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southern frontier

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 | 5 photos


Ushuaia possess a unique dichotomy, surrounded by snow capped mountains it looks, smells and feels like a frontier town. Lack of building codes and relaxed attitude to town planning means the city sprawls haphazardly with little regard to aesthetics. Wild dogs roam un-attended and largely ignored.

The Patagonian tourist board promotes the 64,000 strong settlement as the worlds southernmost city. Boasting a hospital, schools, international airport as well as institutions of higher learning, it far outstrips it's lone rival, the 2000 residents of Puerto Williams Chile.

Tourism is the life blood of Ushuaia. Tourist ships as well as Argentinas Antarctic program regularly frequent the docks during the summer months taking advantage of Tierra del Fuegos proximity to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Rapid economic development disguises a swath of social and environmental problems surrounding a place once renowned as the most horrific penal colony in South America.

Cumulatively i've spent several weeks inside the city limits but my personal relationship with Ushuaia remains transitory. It is perpetually a medium to another place, a stepping stone or stopover.

Photographically I have attempted to communicate my own experience of Ushuaia: to avoid the perspective of "home". To this end I have selected images that are held at arms length. Although often intimate they offer only traces of narrative, allowing the visitor space for imagination.

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