Exercise 3

After an exceptionally difficult journey through the Bolivian desert, where I ended up in a truck accident, I finally arrived in La Paz. At this point, I was in a state of shock, I was dehydrated, and I was suffering from altitude sickness and sunstroke. A physician prescribed coca leaves for me to chew to help improve my breathing and to speed up my recovery. That is how I came to wander about La Paz chewing coca leaves in a sorry mental and physical state. Despite easing my breathing, the coca leaves only accentuated my feelings of paranoia and anxiety. That evening, La Paz seemed like the most unsettling and inhospitable place I had ever visited. There were effigies hanging from trees inscribed with the words “Thieves will be hung”. Women in traditional costume pointed at me and treated me like a “gringa”, or at least that is the way it seemed to me at the time. And the merchants refused to give me directions, adding to my sense of disorientation.

Even though my camera’s focus had been damaged during the voyage, I decided to photograph La Paz that night and again set the ISO to maximum. Several images are almost abstract due to the high level of graininess and because of my technical difficulties with the focus. The resulting photographs seemed a success in that they really expressed the confusion I felt that evening. Some photos remind me of the work of Francisco de Goya in his series “Black Paintings”…

At the moment I am in the Amazonian region of Colombia, living in the jungle near a native reserve. I have been invited by these natives to a shamanic ceremony taking place next Saturday evening. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I intend to continue my research for the “Rethink Photography” Project during this ceremony.