16-MAY-2014
Prince of the Glorieta, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Wealthy banker and mining baron Don Francisco Argandona, along with his wife, Clotilde Urioste Velasco, dominated Sucre society in the late Nineteenth Century. The couple ran their own orphanage, and built Glorieta Castle, one of South America’s strangest palaces, just outside of Sucre. A statue saluting Don Francisco Argandona’s largesse stands today in front of the castle. The statue depicts him standing hand in hand with one of the many orphans he helped to support over the years. In my interpretation of that monument, I moved in and shot upwards, to meld the statue to the soaring castle rising behind it. For his efforts, Pope Leo XIII issued a papal bull in 1898, declaring Argandona and his wife “Prince and Princess of the Glorieta.” They became the only “royalty” Bolivia ever had, and they built the palace to suit their new status.
16-MAY-2014
Entry, Glorieta Castle, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Sucre’s Glorieta Castle is a spectacular architectural hodgepodge, a fusion of styles mixing Moorish with Chinese, Byzantine with Rococo, Romanesque with English Gothic. It’s entrance, for example, pairs striking stained glass windows with Moorish arches. I interpret this entrance here by photographing an indigenous Bolivian caretaker framed in glowing backlight within the castle’s front door. For more than 40 years, the castle was left to decay. Over the last quarter century, the site has been classed as a Bolivian national monument and its now empty rooms are open to visitors.
16-MAY-2014
Grand skylight, Glorieta Castle, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
Using a 24mm wideangle focal length, I stretch my frame to include most of the spectacular skylight covering Glorieta Castle’s largest room. What makes this image interpretive, rather than merely descriptive, is my emphasis on the Arabic tower that rising more than 100 feet into the sky directly over the glass ceiling. It is truly incongruous to look up at a ceiling and find that it is entirely made of glass with a tower floating within it. The sun-splashed rear wall catches the eye and draws it upwards towards the tower.
17-MAY-2014
City of hills, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
The entire city of Sucre clings to steep hills that are truly breathtaking, in every sense of that word. I photographed this shopper, bearing bags in each hand, just as she reached the crest of the hill I had chosen for my vantage point. I watched as she slowly climbed towards us, and I interpret the length of her journey by the rhythms of the gradually rising windows she passes on her way upwards. I counted ten windows just in this frame – she has left five times that number behind her, and is none the worse for wear, even at Sucre’s 9000-foot altitude.
17-MAY-2014
Double dozing, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
The striking incongruity of two well-dressed men sound asleep within the same well-kept doorway makes this image memorable. This is one of those images that place the burden of meaning upon the viewer. It is an interpretive image because it leaves us to wonder about the circumstances leading to this double-doze. Are they napping while waiting to meet somebody here? Are they locked out the house? I never found out. I shot. They slept. And I left.
17-MAY-2014
Two halves, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
If we look at this image purely from a descriptive standpoint, it is simply shows us a typical Bolivian street corner scene. An indigenous woman, wearing an ethnic costume, looks to the left as she carries a heavy but brilliantly colored burden on her back. A mother and her son, who carries a light, black backpack, face right as they wait for a bus. This image, when examined from an interpretive standpoint, goes well beyond description, contrasting the two sides of Bolivia. The left hand side of the image defines the indigenous majority, people heavily influenced by tradition. Symbolically, they have been carrying heavy burdens for centuries. Meanwhile the right hand side of the image shows us Bolivians who have left tradition behind them, people who wear sporting gear and carry backpacks filled with schoolbooks. The opposing halves of Bolivian society may cross paths on this street corner, yet neither acknowledges the other.
05-MAY-2014
Faith and nature, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
This cloudscape, in itself, is a magnificent symbol of nature’s power. In this image, the clouds spiral upwards over the rooftops and religious symbols of man. Nature takes top billing here. However, a small halo effect appears around the small cross, and that is where my interpretation begins. The little halo, symbolizing faith, must struggle to match the scale of the storm clouds that rise into the heavens behind it. This picture also makes an appropriate introduction to the series of nine images that follow – all dealing with matters of faith amidst the turbulence of a rapidly changing country.
03-MAY-2014
Eight candles, Santa Cruz Cathedral, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 2014
I made this interpretive image during the few hours we spent in this western Bolivian city the day before we flew into Sucre. The young man lighting a candle in the Santa Cruz Cathedral follows a practice going back to ancient times. Early Christians first burned candles at tombs within the catacombs of Rome, using prayer as a sign of solidarity between the living and the dead. Today, people of many faiths also light candles to affirm the power of goodness over the darkness of evil. Eight candles flicker within this image. The tallest one belongs to the young man. The others symbolize the faith of others who have come this way that evening. The young man’s hand is slightly blurred as he withdraws it. His expression, clothed in darkness, is solemn and focused. His belief is palpable. The flame of his candle glows squarely over his heart.
12-MAY-2014
Our Lady of Lourdes, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
In 1858, a fourteen-year-old girl reported seeing apparitions of a “small young lady” standing in a niche in a grotto near Lourdes, France. Eventually religious authorities confirmed the apparition as the Virgin Mary, and Lourdes became a shrine where worshippers now pray for healing miracles. Churches were built on the spot and Lourdes became a destination for millions of pilgrims. (Within France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.) The girl who saw the apparition was canonized as a saint in 1933, and statues of “Our Lady of Lourdes” appear in other grottos around the world. I photographed this one in Sucre, and converted it to black and white. By doing so, I abstract the image to make it less literal and more timeless and symbolic. The figure appears more like a person in black and white, and less like the colorfully painted stone statue that it really is.
18-MAY-2014
Procession, Sucre Cathedral, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
The Archbishop of Sucre entered the cathedral to celebrate a mass in a procession that passed below a graphic painting of a crucifixion. The painting and its ornate frame seem to radiate suffering as the religious officials bow while passing below it. I shot the scene from behind the procession to interpret the bowing heads as abstract symbols of humility, and also to match the light glowing on the capes of the celebrants to the glow of the figure in the painting.. Religious processions are a form of theatre, and by under exposing the image, the scene becomes darker and quite dramatic. The light source next to the painting animates the figure in the painting, making this image even more symbolic and interpretive than it otherwise would be.
18-MAY-2014
Archbishop, Sucre Cathedral, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
I made this portrait of Sucre’s Archbishop Juarez Parraga from a distance, using a 345mm telephoto focal length. I then cropped the image to intensify the emotions within it, creating an interpretation that speaks of both solemnity and thought. The archbishop was presiding over a Sunday mass in Sucre’s cathedral. At the moment, he is symbolically expressing concentration by pressing two fingers to his face. The archbishop’s altar servers stand behind him. One of them appears here as only a shoulder, while the other, his face a mask of solemnity, bears the Archbishop’s staff, called a “crosier.” A softly focused cross in the distance repeats the vertical thrusts of both the crosier and the Archbishop’s miter, while adding religious context.
18-MAY-2014
Authority, Sucre Cathedral, Sucre, Bolivia, 2014
This interpretive image, which I made during a mass in Sucre’s cathedral, features an impassive teacher. He holds a newspaper in his hands and momentarily closes his eyes. He is the symbolic shepherd, while the high school students represent his flock. His students may wear school uniforms, but are anything but uniform in their response to the moment. The boy in the center seems quite serious, two other boys may be following the service from a folded paper, while a few in the background seem to tune out. The teacher governs by ear, not by sight. He knows his class, and they know him. It is significant that the teacher stands off to the side, a symbol of his authority.