I love this tradition in Guatemala. Everyone comes to the airport and crowds the exterior to welcome home their loved ones.


ahhh. Juan and I are back in Guatemala for thanksgiving. It is interesting, this gift of art that I am so thankful for. To be let into the lives of my clients or perfect strangers, to capture them for one (usually otherwise rather un-noteworthy) moment. There is a lot of power in that. For the life of a photographer, we are entrusted with handling with respect the vulnerabilities of others.

That delicate balance…one of capturing a meaningful expression, a sensitive moment of pain or exultation, without exploiting the person behind the lens, is the ever present challenge of good photography.

Being back here in Guatemala, where my husband and I lived for three years, is to be back in this see-saw of good photography/trite photography. How do you capture the beauty of a people living in the recent wake of 36 years of civil unrest, a corrupt government that we cannot even begin to understand, and a generosity that defies all reason? You got me. I give it a go…but in the end, you have to see this country to to believe it.