Sunday, February 28, 2010

to night or not to night?

I am struggling to decide whether I want to go out to a boliche (nightclub) tonight. I like dancing and the music, but they are always so hot and sweaty, and I always want to leave after an hour.

crowd00

But I love the colors in this photo I took at Cocoliche last weekend. But yes, it was so hot and smokey and sweaty that I had to step outside...and not return.

Friday, February 26, 2010

more fashion week outtakes

Can you imagine being a runway model? BAFWeek was full of young girls gawking at models, having their photo taken with them. It was a little disheartening for me. If it's your dream to be tall, beautiful, and unnaturally thin, well...I don't know how you pursue those kinds of dreams.

flash

I shot men's fashion on Thursday. It was a much better day than Wednesday, because I got much better positioning outside that press pit. See the beautiful boys of Hermanos Estebecorena I shot at Paper.

Stepping Into Haute Couture

I'm covering Buenos Aires Fashion Week this week for Paper Magazine. It has been a little rough. The first day, Wednesday, was a really difficult and frustrating--yet enlightening--day. But in addition to all the standard fare, I did get this photo, which I like a lot.

baf03

Hopefully on my next assignment I'll actually be able to get behind the curtain. That's where the really interesting stuff goes on.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

telecom skyline

This was the view from the balcony of the friend's apartment I stayed at this past week.

3181roof

Those three outrageously tall telecom towers crack me up. I shot this on a very grey day, but you can really see the grime and colors of the buildings that make Buenos Aires so charming to me. There's an air pollution problem here, which give the buildings this dirty look. And then there will be these brand-new glass-and-concrete luxury lofts in the midst. These lofts aren't dirty yet--they're too new--but I can imagine that they will look mighty different in a few years.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

anticipation

My friends Dan and Zoorana are going to have a baby in the next week or so. They are nervous but excited.

crib

Dan is from Sweden and Zoorana is from Singapore. They met in Thailand, lived together in Spain, and are about to have this baby here in Argentina. I find this completely fascinating. When the baby arrives, I am going to make them an eggplant parmesan.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Queen of the Underground

Saturday night I went to hear Kate Simko play at Cocoliche . Shooting with zero light is challenging but you can come up with some fantastic things if you keep your wits about you.

kate04

I love the colors here. It was a fantastic show, and you can see how incredibly beautiful people are when they are totally in their element. How funny that a dark, sweaty basement can be one's element...!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Luxury Hideout

With all the flooding and power outages, I decided to leave my house and stay at a friend-of-a-friend's in Palermo, one of the very swank areas of town. I was upset about the situation at home, but I've gotta say it's really nice to stay somewhere posh for a few nights. It is like living in a hotel. I've only met this girl twice and now I'm living in her apartment while she is out of town. Life is great like that. This luxury hideout even has a rooftop pool. Unfortunately I can't use it because of all the rain.

3181lobby

This morning I came in around 5 a.m. and sat for a spell with one of the security guards. I have no recollection what we talked about, or that I even took this photo, but hey, here it is. I do remember that when I stood to get in the elevator, I said good-bye and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which is normal in Buenos Aires, but probably not with the security guards. But you know how once you start going in for the kiss, you can't just change your mind and do a handshake. That would be even weirder.


PS: For anyone who likes Jeff Bridges as much as I do, there's a great photo feature in the NYTimes Magazine that is worth checking out.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Peru Rail

This is the train to Machu Picchu. It was such a trip to get to Machu Picchu (and even a bigger trip getting out). But the train ride was so beautiful. Sticking your face out of a moving train is one of the greatest pleasures in life--something that America seems to have stripped us of with overhyped safety regulations.

train02

The other night I met up with a kid I met on this very train. He didn't make it to Machu Picchu because of the floods. There was a critical point of decision-making that day. My brother and I made the decision to stay over night in a town halfway there while the kid returned to Cusco to start from scratch the next day. We made it; he didn't.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Urban darkness

We lost power in my neighborhood for three days and three nights. This is what the street looks like in the dark, with just car headlights sweeping across or bearing down from the end of the avenue where there was power.

blackout01

It is a weird thing to walk around in urban darkness. I thought it would be scary because, you know, you can't see. You hear something and see a dark person-shape but you have no idea what kind of person it is. But similarly, as a five-foot-three Asian girl, people can't tell that I'm a victim-waiting-to-happen. I could be a burly dude, you just can't tell. So I found that I actually feel pretty comfortable in the darkness, where people are just as wary of me as I am of them.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Neighborhood Watch

This might be my favorite small-format photo from Tuesday night. I hope you can see it okay. I rarely compose vertical shots.

casarole15

While there was the massive noise-making happening on the main avenue, they were diverting traffic to the street one side over. Then, another block over, the neighbors were blockading the street. I guess they didn't want to suddenly be on a highway? Or they just wanted their own party. You can see the traffic coming at them. What a weird night.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Blackout Aftermath...not talking about booze...

While the streets were filling with water, the power also went out. About 24 hours after losing electricity, the people in my neighborhood took to the streets and were banging pots, pans, buckets, iron balconies, and street signs. Then they started burning trash in the middle of the intersection, which was empty because police were diverting traffic to streets with light.

casarole11

It was so surreal. The burning trash smelled fantastic! But it was totally a party atmosphere. There were kids and families and everyone was just...you know...pounding casserole pans. In fact, my roommate told me they call these kinds of "demonstrations" "cacerolas."

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

More Flooding.

The power went out in the middle of a storm Monday night. It was around 10 pm, pitch black. When I went out to buy some candles, this is what I saw:

saeeddiluvio

We were in the middle of a lake!

Street Fighting

No, I'm not one of those obsessive graffiti photographers, but I do like to take photos of street art that I find especially interesting. Like this one.

vcsa02

There is a ton of street art around Buenos Aires. There are lots of different styles, ranging from sweet cartoon-like muffin-heads to anti-capitalist stencils. But I like this one a lot. First of all, it's huge. That is an industrial-sized garage door. Second, these tiger-faced guys are recurring characters around the city, particularly in my neighborhood, which is also my third reason--this is in my neighborhood. I like these guys. I like characters with some fight in them.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Keeping in Touch

I never really thought I'd be a video-chatter, but gchat and Skype are amazing and free. It requires adapting to some new rules of etiquette. Like I used to loll around half-dressed in the morning, but that happens to be when my folks tend to call. Here's an assortment of screen grabs over the past six weeks.

chat

I first got on video chat when my friend Sam (actually, not pictured) was in Tel Aviv last year. It was so cool. He was in a cafe and I could hear the music playing in the background, and see the people he was with. Now I have breakfast with my folks, shop online with Kate in Michigan, listen to music with Eric in Chicago, gaze at the snow in NYC with Preeti, dance to video game music with Brendan in Seoul, look at photos with Wes in Denmark, and kick it with the Witz in Virginia. Once in a while my father will entertain me with the dog's new tricks as well. It is pretty silly but also amazing!

Yeah, that's me in the lower left. I only recently figured out that I can make that box go away, but that's the only time I can see what my hair looks like. Another thing missing from my life here...a mirror.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valen-chino

It was a happy coincidence for me that Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day were both on Sunday. This meant that instead of having to spend two separate holidays feeling lonely, I got it all out of my system in one day! This photo is the collision of "Dia de los Enamoradas" and "Ano Nuevo Chino" in Buenos Aires.

vdaycny

I am getting much better at shooting photos while walking in low light. After the sun went down, I had dinner in a restaurant called China Rose to round out the evening. It was the kind of Chinese restaurant where there were packaged Italian breadsticks on some of the tables (as well as on the floor), and they only served one-liter bottles of Heineken.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

love, trees, and near-tripod-bludgeoning

I took this photo a year ago, on Valentine's Day, near Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan. Yep, I was tromping around the deserted Hudson River Parkway by myself on Valentine's Day. But that day yielded some of my favorite photos (including this one), so...it's awesome being single.

Hudson River Parkway, Manhattan

There is kind of a weird story that goes along with this photo. Like I said, I was alone and it was near dusk, and I was heading home because it was so cold out and as much as I wanted to stay to shoot, I also wanted to be out of the woods by dark. I was technically in park, but an abandoned one that I accessed by skipping a rotting gate, so it was a little creepy. At one point I saw a guy walking toward me on the same narrow path by the river, about 50 meters away or something. I looked down for a quick second (it was really muddy) and when I looked up again, he was gone.

My adrenaline shot up like a rocket. I froze on the spot and tried to listen--did he foist off into the woods? Was he waiting for me to walk by to pounce on me? I thought about backtracking to the fence I'd hopped to enter, but not only did that mean going backwards, it meant I'd be looking back over my shoulder the entire way. I immediately dropped my pack to the ground and unstrapped my tripod to use as a weapon in case I was about to be attempted-murdered and kicked into the river.

I really hate being scared. I am not into scary movies at all. But I also hate the feeling of being scared for no reason. So I crept forward and called out, "Hello?" And a few seconds later--though of course it felt like longer--he emerged from the trees, buckling his belt. He had just stepped aside to take a piss. We passed each other, me still gripping my iron-clad tripod like a bat.

And then, in this perfect light, I got this beautiful shot. The trees look so combative at the time, but when I look at it later, it looks like a tree party. Happy Valentine's Day! You didn't die!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Super Romantical

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day (and Chinese New Year!) but tomorrow I'm posting a special throwback photo and silly story, so enjoy this one today.

Subway Couple

This is on the subway here in Buenos Aires. The 'B' line has this ridiculous upholstery that is sort of velvety. I wish I could remember what time of day it was, because I can't remember ever being on a subway car that empty. BUT FULL OF LOVE! I love teenage couples. I was like that once! It was awesome!

Friday, February 12, 2010

How much is head?

This is another thing you can buy at the flea market in Montevideo: a wooden head, nicely displayed...on the asphalt.

head

I like this photo because of the two women sitting in the background. People here are so good at sitting and chatting, or sitting and staring. And any place is good for sitting, just as long as there is shade. It also helps to have things to look at, like this disembodied head, and the stupid tourists taking photos of it.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

to market!

The Sunday flea market in Montevideo is fun. You can buy everything there. A short list: fireworks, antique telephones, a white peacock (live), fishing tackle, and four identical framed photos of soldiers.

goldies

Definitely my favorite part of the flea market were all the random people selling puppies out of crates. But it also kind of broke my heart. I wouldn't want to be separated from my litter of fuzzy brothers and sisters and handed over to some sticky-fingered child. Unless, of course, he was going to share some of that ice cream cone with me.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

a word on uruguayos

There is a noticeable difference as a photographer when you cross the Rio Plata from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. Namely, that people in Montevideo don't really mind having their photo taken. In fact, this happened quite a bit in Uruguay:

bomb

They would wave you down, (even if it meant falling out of a moving vehicle), and pose. I have all these posed photos of men who just...I don't know...wanted their photo taken...with their shirt off.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

conversation practice partners

Everyone knows I love to talk to cab drivers. I get it from my dad. Cabbies are full of great information. For example: the population of Lima, Peru is 17 percent Chinese, and you can make killer chili that you can actually get drunk off of (by adding a bottle of tequila and a bottle of brandy).

This was the 20-year-old cab driver who took me home Saturday night. Unlike in New York, most of the cab drivers here are locals, or at least from the region. This guy was an exception; he's from Mexico.

taxi

Not all cabbie experiences are great, though. My first one here tried to charge me double the fare. And my roommate was physically assaulted by his cab driver the week before Christmas when he tried to pay a 25-peso fare with a 50-peso note. They are really sassy about giving change here.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Stuck in Aguas Calientes

Our overnight trip to Machu Picchu turned into a week-long adventure when torrential rains caused landslides, rendered the roads into town impassable, and stranded us in Aguas Calientes for five nights. We were eventually evacuated by helicopter. I took this photo while Stuart and I were being airlifted out on the sixth day. This guy is telling us to crouch and shield our eyes as we approach the helicopter.

getdown

With each helicopter carrying only 7-25 passengers, it took a long time to evacuate some 2,000 of us. Uncooperative weather, disorganization, and the priority situation in Haiti made things even slower. Luckily Stu and I steered clear of most of the melodrama, and for the most part people were calm and peaceful. If you ever find yourself in an emergency zone, pray that it's with a bunch of hippie backpackers; they're not quite so prone to anxiety and mass hysteria.

If you click on the photo, it will take you to a set of 20 photos from the week. I was waiting on publishing these because I've been trying to sell them, but I don't think this will matter. Anyhow, this photo, along with one other, was published on Matador Trips yesterday.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

two-fer sunday

These two photos have to go together. I spent New Year's in Punta del Diablo, Uruguay with Suzanna and a ton of Brazilians--it's just an hour from the Brazilian border. This is the full moon rising from the deck of our hostel, Elida Elena.

NYE Full Moon

Between these two photos lay a night of partying, including non-ironic dancing to Bob Marley at Bitacora, a club that opened that night. The entire town was there. Suzanna and I walked down the beach to the first party around midnight, and fireworks were exploding everywhere. I probably could have died happily right there (as long as it wasn't a slow, burning, death-by-firework-in-the-gut). But if I had, I wouldn't have been able to witness the first sunrise of 2010.

Punta Del Diablo Sunrise

What a year, 2010: so far, so good. And I really do mean "so far" and "so good."

Saturday, February 6, 2010

the children on top of the stairs

I was pretty in awe of the children in Aguas Calientes. The town is built into a hillside, so it is steep stairs and cobblestone slants everywhere. While I am scared of eating concrete every time I take a step, these kids are chasing balls and butterflies around with fearless agility. One day we even saw two kids sharing a pair of rollerblades. They wear each wearing one rollerblade and were just tearing down this ramp and grabbing a hold of a metal rail where the ramp suddenly gave way to a drop overlooking the soccer field.

ackids00

Part of me wanted to collar them as they sped by. Instead, I just watched them run back up the hill and do it again.

Friday, February 5, 2010

the iron rooster

Stuart and I went for a walk along the tracks while we were stranded in Aguas Calientes. The trail was sporadically populated with workers and hikers coming in off the Inca Trail. It's so strange to come across a steady stream of locals and foreigners in a place that feels like the middle of nowhere.

sturail02

It was really hot and sunny that day, but the tunnels were cool, dark, and drippy. But see that light at the end of the tunnel? That's your weekend coming right at'cha! Sure looks lush, don't it?

Thursday, February 4, 2010

the armpit of Peru

These are the phrases that people used to describe Lima when I told them I was going there: armpit, hellhole, "nothing nice." Does this look like a hellhole to you? In all the trash-talking, it had completely bypassed me that Lima is on the Pacific Ocean. I hadn't even brought a swimsuit with me.

limabeach04

The beach in Miraflores is my kind of armpit. A beautiful, verdant park stretches along the top of the cliff, where paragliders take off and float on the warm breezes. Our hostel--about 50 meters from the beach--was full of surfers. To be fair, Miraflores is a swankier part of town, about a 20-minute cab ride from the town's center, which is considerably more armpit-like. A cab driver told us that Lima was nice...except for, you know, these dozen neighborhoods. Then he asked me what my favorite soccer team was.

I loved Peru.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Party Market

This psychedelic scene is hidden by a few, scattered dark doorways in the Barrio Chino (Chinatown) of Lima, Peru. I almost walked right on by.

cumplemarket

It's a maze of vendors selling centerpieces, party favors, gigantic styrofoam signs, invitations, and linens, mostly for weddings, children's birthdays, and quinceaneros (the big fifteenth birthday celebration for girls). My brother was shaking glitter off of his sleeve when we exited. Outside, though it was dark and almost 10 p.m., the streets were also filled with people shopping for food, clothes, and sundries. I wondered if all these shoppers had been working during the day, or if they just preferred to shop later at night when it is cooler--in both senses of the word.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

trekkers in the mist

I really enjoyed shooting Machu Picchu before the clouds disappeared in the afternoon.

mistyhike

This photo was taken on January 24, which was one of the last days it was accessible to the public before the flooding took its toll. What a strange place it is. It took us so long to get there, and even longer to leave. Can you imagine how Hiram Bingham felt in 1911 when he "discovered" it way up out there? I like to imagine that feeling. It is, I think, close to the feeling you get when you fall in love.

Monday, February 1, 2010

PMTV

Stuart and I were walking back from the beach in Miraflores, a beautiful neighborhood of Lima, Peru, when we came across this highly entertaining scene.

mtv

This was just to the side of a very busy pathway leading to the beach, so other people kept stopping and staring. Apparently they were singing a well-known Catholic song. I don't remember how it goes other than there was a whole lot of God in there. Most people just slowed their pace as they passed by, eyes wide; teenagers burst into their own rendition of the song as they walked by with their friends; some stood and stared and asked us what they were doing. We could only imagine. It was a family of six (or seven, if the videographer was a member of the clan). They had two younger boys watching on. They were dancing up a storm in their matching pink outfits on that sweaty day.

Anyhow, I feel like this photo kind of symbolizes our entire trip to Peru. More on this later.