Brillantina Gallery
Iquitos, Peru 2017
® Francesco Pavia
Amazonia: heat, humidity, mosquitoes, mud and rain. All this takes second place during the workshop, our group of maniacs of photography is not discouraged! The mud is poetry, the rain helps to give a magical touch to the images. Between a papaya and a bad coffee Ernesto shows us his unpublished work, as well as the work of Giorgio and Nilo, who will soon see life! The company of excellent photographers can only push me not to be trivial in my shots. We have seen really remote places that have left an indelible mark in my soul, who knows if I’ll ever come back! Even if it will not happen, thanks to the patient effort of Ernesto (and Nilo and Giorgio) I know I’m back with a handful of photographs worthy of this name !!!
A great photographic and human adventure! Francesco Pavia
® Giorgio Negro
Travelling, travelling….From one place to another, that is for sure a wonderful thing: with every step an encounter, with every encounter an experience, with every experience a discovery. But the real beauty resides in travelling through time, backwards and backwards….. discovering what existed before and made us into what we are today, and at the same time what we have lost forever. That is Iquitos: letting oneself fall into the depths of the mystery of a journey towards the past. A mystery that will not let itself be easily unveiled, but which will softly beckon you to discover it, like an enchanting mermaid from the bottom of the jungle. Giorgio Negro
® Nilo Rebecchi
A compass. In photography this is Ernesto for me. It shows me the right direction. Often I enter a road that fascinates me, perhaps unconsciously seduced by the meteors of the moment, but which leads me nowhere. He with kindness, with the usual rigor and sincerity, even uncomfortable, of the teacher, tells me. His educated, refined, trained eye instantly perceives what does not work. Sometimes I doubt his directions. I need more time, but with time I realize that he is right. There are no shortcuts, I cannot grow and demand discounts. The road is that, difficult, without alternatives. Thanks again for insisting on showing it to me.
It was a nice opportunity to share this experience with Giorgio, Francesco and Raul. Nilo Rebecchi
® Raul Goycolea
The lonely road and the fourth trip to Iquitos, but first time with Ernesto, a photographer who has been a reference in my career. Go back to see my friends Iquiteños, the heat, the humidity, the almost tragic accident to my friend Jackson, go to his benefit barbecue to raise money, to embrace him and understand that a trip is not the photos you make, but the friends you make along the way. Go out to take Devil’s Breath and feel like your guts are cooked with aguardiente and hot pepper Charapa. You all think that here we live in trees and we move in a canoe, Laura tells me. I find her so right. Go to the square xxx, listen to Trap, drink Pilsen Callao, smoke grass and watch the young people kiss with love and warmth in the already hot nights. The dawn with 28 degrees, the blue light, the green evenings, the purple nights. Take a small boat and go to get lost in a town where nobody goes, enjoy the scenery, the sound of the engine. Eat doncella, and ceviche of paiche, drink Camu Camu soda. Enjoy the sad stories too, those that friends from there tell you, see the caresses of others, witness solidarity. The moto taxis do not stop, the humidity, the fever, the mosquito bites, the smile of a dead lizard. The photos that follow, accumulate and begin to tell me things, they begin to talk to me at night while it rains as if a wave of the Pacific fell from the clouds, it is at night and I feel hot and feverish, with a blurred vision, my hands sweaty, now I understand what I mean, now I understand what I wanted to say about Iquitos. Plan the next trip, see how you are going to finance it, return to see your friends. Why Iquitos? I do not know yet. Raul Goycoolea
