bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1991) — Summer 1991 // Été 1991, pp. 25–29
I was hired on subcontract with the World Bank in Washington, to produce a slide show. It would eventually be translated into 22 different languages, to be used by professors in Third World Universities as a guide to making their own slide shows. Before starting the official project, I managed to visit a spot many of us dream of: the Inca village of Machu Picchu in Peru. From nearby Cuzco, I travelled alone overland by train to Puno, visiting the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca, then by minibus to La Paz, Bolivia.
Certain photos were taken while accompanying a UN group on their visits to Indian villages accessible only by landrover. The road petered out entirely before we reached the first: we forded streams and went through the goal-posts of a soccer game to get there. We were greeted with local bands, dancing children, and refreshments.
At one village, they slaughtered a llama as we arrived, and the meat was boiled in barrels. How did it taste? Like mutton-flavoured rope. You could chew it forever. Llamas live on scrub land, with little water, and the meat is very tough. The most popular member of our party was the son of a UN official who knew enough to bring along dental floss, and kindly shared it!
What is it like to work at 13,000 feet? With altitude sickness you feel enormous distress: your head pounds, your judgment goes, and you are tired and short of breath. You can’t sleep it off because you can’t sleep. On the other hand, one beer feels like several! The body does adapt: even a few days makes a difference. If you stay six months, your red blood corpuscles double. If you are born there, you will have more blood vessels in your feet and hands, the better to cope with the cold.
It was scary to shoot 22 rolls of film without seeing the results until I was back in Ottawa, and keeping the exposed rolls safe became an obsession. Shooting to match slides to a script written before seeing the actual location was not the same as taking “grab shots” on vacation. But what exhilaration to pull it all off, and what an opportunity to visit such remote, fascinating places. I would have to say that, on most days, it certainly beats a desk job!
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1991) — Summer 1991 // Été 1991, pp. 25–29. Read the rest of this issue →
