Shot for the Day (29 November 2016)

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Strange shapes in the desert. Whilst crossing the Atacama desert in Bolivia, I passed through the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.  In the vastness of the white desert, strange shapes were cut into the floor.  Blocks of salt were extracted and left in the sun to dry before being removed and sold.  The remaining angular shapes were gradually filled with the water that lingered beneath the surface.

In the wet season, the floor of the salt flats becomes flooded and the looks like an impossibly huge mirror, making it hard to know which is heaven and earth.

Shot for the Day (08 August 2016)

Salar de Uyuni

At the edge of the world is a place called the Salar de Uyuni, in the altiplano in Bolivia.  It feels alien, set at over 4000m high in the Andes, close to the gods.  With the exception of the cactus, it is bereft of life.  This hostile, baron environment is one of my favourite places on earth.  There is a brutal simplicity to existence here.

Shot for the Day (09 September 2013)

Bolivia desert scene

 

Back in 2011, I was on assignment for Lonely Planet in South America, gathering some new shots for their online library.  This was taken in the middle of nowhere in southern Bolivia, less than 100 miles form the Chilean and Argentinian borders, close to the Salar de Uyuni.  It was late afternoon and the heat of the day in the altiplano desert was rapidly evapourating as the steely grip of night gathered traction.

Temperatures regularly drop to -20 degrees Celsius.  That night was no exception.