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 Belรจn, 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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