This boy opening the big red lamina portón just as I approach the end of the street is just one of the benefits of street photography where one can find interesting images at the end of an alley or cul-de-sac through exploration. I was fortunate to make a few captures before he lost interested in … Read more
Th Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: caña or vara are the words used in Guatemala for reeds. Often one gets to read only the negative news from Guatemala as the mass media is mostly interested in broadcasting the sensationalistic stuff. Not here, not today. Just as often, I try to bring to your the … Read more
We continue our street portrait series with the picture of this young girl who was practicing her English skills with me, even though I only spoke Spanish to her. Who knows why she chose to speak in English to me since I only speak Spanish and poorly at that. Anyhow, I was able to take … Read more
If you don’t know who José Martí was, you are about to read a little about one of the most important figures of 19th century in America. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) is a Cuban national hero and … Read more
Slowly but surely, the series Guatemalan Portrait is coming along. Obviously there are hundreds of portraits I still need to take have a body of work for my project #Guatemalans. Stay tuned for more details.
If you visit Guatemala, one thing that will be common everywhere you go are the smiling faces. Here I captured the typical smiling face of a girl having lots of fun at the lavadero público in the Pilas de Santa Clara, better known now as Tanque de la Unión. Let’s have another creative caption contest. … Read more
We finish this first leg of the Guatemalan Portrait with a picture of the typical Guatemalan grandmother. In Guatemala is one of the strongest links between humans is the relationship between the grandparents and their grandchildren. Unfortunately, I lost my last grandparent a few years back. I will miss my abuelita (grandma) very much. I … Read more
One important aspect of the Guatemalan Portrait series is to show the rainbow of people that Guatemalans can be, although many only think of them as Maya or Mestizos. This is something I have been doing for a while, as in the Guatemalan couple for Valentine’s Day, you remember them, right? Every time I see … Read more
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 … Read more
What I really like about this picture is that each girl is looking in a different direction. What I enjoy about doing the Guatemalan Portrait series is how intimate and different each portrait is. My goal is to show as many different kinds of Guatemalans as possible. How do you like the street portrait series … Read more
Just as her brother José and her 11-month old sister [follow the white rabbit], Stephanie is a true Panza Verde, green belly, as we call antigüeños since she was also born in Antigua Guatemala from Garifuna parents as far as I could tell. I met Stephanie during one of my morning walks and we chit-chatted … Read more
This week we begin a series of up-close portraits, taken within six feet, of strangers we have encountered on the streets of Antigua Guatemala as part of the photo walks I lead. These street portraits of strangers are part of the assignments I give to the participants on my street photography walks. By the way, … Read more
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Pregonero Basically, a pregonero is a crier. Here we see the leader of the pregoneros group from Antigua Guatemala with his full colonial attire. You might not know it, but I have share many pictures of this crier with you before. Do you remember any of them? Today … Read more
Another goal that I set for myself this year is to do many more street portraits of locals and visitors alike. I want to share the faces of the people I meet and perhaps a tiny bit about their lives. For instance, I took the portrait of this couple who were sitting together working on … Read more
All Roads Lead to Antigua Guatemala, I’ve declared before and even had an entry with the title. Often I point out the importance of Antigua Guatemala, formerly Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, through out the history of the Central American isthmus and beyond. I make a reference to this fact because La Antigua Guatemala … Read more