Nothing momentous happened to me during my two weeks in Santa Marta, Colombia. I wasn’t mugged. I wasn’t befriended. I didn’t have any adventures or epiphanies. But I did wander through the colonial section of town*, around the commercial district, into the red-light area, and along the Malecón to the docks where cargo ships constantly load and unload endless stacks of containers (the port accounts for a significant portion of the town’s economic activity). During these walks, I began to understand the spirit of the place, its layered history and heterogenous population. I made an attempt to capture some portions of Santa Marta’s complex identity through my photographs. Here’s one.
*Santa Marta is the oldest continually inhabited city in Colombia.