Journeying to the end of the world may sound like something out of a fairytale, but photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen has made it his personal mission to travel the Pan-American Highway from Chile to Alaska, using it as a point of reference for his Via PanAm trip. As we briefly outlined in our introductory post on Kadir last week, his Via PanAm trip will see him spend 10 months, visiting 15 countries, looking at migration in the Americas and the role it has played in climate change, war and conflict, and economical issues. Here, in his first of several guest blog posts, Kadir reveals the experiences of the first leg of his trip.
My starting point for the trip is Puerto Toro, which is the very deep south of Tierra del Fuego (Patagonia) in South America. I want to start my Via PanAm project in the most southern town which, according to the Argentineans is Ushuaia, but after studying maps I find out it’s Puerto Toro located on Isla Navarino, just north of Cape Horn. On the map it is fairly easy to find. To get there though, is a different story. From Puerto Williams, the closest town, there is a ferry, but guess what, it goes once a month…..
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
My project is one year, and since my end point is Deadhorse in Northern Alaska I will be crossing fifteen countries in my journey to investigate contemporary migration. So this leaves me with one to three weeks per country; not a lot for a documentary photographer who is used to taking his time for a story.
So what to do? I ask my fixer to contact the Chilean navy to see if they are prepared to take me. And guess what, they are! On a cold, early morning, with the first snow having fallen on the mountains on the other side of the Beagle Channel, a navy vessel is waiting for me. Just two hours later they drop anchor and an inflatable takes me ashore.
Puerto Toro is tiny, sixteen families and deafeningly quiet. Very few of the original indigenous population, the Yagan, are there anymore and it is now a village of migrants who came here to fish. I am in a village where nothing happens, but I have a few hours and am supposed to shoot good images, video and even do radio (I am doing short weekly radio documentaries for Dutch public radio).
Fortunately, I meet some locals and have the opportunity to learn their stories about how they migrated to this sleepy little village.
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
I meet José Katrin who is the classic sailor, raw from the outside and with a golden heart. He drags me to his home to meet his wife Sonia, who doesn’t stop talking and giggling. She tells me that 40 years ago her father took her in a canoe to Puerto Toro, looking for a new place to live, and they never left. A trip which I just did in two hours, took them four days.
Luck, often what you need as a photographer, is still with me in finding more images to capture and some fishing boats appear on the horizon and dock. The cargo is king crab. I find the perfect setting for some images and I see these three guys carrying ropes in the distance. They are fishermen, who have come into the village for a stopover, as Puerto Toro is a popular resting point for fishermen battling the rough seas around Cape Horn. I position myself for a good composition and I wait till they come closer; sometimes you just feel that you took a good image.
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
I have to return the same route to reach my starting point, no other road, just water. The trip back is just amazing, rain and sun exchange places in a rapid space. Dolphins and whales all over and although I don’t shoot colour often, when this rainbow appears I know I better do so.
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
Now my trip is really on its way, I am heading north! 28,000 kilometers ahead of me. Next stop will be Ushuaia. This city is on the other side of the Beagle channel in Argentina and a stopover for many cruise ships. Then into the real Tierra del Fuego, with its empty windy landscape and its farmers from all corners of the country or elsewhere.
This is only the start of Kadir van Lohuizen’s adventures. You’ll find more about his experiences and images from his trip on the I AM Nikon blog over the next few months. You can also download Kadir’s multimedia app through iTunes, where you’ll find his blog, videos, audio tracks and photographs, and follow him on Twitter. Do you have a photography trip of a lifetime planned? Or maybe you’ve been on your own epic adventure already. Why not share your travel photography on our Flickr page.
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