0025-02_s1 - Acero Marka - La Paz - Bolivia

By Gonzalo Contreras del Solar

Description:
Taken on color reversal film and scanned, worked on the digital darkroom.
Images printed on Fine Art canvas or Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic paper using a Canon 12 inks printer machine.
Story:
Since very small I passed many times close to Acero Marka the mystic and enchanting valley high in the Andes. I always wanted to visit it, as it was near to La Paz, but the entrance was closed by a barrier. Only when I returned from college in Mexico, that a friend told me that there was a way to enter the valley.
We entered through the small dirt road with a gentle slope that went up to the valley. Fog and rain enhanced the colors of the green vegetation, that is scarce at this altitude (3,200 meters, 10,500 feet).
A curve came by and in front of my eyes a laddered shape cascade. Crystal clear water magically painting the dark rocks with a white velvet.
It was the smell of the rain over the vegetation, the light and the crystal-clear water, and magic of the place that kidnapped my senses and made me return to take photographs many times more.
1985