Eugeni Gay Marín
From Quantum Island
ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT
La Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca is located at 3800m altitude. An old sacred place, legends say Manco Capac and Mamma Occlio departed from there to establish the city of Cusco and the Inca empire. Today it is inhabited by three Aymara communities. Two and a half hours by boat from the nearest town, it has remained relatively isolated for a long time, until the entry not many years ago of tourism and motorboats.
The island kept ancestral rites, sacrifices of llamas or night ceremonies at mountain tops. It is a magical place, eagles predict the fate of people, are able to predict death, flying women, light entering the lake, gold comes and goes, souls who attack by night, a sacred city sunk around and some even believe the island is the ark of Noah and that the Titicaca Lake originated during the Global Flood. They live in harmony with the earth, growth, grazing animals and fish, the lake gives them life. Offerings are made to Pachamama every time they drink, when they kill animals, in ceremonies with coca leaves.
I went there for the first time in 2006 and since then I have returned 4 times, first attracted by the landsacape and the sense of calmness I found there, later I began to realize that the island was much more than just that, it was a way of understanding the world around us completely different from the Western vision, other values, other priorities, which have made this place so special.
Bio
Born in Barcelona in 1978. Eugeni Gay Marín has been working as a photographer and teacher since 2003. His images have been published in various media such as El País Semanal or Lonely Planet, and he has participated in two collective books and has been selected to show his work in several festivals. In 2010 Eugeni Gay Marín co-founded El Observatrio project, specialized in monitoring photographic student work and in 2014 he began Fotoholica, a digital retouching company for photographers.
In 2014 he won the photography FNAC New Talent in Spain for the work “From Quantum Island”. This project was exposedin the Voices Off festival in Arles and won the “Le prix Révèlation SAIF 2014”.
I love the mood in this essay…nice ethereal cold feeling throughout….
Somehow #3 and #12 seem out of place. They almost kill the vibe I get from the rest.
I had to look up his name in google to find his website.
There is nothing in “related links” below his bio.
http://www.eugenigay.com/project/desde-la-isla-cuantica/
1,11 and 20 are painting. lovely images. thanks.
@ EUGENI:
Felicitaciones por la publicación! I’m pretty sure that the Arles experience with your pictures hanged on the wall was really great.
Shine. P.
Darn! I am so disappointed! I was slowly clicking through this on full-screen mode, becoming completely wrapped up in every image, and then suddenly I clicked and the picture did not change. I had reached the end. I wanted to just keep going, to stay in this world for awhile yet. Sometimes, 20 photos is just not enough.
Brilliant, Eugeni Gay Marin!
Carlo, thank you for catching that the link to Eugeni’s website was missing! I have added it in.
Love the mystery and the connection to the spiritual and the past, particularly in no. 13, 15, 16, 17 and 20. I agree with Carlo about no. 3 (considering that no. 9 works better) and, possibly, about no. 12 taking something away from the flow of the rest. Also love the colors that you get in the altiplano.
What puzzles me is the “Quantum Island” of the title. Having googled it in English and in Spanish, I get the sense that’s its New Age, forgive me, “babble.” That, to me, takes away from the deeper feelings that this series evokes of the ancient past and of the Aymara today — unless there is another meaning to the term “Quantum Island” that I have missed.
—Mitch
Love the clouds.
Great job! The color and the mix of portraits, landscapes, clouds, fire… An open door to a “mysterious” world…
cheers
I enjoyed your essay. Great work.