The Cardonal Market in Valparaiso is a metal hall in the Eiffel style, which some say was built by Eiffel. In reality, it was an Eduardo with an unpronounceable name (Feuereisen) and information almost impossible to find on the Internet, who was the architect of this building, effectively inspired by the work of Gustave Eiffel. On the lower level and around the hall are the vegetable sellers, and upstairs are the restaurants. On this particular day, I magically discovered a scene that looked as if it had been specially posed for the photo. A young girl in charge of attracting customers to her restaurant asked me what I was photographing… Could it be the cat? Or the man? Or the lemons giving off their scent? Without answering, I showed her the image on my camera’s screen. Surprised, she realizes that she hadn’t noticed the scene, which undoubtedly needed the frame of a photograph to be seen.
This image says a lot about Valparaiso and South America in general, but also about what I’ve experienced when traveling with photography. There are situations where everything seems to be in place, and the balance we’re looking for materializes in our lives. The photographer’s job is to wait patiently, hoping to be in the right place at the right time. In this way, there’s a small chance that he’ll be able to testify to that magic which, even if it’s sometimes hidden, is still there somewhere, every day.