of light and color.