Epiphanies & Roadwork Gallery
Ecuador, 2006
® Alessandro Iasevoli
This was my second workshop to Ecuador with Ernesto. I decided to go back to further live and discover this country and try to enrich the human qualities of the pictures taken in the previous trip.
It has been an amazing experience, full of conflicting feelings. We had peaks of euphoria and excitement during our wondering around looking for photographic moments. But back in Quito we also experienced huge feelings of frustration, a sense of loss and defeat by looking at the pictures taken. The initial reaction made us feel that we had been unable to capture the majority of the magic moments we had seen. The Sunday Mess and Procession in Giròn will always remain in my heart as unforgettable lyric and spiritual moments. There I thought I had been allowed to touch the essence of this country and this Latin American culture. I am grateful to life for living these moments, although I feel I was not able to capture this magic on my film. “C’est la vie,” said Michel “the Corsican” with his wise and true eyes…
I am grateful to life and photography for stumbling upon that class of first grade kids in Quingeo. I had entered the school looking for a restroom and they spontaneously shared with me some moments of their lives by singing all together their songs just for me.
Now, I really wish to be back home, to emotionally detach myself from all this experience, from all the joys and the sorrows of this trip. I need to do that to digest, elaborate and shape it all. I need to do that to further think upon the meaning of what I am doing or trying to do, on what I am looking for inside myself and inside the world around me and above all I need to do that to understand the reasons why I feel I shall do all of that through photography. Alessandro Iasevoli
® Baron Barnett
The journey with Ernesto was another spiritual and emotional experience. He takes you on a journey which sparks your soul to find those elusive elements all around you! His stimulus with those around him makes for an unforgettable journey The editing sessions culminate with a few photographic gems to share with those around you. You also develop a bond with the other students sharing your experience with him. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to explore life with him. If you want to stimulate your visual senses, fly with Ernesto! Baron Barnett
® Cynthia Johnston
Writing a summary of this workshop has been difficult. What subject should I write about?
How can I really sum up how much the workshop meant to me?
Maybe I should concentrate on the festival of the bulls with all its rituals: wood cutting ceremony, the food preparation in the gorgeously smoky kitchen, the rodeo, the slaughter of the bulls and its religious significance. Or, perhaps, I should focus on the magic of the trip: the little procession that came from out of nowhere, the heart–breaking beauty of young horsemen in warm evening light as they rode by us, the tripping upon a village grade school during recess and having your heart lit up at the ringing laughter, the hems of little white gowns swaying in the breeze like flower petals, the awe of realizing that the indigenous persons being photographed were descendants of pre–Incan peoples, the thrill of watching the fireworks spin wildly into the night sky.
Perhaps I should write about the capriciousness of our dear goddess of photography. She does not like it when we are lulled into carelessness due to arrogance. Indeed, …she can get pretty bitchy when taken for granted (like any self–respecting woman). Just when you think you got 36 “moments”/roll, you are tossed off into the chasm. Once ego wounds stopped stinging, I was so happy to realize that this had been a very fruitful second workshop.
Naturally, I would want to include a few words about Ernesto and our group in such a summary.
Ernesto is one of the best teachers I’ve come across in a long while. An open–hearted master who treats all students with so much respect; an expert who talks technique, but also the spiritual side of making art. I want to thank the group, too – I learned a lot from hanging out with you all. Thanks for your patience, support and laughs. Cynthia Johnston
® Jenny Hamilton
The workshop in Cuenca was in some ways the hardest photography workshop I have ever been a part of, and in others one of the most pleasurable. Ernesto, as always, was a fantastic teacher and guide; always challenging us to look deeper, get closer, remove the nonessential elements from our compositions. But more than that, Ernesto facilitated an experience for us as a class that very few photographers could hope to have. We spent several days in the gracious hospitality of an Ecuadorian family celebrating the festival of the bulls. They didn’t know us – 7 strangers from far-flung corners of the world – yet they welcomed us with open arms into their annual tradition. We were witnesses to amazing moments. I will always remember the beautiful and haunting doll, the bull-riding, the Cristal sharing, the procession we happened upon by accident, the dancing, the re-building of the bull from its carcass, the fireworks in Cuenca, and many other special moments. In the end, many of these moments will have to live on in my memories rather than on my negatives. But in this fact also lies the learning – it takes more than simply recognizing a “moment” to get a great photograph. I will always be thankful for the experience of being pushed to be a better photographer and for the insights of Ernesto and the other students had to share. Jenny Hamilton
® Michel Oliva
One of the most difficult things to accept is your own impotence in translating into an image what we have seen and felt. Even though this disappointment it’s an integral part of the “true” path that each photographer has to follow. Getting upset that some photographs didn’t come out it’s totally useless. You need to have the patience and the courage to accept your talent’s limitations, you need to accept the images taken – good or bad ones – and not the ones that you would have liked to take that only exist in your mind. Luckily my photographic ambition has not prevented me from feeling a great pleasure and a great freedom during this workshop in seeing unusual traditions of another era. How to forget the bulls’ sacrifice or having seen appear out of the blue an improbable Carnival with horses made out of cardboard flying in the air while fire works go off incessantly. Incredible masks, huge faces and solemn gestures that convey the symbols of these celebrations. The beauty of the things seen has made me feel at each instant many different sensations, it has made me see many epiphanies. Many things stay unexplained. It’s just like that. Michel Oliva
® Simona Turin
This was my first photography workshop; everyone else in the group had taken Ernesto’s workshops before. Despite being comparatively inexperienced, I felt very welcomed and greatly connected with the people in the group. Being in the workshop was like being under a spell and Ernesto was like a magician, opening doors and windows to magical moments in a magical world. I captured images that moved me personally. The most difficult part of the workshop was opening up my work to others for the first time and entering into the lives and cultures of the people that I photographed during workshop. Besides learning to face my work and see it through others’ eyes allowed me to grow as an artist.
I can’t wait to escape to the magical world again. Simona Turin
® Todd Stern
Having been on three journeys now with Ernesto, I knew that he will create a sense of wonder wherever the journey may lead. I prefer not to ask or analyze how this happens or what the chemistry is that leads to the epiphanies. I know now just to let myself be open to them appearing, and they do.
The group of fellow journeymen and women on this trip to Ecuador helped create such a special time. I will remember each of you fondly. And, I thank you for being part of this wonderful experience.
To memorialize just a few personal moments for posterity: Our dancing on the rooftop of the family house after the daylong celebrations (with lots of moonshine to carry us through), hanging out with the rodeo clowns backstage at the rodeo and unwittingly becoming part of the circus as I was kissed on the forehead by the clown in drag while the audience caught sight of it behind the bullring, the fantastic Guayasamin museum in Quito, running out of film at the procession in the square and capturing some images in my brain as they unfolded before me with wonder and without regret, and the wonderful simple lunch of soup and pork chops on the square that rainy afternoon.
I hope to see everyone from our group some time further down the road. Todd Stern
