Guatemalan Portrait: Up Close & Personal

We continue the series Guatemalan Portrait with this intimate picture of a young girl doing what young people do nowadays, socializing 24/7 via WhatsApp, Twitter, Texting or Facebook. Can you guess how close was I when made this portrait? Also, what are your feelings regarding this obsession with being connected and publishing constant updates of everything we do?

Videos produced with drones and GoPro cameras keeping popping up; here’s the latest one. Enjoy!

10 Responses to "Guatemalan Portrait: Up Close & Personal"

El Canche says:
April 10, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Good picture with interesting angle. A thoroughly modern image of someone absorbed in her task! Social media is obviously a brilliant facility enabling us to stay in touch as never before. I would personally prefer to see a lot less obsession and more quality of friendship being developed and complemented by the parallel use of real talking to real people rather than the delivery of sound-bites to the 5000! Security bothers me as I look into the future, but the bad bits shouldn’t stop the good bits happening.
Reply
1. Rudy says:
  April 11, 2014 at 4:43 pm
  I agree with you Canche, as always, you can count your true friends with the fingers of one hand, regardless of what Facebook and other social media networks try to make us believe.
  Reply
NYChapin says:
April 10, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Why single out only young people? I know plenty of adults that can’t go a couple of minutes without checking out their FB or mail. Heck ! I recently caught myself being guilty of, while waiting for my food at a local taco joint. As much as I want to justify being well informed about what is going on in the world and with friends and family, I can’t escape the feeling of alienation after spending a significant amount of time online. I gladly give up a solid hour of “breaking news”,” ESPN sports scores” and the latest trends for a walk with a friend.
Reply
1. Rudy says:
  April 11, 2014 at 4:41 pm
  Hahaha, I was actually thinking of anybody regardless of age, but we all know younger people live with the social media at their finger tips. I also prefer a 19-km walk with a friend, especially if we are to follow the NYC Marathon and have lunch at Chinatown. 😉
  Reply
El Canche says:
April 11, 2014 at 12:53 am
Really enjoyed the skycam Rudy; do you use this technology yourself?
Reply
1. Rudy says:
  April 11, 2014 at 4:39 pm
  No Canche, I don’t use the technology of a phantom remote-controlled helicopter and GoPro Hero camera yet. Who knows tomorrow.
  Reply
Eric says:
April 11, 2014 at 8:06 am
For the portrait, I will guess that you were 3 or 4 meters away, and using one of your super-zoom-cameras. As for ‘the obsession with being connected….’, I am not that connected, so…I wouldn’t know, ha-ha-ha !
Reply
1. Rudy says:
  April 11, 2014 at 4:37 pm
  Okay Eric, some corrections are due. First, I was no more than two feet away. Second, I used a wide angle lens, thus the distortion and I believe I used a 28mm prime lens if my memory serves me right.
  Reply
Begonia says:
May 14, 2014 at 2:20 pm
This is an interesting portrait. You are so close, and yet she is so far away. I haven’t visited for a while but I am loving all your portraits, and the new series on campesinos! Keep it up! Maybe you could do a series on education, too….from primarias to night basico, to INVAL/INSOL and all the private higher education schools. Sometimes it seems like there are as many private of higher education institutions scattered around Guatemala catering to Guatemalans who are trying to get a better life, as there are Spanish schools for tourists!
Reply
1. Rudy says:
  May 14, 2014 at 2:26 pm
  You are so right about the Education series. I will put it on my to photograph and research list. Thanks so much for your kind words, Begonia, I really appreciate them. I though nobody care for the portrait series.
  Reply

Guatemalan Portrait: Up Close & Personal

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