Solitude

Color, Line, and Light in the Andes

In February of 2023, I set out on an adventure in the Argentine Andes of Patagonia that became a seminal moment for me as a photographer. I discovered a special sensibility in the glacial lakes, pristine mountains, and windswept desert, that moved me deeply.

The strength and complexity of the colors of the desert, the luminous blue of the lakes, the massive peaks of the Andes, all had a poetic, emotional power. A panorama of color, line, and light that touched my soul.

These 2 images were taken in the same location, just 20 minutes between.

Prior to this visit, I had primarily focused on portraits of professional dancers. Portraits that were intimate and personal, highlighting each subject’s uniqueness as an individual and an artist – not as a performer.

In Patagonia, I experienced strong parallels between my portrait work and the inspiration I felt from these vast landscapes. The strength and complexity of the colors of the desert, the luminous blue of the lakes, the massive peaks of the Andes, all had a poetic, emotional power. A panorama of color, line, and light that touched my soul.

It was a beauty that was complex and compelling, majestic and captivating, but also harsh and unforgiving. One moment the sun shone, and the next the clouds closed in with freezing rain. The wind blew constantly at 40mph, and sand from the denuded ground flew everywhere.

I resolved that I would come back for more.

In the spring of 2024, I returned to the Andes and embarked on the project that is the subject of this book. This time I was 2600 miles north of Patagonia and 8000 feet higher.

My 500-mile journey took me from the Atacama Desert in northeastern Chile into southwestern Bolivia.

Beginning in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, I crossed into Bolivia at the border crossing at Hito Cajónes. From there, I traveled north, through the Eduardo Averoa National Reservation and along the eastern spine of the Andes. The variety of landscape was simply breathtaking: volcanoes, lakes, salt marshes, hot springs, lagoons, sand dunes and desert. My adventure concluded at Salar de Uyuni, the largest continuous salt flat in the world.

The salt flats, desert and mountains have an otherworldly presence. Wide open spaces stand in stark but symbiotic juxtaposition with the grandeur of the volcanoes – at once exquisitely beautiful, yet barren and deeply inhospitable to human existence.

United by the strength and subtlety of their color palette, each location varied dramatically in topography and geology. And each region had its own idiosyncratic spiritual sensibility that affected me profoundly.

A second powerful and unifying factor was the quality of the high-altitude light – whose ethereal purity grew as I traveled from 8000 feet above sea level in the Atacama, to 16,000 feet in the Altiplano of Bolivia.

These were scenes that felt like they had descended from their own special place in the heavens.

Christopher Jones
July 2025