Monday, September 29, 2014

Bad Situations Can Breed Good Ones


A vaquero, or cowboy, participating in a cattle roundup in Colombia’s LlanosOrientales, the vast grasslands spreading East of the Andes Mountains.


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There is a saying in Colombia, which is that good things can come from bad ones. It’s often true. And It’s happened to me.

By 1985, living in Colombia, my wife’s country, as a freelance documentary photographer and writer, I had seen my income shrink worryingly. So much so that I considered emigrating back to the United States, where I had lived previously for 12 years. But I found it hard to throw the towel. Instead I self-published a photo book on the region I lived in, the Cauca Valley, and it was an instant best-seller. At least by Colombian standards. This pushed me to self-publish eight more books on Colombia, one a year, all of which sold well.
http://victorenglebert.photoshelter.com/gallery/My-Photo-Books/G0000dR9HYikKM1E/

In 1995, as I was ready to go to press with a new photo book, on Ecuador this time, that country got involved in a war with Peru, its economy collapsed, and book sales ended overnight, leaving me with material that had cost me dearly and would never see publication. Coincidentally, Colombia was going through financial and insecurity hell. And book stores there stopped paying me for the few books they were still selling.

Not only that, but kidnapping for ransom had become a very real threat, for myself and for my family, and many Colombians left the country for safer ones. I could no longer travel safely around Colombia. Worst of all, the color slides I mailed to American publishers in response to requests had stopped getting back to me and I was losing hundreds of my best pictures.

The reason was that the drug mafia had started using registered mail to send huge amounts of hundred dollar bills back from the U.S.  Registered mail had been the way my color slides had traveled between Colombia, the U.S., and the world. After some post office employees discovered dollars in the mail, the word went around and registered mail from the U.S. stopped being delivered. It was opened at the post offices and then thrown away—without the dollars but with my color slides.

Even if that had not happened, something else had started making my work impossible in Colombia. The last few packages that had still been returned to me came back with most of the color slides perforated. Attempting to stop the flow of cocaine, American or Colombian authorities must have passed needles through the packages to check if any white powder would stream out.

Emigration was again on the table, and this time it was impossible to avoid, even though my wife, Martha, and our two teenage sons rebelled against the idea of abandoning what had been an idyllic life. I hated the idea too, for I had been very happy there myself. And I had already lived in several countries—Belgium, where I was born and raised; Germany; the former Belgian Congo, Canada, and the U.S. But our sons, 18 and 19, spent their weekends out late at night when streets were most dangerous. If anything happened to them I would have to blame myself for it. I could not stand the thought of it. Anyway, how would I maintain our way of life without an income?

Once again, however, everything turned better after arriving in the U.S.. Jean-Pierre and Philippe went to university in Philadelphia and ended up with jobs and incomes they could not have dreamed of, had  they graduated in Colombia. And I got back in business, traveling the world again, not just Latin America. Poor Martha was the great loser. She lost her domestic help and her many friends. But like our sons, and for the sake of them, she ended up accepting the wisdom of our move.




Sunday, September 28, 2014

Ethiopia: A Back Alley Of Harar


A mysterious woman in a mysterious back alley is carrying lunch and tea to a mysterious person behind a blue door. I caught the scene in Ethiopia’s Harar, Islam’s fourth holy city and a UNESCO World Heritage.
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Ethiopia: Impromptu Family Portrait


A quiet family moment outside an adobe house on a street of Ethiopia’s Gambela.
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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Ethiopia: How Proud Tigrinya Women Carry Their Babies


A Tigrinya woman attending a crowded market in Mekelle, in Ethiopia’s Tigray Province, stands out by the luxury of her baby carrier, though her discolored dress reveals her as probably poor. The cross on the carrier reminds us of her Coptic Christian religion.
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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Ethiopia: Defending Field From Bird Attacks


Standing on an elevated platform, Anuak children of Ethiopia, near Gambela, defend their family’s field from birds by hurling stones at them. I was unable to learn the name of the cereal seen here.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Ethiopia: Drudging Complexity Of African Food Preparation


Much tedious work goes into Anuak food preparation near Gambela, Ethiopia, as is demonstrated by those two young girls inside their family hut.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Ethiopia: Anuak Girl Smoking Water Pipe


Anuak girl of Ethipia, near Gambela, smoking a home-made water pipe while working at her family's outdoor kitchen.
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Monday, September 22, 2014

Ecuador : Teenage Cowgirls


Twelve-year-old Birgit, featured previously in the last few days’ posts, and her 14-year-old sister Belèn, leaving the family’s corral.
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Sunday, September 21, 2014

Ecuador: How Four School Kids Get On A Horse


My last post showed four siblings riding a horse from a rural Ecuadorian school. Those of you who may have wondered how they got on the horse will find hereafter the sequence Birgit, the 12-year-old sister, followed. I was as curious as anyone to watch this.
    
The horse and kids’ clothes differ from those of the previous post. It’s because I shot those pictures on different days. And Birgit always needed to use whichever horse was currently available.


Standing on a stirrup, Birgit started by hanging the school bags to the saddle’s horn.


Then she lifted the little girl that would ride in front of her.


Then the little boy who would ride behind her.


And then Carmen, the seven-year-old Miss Rodeo.


Finally, lifting a long leg, Birgit lifted herself and squeezed in without hurting any of the kids with her spur.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Ecuador: Riding Home From School, Four To A Horse


Birgit, the teenage cowgirl l showed in my last two posts, has a full-time job on her family’s Ecuador estancia. One of them is to bring three of her siblings to school and back every day. The last little girl on the horse, who was seven at the time of this picture, had already won a miss rodeo title for her horse stunts. She could easily have taken Birgit’s place on the horse herself. But she could not have lifted the others on the horse.
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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Ecuador: Paula, A Girl’s Favorite Cow


Twelve-year-old Birgit asked me to photograph her with Paula, her favorite cow. She works as a cowgirl on her family’s vast hacienda, or cattle ranch, in the coastal lowlands of Ecuador’s Guayas Province. She’s the same I showed on my yesterday’s post, riding a horse with a sheep across her lap.

I spent several days photographing her and her 14-year-old sister Belén at work. First, during the dry season, when they spend much of their time on horseback. Later, during the rainy season, when their family’s land sinks under  Andean torrents, and moving is now done mostly by canoe.

By then the family’s men and their cowboys had moved most of the hacienda’s 400 zebus,  nearly100 sheep, and many horses to higher ground for several months. They had left behind only two or three cows to keep the women with milk.

I’m planning a children’s ebook of the girls’ lives. I’ll title it

Young Cowgirls in Ecuador: A Time for Horses, A Time for Canoes.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Ecuador: Bringing Home A Stray Sheep


Twelve-year-old girl bringing stray sheep back to her family’s hacienda, or ranch, near Salitre, in Ecuador's Guayas Province.
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Monday, September 8, 2014

Ecuador: Otavalo Boy Harvesting Barley


Otavalo boy helping his family to harvest barley near the Andean town of Otavalo, Ecuador.
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Thursday, September 4, 2014

Ivory Coast: Abidjan Market Scene


African women never leave their small children out of sight. They carry them on their backs wherever they go and to whatever task that awaits them. A thoughtful fruit vendor at the market of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, installed her baby girl inside a water-filled basin. It’s hot in Abidjan, and the baby happily throws water at herself.

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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Ivory Coast: Climbing Saves You Money In Abidjan


Watching a soccer (football) game in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from complimentary  perches.
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Monday, September 1, 2014

Argentina: Life And Death Of Patagonian Sheep

Patagonian sheep enjoy great social life, much space to roam over, and plenty to eat. But, as in some human societies, at some time in their lives they must go under the knife. And sooner or later they end up as roast meat. 
This post includes 12 photographs

A gaucho herds sheep back to an estancia’s white buildings, visible as white dots above the horse’s head along the San José Gulf, at the tip of the Valdés Peninsula. They are needed there to be sheared.


Under a heavy sky, along fields of wild yellow flowers, a gaucho is herding sheep back to a corral in Patagonia’s Chubut Province.


Gauchos marking lambs's ears. To rapidly distinguish between capons, ordinary females, and females reserved for breeding, the men cut capons’tails midway and those of ordinary females entirely. They let the breeders keep their tails.


In Patagonia’s Valdés Peninsula sheep await their turn to be shorn of their wool.




 In Patagonia’s Valdés Peninsula gauchos are chasing sheep towards the shearing shed.


Inside the shed of a Valdés Peninsula’s estancia, a dozen men are shearing sheep. Their shears come attached to the tentacles of a motorized machine built like a carousel. Legs tied, other sheep lie around awaiting their turn.


Shorn sheep returning to pasture.



Preparing wool to be packed.


Waiting for more wool before closing the bundle.


Stacking bundles of wool for pick up.



Marking bundles for pick up.


A Puerto Madryn-based veterinarian, owner of the large Valdés Peninsula hacienda shown in some of the above photographs, is sharing a barbecued rack of sheep with his two gauchos and me. He helped me find the two horses I used in a 1984 Patagonia crossing whose story Smithsonian magazine published.

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