I’ve been around the world in my travels, and have borne witness to some extraordinary things, but I feel that throughout these most recent jaunts of mine, I have crossed off some major sights off of my “Bucket List” and never before have I been so deeply afflicted with the urge to travel even more. What follows is a brief synopsis of these journeys, and perhaps some photos!

Phase 1: Quito Ecuador.

Familia

Ecuador was a jumping off point before phase 2, but we didn’t leave without seeing some incredible things! First, a national park outside of Quito, then back to civilization at a marketplace:

Vendadora

Seeing the vibrant colors of the marketplace, as well as the vibrancy of the people going about their daily lives was a captivating sight, and ranks as one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Phase 2: Galapagos Islands.

Please forgive my brevity. I have much to cover, and I want to maximize readability, god knows I have a tendency to ramble…

Das Boat

Anyhow, the boat was large and it did the trick, ferrying us about many of the Galapagos Islands, where we would trek and photograph the inhabitants, who for the most part turned out to be a bunch of boobies.

A Nice Pair of Boobies

Stunning wordplay aside, we also saw some mind blowing scenery, and various other wildlife specimens, Chuck D would’ve been proud!

The Duel.

Snapped this photo as I was falling over.This holiday season, stay Crab-Free

Though I have about 5,000 more photos, my alarmingly focused desire to stay concise compels me to soldier onward:

Phase 3: Cusco: Contemplating the navel of the Earth.

Atahulpa

Atahulpa, one of the last Inca kings, welcomed us to Cusco. Nice of him, hey? Cusco was thought by the Inca to be the navel of the earth, and they used it as a bureaucratic and spiritual capitol. They abandoned phase 4 location, Machu Picchu, to attempt to defend this homeland from the Spanish Conquest. Today, it is a city of great cultural importance, and the heritage of the past is celebrated!

Raindrop Fingerpainting!!

Cusco, like Quito, ended up being a gateway… This time, to:

Phase 4: Machu Picchu, the great abandoned Inca city!

Machu Picchu

There aren’t sufficient words for this experience… Breathtaking. They sure don’t build ‘em like they used to! This really needs to be on your “Bucket List”. How did these people move these massive boulders over miles through steep valley terrain? Amazing.

If you grow corn here, the Terraces win...

Another excellent part of this section of the voyage was my extremely serendipitous timing for choosing to read Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries, which ended up synchronizing with my journeys. Can’t wait to see the film now, but I digress… Onward to:

Phase 5: Return to Cusco: For some more ruins, and shopping. Ha.

Vanna Whiting Some Inca Ruins

Alpacastani National Flag

Phase 6: The last leg of our journey, Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is the world’s deepest, and highest (in elevation) lake. Situated on the Altiplano between both Andes mountain ranges, it is shared between Peru and Bolivia. We took excursions out on the lake to see a group of people who live on “reed villages” floating on the lake:

Floating Reed Village

and an island where dudes get their wives by being the best knitters! No joke! I took a lot of portraits there:

Dank Herb Vendadora

When all is said and done, my Latin American travels felt… Unfinished. I want to go back, explore more. In the meantime, I will cherish these memories and sights!
If you’d like to see more pictures from my journeys, please follow the links below:

Quito, Ecuador

Galapagos Islands

Machu Picchu

Cusco, Peru

Lake Titicaca

Thanks for joining me today, fellow intrepid world travelers!! Until next time…

The Artist's "Blue Period."

This is a behind the scenes look at my first video spot as an advertising design student at art center. I painted myself blue. Off to a great start.
Stay tuned…

Putting on your “Sunday Best” is a fascinating construct that has emerged out of a willingness to show devotion to one’s faith by casting aside the grubby clothes and accoutrements of one’s trade and “clean up” for worship. After all, religions are inundated with rules and restrictions on work, and in the eyes of their leadership, a place of worship is wholly separate from the venues of toil. Irving Penn [wiki], however, decided to flip these notions upside down in his “Small Trades” [Official Getty Site] body of work, currently on display at the Getty Museum. With a grungy, but otherwise neutral tarp as his cathedral, Penn zealously worshipped his subjects, portraying them with an emphatic sense of dignity; Penn’s world is one where a sewer cleaner occupies the same proud high-ground as the chief firefighter, and this sense of pride does not seem alien, but genuine. Next to their pride, their humanity also radiates through the prints, and the viewer gets the sense that in addition to respecting these people from all walks of life, Penn truly identified with, and understood them. By inviting these people into his studio along with the tools that so intimately connect the worker to their trade, Penn gave his “religious” icons their “relics,” which in addition to providing context to these often rough figures, crucially enabled them to feel more secure.

This concept of security ties into the psychology that is so integral to the suite; the subjects’ demeanor became an interesting facet to the project, and Penn wrote about the ways in which the different workers responded to his calls for subjects. Parisians were skeptics, questioning the project’s motives, the English were punctual and proud, and Americans thought this was their big break into the entertainment industry, often showing up in their “Sunday Best.” Beyond these written analyses, there are subtle reads into the attitudes of the subjects. In addition to the aforementioned pride demonstrated throughout the spectrum of trades and “stations of life,” the exhibit strategically grouped the professions according to location, enabling a viewer to see how a butcher looked and felt in Paris or New York versus London. In addition to variances in attire and tools, you could detect subtle differences in their countenances.

In addition to the more theoretical aspects of the exhibition, the images themselves are aesthetically stunning. In addition to his abilities as a photographer, marked by his command of light, and his excellent eye for making centrally composed images interesting (either by using dynamic poses, or artfully structuring the tools to draw visual interest to certain elements of the frame), the exhibit brilliantly emphasizes Penn’s virtuosic command of the printing of his images. Many casual examiners of photography lose sight of the fact that the printmaking element of photography is an art in itself. Throughout his career, Penn not only mastered silver halide printmaking, but he also dabbled with Selenium toning methods to bring the most out of his negatives. Perhaps his most important contribution to printing, though, were his experiments and advancement of Platinum/Palladium printing techniques. These methods, wherein the exposed image lies on the substrate surface, as opposed to being suspended in a medium, enabled Penn to get the highest possible tonal range in his prints, while also achieving a perfectly matte image. In comparing prints of the same negative with both printing methods, a stunning array of details emerge. While both prints have stunning values present, the Platinum process prints are truly unforgettable, and they seem to add an extra dimensionality to the hauntingly human portraits.
It was an absolute pleasure to visit this exhibition. I am sure that having been exposed to these images will ultimately inform my ads. Each one of these workers has a story, and their humanity would resonate well. I enthusiastically recommend paying the exhibit a visit before it closes January 10th, 2010.