Jordan

I was going to Egypt to photograph the pyramids and to go all around that fascinating place, when a revolution in Cairo at January 2012 happened. The eternal cyclical instabilities in the Arab world once again broke … I had to reschedule my flight, after all getting off in Cairo amidst such turbulence didn’t seem like a good idea. But I had not given up visiting such a historical place. I have been always been fascinated by older cultures. Peru had already awakened me by Chavin de Huantar and Bolivia by Tiwanaku, as well as the vast Atacama Desert and its ancestor people that led me to write my first book… and my countless visits to the first class Pre-Colombian Art Museum of Santiago… I wanted, in short, something different, and Egypt seemed perfect – but had become a inaccessible hypothesis and out of question.

Where to go? That night I saw, by chance, a documentary about Petra, nearby, at Jordan, a neighboring country to Egypt. One day later, I had already made my decision and forcibly scheduled my flight to Jordan, the country you hear more about in biblical readings.

I started searching the Web and I liked the pictures that I found… and was convinced that I had made a good choice. I made a reservation for a simple hotel that I found in the internet and then I got right to it: I took off. I was restless with the fact that there was a different alphabet there. I’ve been to Turkey before and I couldn’t understand anything, but the alphabet is the same and after some time I managed to distantly understand a few things… But what if the alphabet is different? With unknown letters? It could turn out to be quite complicated…

I got the hotel service to pick me up at the airport and I hoped that they could understand a minimum of English. More importantly, I hoped they would show up as planned, because I would arrive at near midnight, quite an improper time to arrive at another country with a different alphabet. Fortunately they showed up as was arranged.

I was restless when I got to Jordan, and the first impression I had was: who is this guy? Some model? Actor? Famous soccer player? A man was showing up on many outdoors, at the international airport, on the roads and he seemed to be very important. Who could it be? It was the king of Jordan! Loved by his people, whose photos were abundant throughout all Jordan. Immediately, I figured out I was entering a place with a traditional kingdom style…

In the next day, I went downtown on foot and got scared: how many suicide bombers would I find? Would there be any attempts? What I found were homely and friendly people and… they could speak English really well! In fact, impressively well. I learned that the first king of Jordan had married an English teacher. So, wisely, he disseminated the language to the country and public schools, taking Jordan out of global isolation. That way, communicating there wouldn’t be a problem.

I started going around the biblical Jordan.

My intention was only to go around, find adventure and capture beautiful images. I can say that intention was fully satisfied. I could capture the good images with good wheather which you will check in this book. In truth, I’m not exactly a photographer, but more of a documentary man… well maybe not that either, but a media man. I have fun with any media… ok, I’m not even a media man, I’m simply in love with images, nature, future technology and history. Jordan was a full plate, a very juicy one, to have fun doing what I love.

The images I show in this book align technique and sophistication with my maturity, after all I entered Jordan in my fifties, and like a crazy american guy I saw in a show once said: “the fifties are the summer of existence, where youth still exists; but ability and experience makes you wiser”.

But without further ado, check out the images…

I think it’s interesting to take people, through this book, to different places they can enjoy. I like knowing that I can pass along a little of the sensation that those landscapes transmit… I know my grandmothers (who are no longer alive) couldn’t run the same trajectories, go up hills, climb rocky slopes, venture themselves through mountains and deserts… but other grandmothers may capture a little of this emotion… I know that my mom, with two prosthesis in her legs, can’t walk the same trails. I know my uncle has money but he’ll never go to a distant place as Jordan, even though he is curious about the country. I know many people will never go there, for many reasons, therefore it’s a blessing to publish this book and transmit some of that historical scenery where the great Jesus made his miracles, wisdom that is engraved in the history of humanity and in the core of our unconscious.

Every location I visited had good weather, the light was always favorable. At Karak, I had never seen a spectacle so beautiful of light, the solar rays entering as special effects through the castle’s hex windows. At Karak I captured the sun light in its most plastic splendor. At Petra, even with the cons of the local people and the excess of tourists, just go a little out of the beaten path and you can see an ancient place, silent, of very creative old people that drew sculptural monuments using a technique that today we call 3D modeling, on full rock, uninterruptedly with the called carving technique, base to how the modern sculptor 3d printers work, that today mold in plastic any type of sculpture. They are impressive facades, whittled on rose rocks. I’ll show you a tranquil Petra, exclusive, that reveals itself without nuisances.

At Madaba, what to say about the surprise of the interesting mosaics? Umm Qais gives a good sensation knowing that Jesus has been there. At Jerash, you get to know a well elaborate Roman architecture. And the Citadel, in the center of Amman? With its mystery and excavations, at a privileged place where you can see the whole Amman, monochromatic and so beautiful, with an harmonious architecture that reminds the Greek islands, having in the bottom the great Roman amphitheater. In Jordan I really found historical, ancient and holy places. I was more than satisfied.

Jordan is a good country to visit, it’s a surprisingly peaceful place in the middle of that turmoil of the Middle East, where basic conflicts still persist, persist and persist. Jordan was nice, the people were nice, the biblical stops were nice.