Welcome to Antigua
Antigua is Guatemala's premier colonial city, equal to, and even surpassing many of Mexico's most famous "pueblo magicos." With its cobblestone streets, vibrant market, impressive churches, and wonderful shops and restaurants, a traveler can easily spend a week getting to know this wonderful town. It is also a photographer's delight.
Rather than camp at a restaurant or hotel parking lot, we booked a great bed and breakfast not far from the center. Our friends, the Wolf-clan, had stayed at Chez Daniel and highly recommended the place--and since they were headed there as well, we arranged to meet up.
Daniel Chauche, the owner, is a renowned photographer, and during the 1980s, he captured some of the most iconic images of Guatemala. Karl Wolf and I took advantage of his expertise to get some insights into his particular approach to the art.
Of course, we spent a lot of time on the streets trying to put what we learned into practice.
Chicken Buses
One of my first subjects was the famed "chicken buses," which gather in force at the city market. These masterpieces of glistening chrome and vibrant, glittering paint are rolling works of art.
Here I've assembled my favorite images from several photo sessions--as you can see, I got a bit carried away.
Antigua's Vibrant Market
The market itself is extensive, and like the buses, full of color and life. The market is split into two sections, and we visited the traditional handicraft market before diving headlong into the traditional food market.
Karen had some great success with her iPhone. She doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about the technical details of her shots, she just goes with her gut--and often puts me to shame!
The traditional market sells everything from clothes to fruits and vegetables to dry goods. One can spend hours walking through the narrow passageways looking for things to photograph.
I also enjoy finding "still-lifes" among the chaos and calamity of a busy market.
Markets are much more than commerce--they're also a social gathering, a time to meet friends and share the gossip of the day. With a long lens, it's not hard to catch people in a candid moment.
The market passageways are tight and you often have to fight your way through a crowd, keeping one hand on your camera, the other on your wallet. On the plus side, people are too busy to pay attention to a gringo photographer, who otherwise would be too obvious.
At times, there's really only one way to move goods in and out--on someone's back.
Unless, perhaps, you get creative. We passed this "TP brigade" of workers happily tossing packets of toilet paper from the truck into a nearby shop. Good thing the truck wasn't full of cement block!
Often, people are reluctant to have their pictures taken, and I always ask before shooting up close.
This little girl was tending a vegetable stall all by herself. I'm sure the other vendors were looking out for her, but we were impressed that she was taking on such a responsibility at such a young age!
This man and his children were happy to pose for us.
The shop owner asked for a print to keep, but without a way to get him a copy, we unfortunately couldn't hold up our end of the bargain. Tucked into a hidden corner among the warren of passageways, I'm not sure I could have found him again, anyway. Oh, for a Polaroid!
Of course, with so much imagery to choose from, a "street" photographer can find plenty of oddities worth capturing, from the stark and severe, to the quirky and strange.
Festival de Santa Catarina de Bombadilla
Antigua also has numerous religious celebrations throughout the year which are fun to photograph.
Our visit coincided with Holy Week, and on Good Friday we saw the procession for the Festival de Santa Catarina de Bombadilla.
The festival parade starts from the nearby village, then winds its way three miles into the historic center of Antigua. In spite of the color and pageantry, the procession is a somber affair. Devotees parade in silence, heads often bowed in prayer.
The procession passes by a number of Antigua's churches and temples, and various congregations participate, decked out in uniquely colored robes.
Large groups of men, and sometimes women, carry huge platforms called andas, on which statues and various offerings are placed.
One of the smaller andas was carried by a team of women, many of whom were dressed all in black.
The largest anda was a behemoth, requiring several teams of thirty or forty mean to heft it through the streets. One team would carry for a while, then hand off to the next when they needed a break.
One afternoon we visited a great brewery outside of town. From the patio we could look out at Volcan Acatenango and Volcan Fuego. Of course, no portolio of images in Antigua is complete without the volcanoes!
After our week in photogenic Antigua we'd been in Guatemala for nearly a month. From east to west and north to south, Guatemala had shown us its many beautiful faces. As the stain of its darker history fades, we felt privileged to steep in the beauty of its amazing landscape and its warm, welcoming people.