Cuenca’s air quality, as in most Latin American urban areas, can be poor at times, depending on the season and the weather. The culprit is not heavy industry – it is traffic. Busses, cars and trucks cause ninety per cent of Cuenca’s pollution. It is particularly difficult to breathe in the oldest part of the city – the traffic is heavier, and the busses spew plumes of black smoke as they start their engines. In this image, I express the vulnerability of the town’s residents – I don’t show pollution itself, but rather a nun emerging from a convent with a facemask in hand. She draws back the elastic band, ready to start another day in Cuenca.