DOORS OF SOUTH AMERICA

April 17, 2017 SouthAmerica

We are not the first to succumb to the lure of photographing old doors, but it is an interest that goes back for us some twenty years, beginning first in the small pueblos surrounding the city of Huancayo, Peru. Our collection of 300 best door pictures of South America has been a long work in progress, photographing historic doors across nine countries. What is the attraction of taking door pictures? It’s a combination of visual composition, symmetry, and symbolism. The wide variety of colors, contrasts, and styles by region makes for a dialogue on culture. Many of the doors come from the turn of the 19^th century, some are older. Perhaps the thick wooden doors represent a more organic mode of life before the invasion of plastic, glass, and metal. We capture the doors of the most humble abodes to the massive entrances of Colonial Spanish churches. Both well restored glossy painted doors, and those inset to cracked adobe walls with peeling paint and rich in texture called attention for composition.

Some regional variations in door styles are noteworthy. Peru perhaps has the most abundant historic doors to photograph in its many old pueblos and historic city centers. Doors in Peru tend to be painted dark brown, bright green, or light sky blue. Some are given natural finishes. The mansions and churches adorn the doors with massive protruding iron buttons. And in Arequipa or Cusco, one can occasionally find the interesting door knockers in the form of a human hand. The door styles in Ecuador are similar to those of Peru. In Chile are the brightest contrasting paint themes consistently found in South America. Much of this probably stems from the tendency of beach towns to develop colourfully painted buildings, perhaps as a measure against the incursions of drab coastal fogs. Although, Colombia is a contender for having the most colourful doors. The little visited port town of Taltal in Chile has particularly nice weathered wooden doors, and the historic streets in Iquique, such as Avenida Baquedano, have numerous fine examples. Then to the south, the colourful port city of Valparaiso, with its historic sheet-metal buildings have unique twin doors. In Bolivia, ancient preservation of the high altitude cold weather leaves one considering the ages while looking at the doors in the mining town of Potosi or the salty pueblo of Uyuni. Panama City has very tall doors with open arcs over them to permit the hot air to breathe out from the buildings. In Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina one can find elegant historic doors, perhaps less maintained, that bespeaks of bygone glory days of economic booms. And then in Brazil, the old mining towns have a distinct door style that includes the upper portion being covered by lattice work, an oddity perpetuated from architectural styles coming from Portugal.

Taking door pictures that have any presentation merit requires walking some 10 to 20 or more city blocks just to find each one. Then one must have selectivity in the search, which means not including any visual intrusion of ADT security system placards. Next comes timing. Even finding the ideal door to picture one then has natural lighting to contend with. A half-shadowed doorway does not picture at all and an intruding shadow from a powerline will ruin the effort too. In addition, dealing with obstacles like parked cars in front of a street side entrance prohibits a good picture. If one has enough time a return trip to the door under different lighting, or perhaps the parked car has moved on, then one can secure the picture.

Eventually one confronts the onlooker. Photographing a home’s entrance door may have neighbors or the owner wanting to know why the interest. Some people give the look of puzzlement consternation or the ever popular stink eye. Once in Trujillo an old man asked me why photograph this? The door was older and weathered. Perhaps he was thinking it was poor or dull…I explained the texture of peeling paint and general color contrast yielding to photogenic qualities. Appreciation comes with a level of education and knowledge for comparison.

Then the obvious mechanics: centering the door and keeping its sides reasonably parallel to the picture edges. All pictures were taken with a Canon Powershot camera and none of the pictures were modified in Photoshop. The camera software is generally excellent on exposure and yield good color. Of course multiple shots were taken and the best results selected, which is a practice that nearly all photographers use to get that exceptional image.

And symbolism, the historic doors preserve secrets of life. What has transpired behind these doors through the generations? All the dramas of human family groups, some hiding tragedies, others unimagined caches of wealth. Doors are used as passages to other worlds, places, or times in movies and fiction. The doors mark security in functionality, and behind many is hospitality. And yet the doors we picture are all closed, leaving us the onlookers left outside pondering its significance. Furthermore, when numerous doors across many countries are assembled the collection takes on additional qualities, forming a canvass on human behavior.

Our 300 doors collection