Pushing Onward & Upward
I returned this week from the pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i here in the Peruvian Andes. This was my third year making the trek to the Sinakara Valley and collectively paying respects to the Apus (mountain spiritis) and the life-giving glaciers of the agrarian society. Making the pilgrimage three times is an important marker in the Andean culture, so it was significant for me.
I climbed up the mountainside one afternoon, and took some time on my own to reflect and pay my personal respects and make my pleas to the Apus. I prayed for the people I care about who are going through difficult times, for those suffering in war, famine, and oppression, and for an end to the acrimony and belligernce sweeping across the world. I think a lot of my part in alleviating this as well and what I can do, no matter how small, because it is all I have control over.
I then took the opportunity to reflect on everything that has transpired during the last few years while working on this project. It has been a labour of love and a personally life altering experience. It is something I am deeply committed to (I sold my house to fund it!) and it may very well be the swan song project to my photography career, so I fully intend to see it through to its final outcome.
This year has been the most difficult of the project thus far. There have been countless challenges, setbacks, and rejections. It is a marathon though and not a sprint. It takes a tremendous amount of self-motivation and a determined mindset. I am now beginnig the process of compiling the project, laying out the narrative, and thinking about the layout and features of the book. I am working with consultants, taking online courses, and using this book (a bible in the industry) and appropriately came across the statement this morning:
“Living the life of a photographer and, by extension, working on a book-length photography project takes a great deal of commitment. There is no one standing over you with assignments and deadlines, and encouragement is often hard to come by. The number of distractions is too many to count. Organization, organizatioin - along with a lot of self-determination - are the only ways to stay on track.”
Now I am back in my apartment for a few days. Enough time to download my images, clean my equipment, wash my clothes, and repack it all. My body isn’t quite recovered yet. That will have to wait for another time. I am leaving again in the morning for nine days and will be camping below the largest glaciated tropical ice cap in the world at nearly 5,000m (16,000ft). I will be there to learn about and document the work of a team studying the impacts of the melting glaciers on the pastoral lands of alpaca and llama farmers in the the area, as well as its influence on the larger environment.
Until next time…
MB
