In Valparaiso, I spent a month selling my photos on the Atkinson Passage. This pleasant promontory in the Cerro Conception neighborhood used to be one of the most luxurious places in the city. Until the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914, Valparaiso was the main stopover for ships traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The English settled here to trade in the early 19th century and left a lasting impression on the city. On Atkinson Passage, you’ll still find a row of houses built in true British style, each with its own private garden. Below, the flat part of the city, the harbor and the Pacific Ocean come into view, which you can still see if you ignore the questionable buildings erected in the 1970s…
This man may not be a relic of the flourishing 19th century, but he’s undoubtedly part of its legacy, as his well-tailored style seems to attest. Late in the afternoon, after the sun had turned, this gentleman passed by my photo sales stand, and his daily walk seemed to me to be a challenge that he met brilliantly each time. I called this photo «On the Downward Slope» because, despite the straight gaze, the vertical stripes, and the feet on a flat surface, everything in this photo slopes downward: the inclination of the stick, the staircases in the building behind, and even the clouds…