People often asked me what I liked most about Colombia, and my answer was always the same: the people. Before I left Colombia, I wanted to do a project that would help me share with a small piece of what I had lived over the past year. Instead of giving you my own opinions about the country, I took portraits of a couple dozen Colombians (and a handful of expats) living in Bogotá and asked them a question for you:
Scroll down to read and listen to their responses.
All photos shot on 35mm film.
"About this country? Well, all that we have regarding the flora. All the flowers. The cultures, and everything."
/
"De este país? Pues, todo lo que tiene de la flora. Todo la de flores y eso. Las culturas y todo."
-Lina
"Here, you can enjoy the rain
when it rains, you can get wet and it won't hurt
here there are only two seasons
either it's dry, or it rains tons
but when the water falls from the sky
it's as if each one of us Colombians
were a piece of the tropical forest
and we enjoy the water that gets us wet
and we go party
and enjoy ourselves in the rain"
/
"Aquí, puedes disfrutar de la lluvia
cuando llueve tu te puedes mojar y no duele
por aqui solamente hay dos estaciones
o es seco, o llueve montones
pero cuando cae el agua del cielo
es como si cada uno de nosotros los colombianos
fueramos un pedazo de bosque tropical
y disfrutamos del agua que nos moja
y podemos irnos de fiesta
y disfrutar cuando nos mojamos"
-Juan
"Well, that's difficult, because in general there are many touristy places here. Well, that I think... that more people should come here, to get to know Colombia, and all the beauty that it is. In other countries, they're always given an image of Colombia which is only full of the Guerrilla, which is the worst part. But no, not everything in this life is bad. There are good things too. [To me] Hopefully one day you have the opportunity to come back."
/
"Pues eso sí es harto, porque acá pues por lo general hay muchos sitios turísticos. Pues, creo que eso... que vinieron más acá, a conocer de Colombia, lo bonito que es. En otros países siempre se ha dado a conocer, Colombia, como por la guerrilla, que es como lo más malo que hay. Pero no, no todo en esa vida es malo. También hay cosas buenas. [A mi] Pues sí, ojalá un día tenga la oportunidad volver."
-Rosa
"Here is just happiness, here... here is just happiness. Here, we don't have a lot of, like in your country, arms and all of that.
Here we have so much nature...by the grace of God we are rich in that - nature - species, animals, plants, rivers... the people. There are thieves here, right? But, there are good people here. It's not really like how people say it is here ...the thing is, in lots of places we have this reputation because 30 years ago there were the narco traffickers, war... But then, by the grace of God, well... I think things are being resolved... the country is better."
/
"Aquí es solo alegría, aquí...aquí es solo alegría. Aquí no somos potentcia como, con tu país en armas y todo eso. Aquí hay naturaleza, bastante . Gracias a dios somos potencia en eso - naturaleza - especies, animales, plantas, ríos... la gente. Aquí hay ladrones, si? Pero, aquí hay gente buena. Aquí no es como lo pintan ...es que en muchos lugares lo pintan porque hace treinta años hubo narco trafico, guerra, y ahoritica después gracias a dios, pues.. yo opino que pues se está solucionando algo... está mejor el país."
-Fabian