Rodrigo Llauro

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Saturday, November 5, 2011 | 5 photos

I am a photographer. I have always been and will forever be. Since a child, I have been traveling the world. This has led me to an unique appreciation of different cultures and their way of life. I am profoundly interested in showing our modern societies the cultural diversity of our planet. My goal is to help preserve these cultures through my images, not only by making a record of their existence but also creating awareness and opening the mind of those who believe their lifestyle, is the only possible and correct way of life. I believe this objective as a future professional photographer is the reason why I should be chosen. Allow me the opportunity to learn from the best as to improve my work and make the best contribution possible.

These images show the “Fiesta Nacional de la Pachamama” in San Antonio de los Cobres in the province of Jujuy, Argentina. Pachamama, the Andean mother earth, is celebrated in a month long festival that sees bucket sized wells dug in the ground outside each mud house and public building, representing the mouths of the earth.

This old mining town in a valley located at an altitude of 4,500 m, has been forgotten. It is a piece of earth with harsh and inhospitable geographical conditions. Life there, in what from cities seems such barren extremes, is one of cold confinement to a landscape of different shades of browns. Yet, people’s gratefulness for their existence, the limited things the earth provides as well as their communal spirit comes through so clearly in the festivities in name of the Pachamama.

It is a strange reminder to the visitors that people living in one of the most inhospitable parts of the earth, are also among most grateful for the earth’s generosity.