Latin America

In collaboration with Fundación Huellas, Colombia | Featured at Jersey City Theater Center with Laia Cabrera & Co

2018
This series reflects three months of travel through Latin America Panama, Colombia, and Peru. In Panama, I visited jungle and islands, seeing the lifestyle of remote indigenous communities like the Kuna (a matriarchal society), Naso, and Ngöbe-Buglé. In Colombia, I taught photography for two months in a barrio in the hills above Medellín and traveled the country in my free time. Colombia is one of the most biodiverse places in Latin America, which is reflected in the way people live, down to how they dress. For example, in historic colonial villages like Salento and Salamina in the central, mountainous “coffee region,” people have retained a modest lifestyle and wear traditional Spanish clothes. In contrast, at the southernmost tip in Leticia—the “Amazonas” region where Colombia, Peru, and Brazil meet—the population is mostly indigenous and proud of maintaining ancient customs, deeply connected to the land and jungle. In Peru, reminders of ancient civilization in Cusco and the Sacred Valley are omnipresent, and respect for the Incan legacy shows in the way people live. I traveled to rural villages untouched by tourism, where the presence of history was still woven into the societal fabric.