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The White City - Arequipa At Night
DARREN ALFF January 15, 2011
Arequipa, Peru is often times referred to as “The White City” because the buildings there are constructed of Sillar, a white volcanic stone. But to me, the city of Arequipa isn’t white at all. In fact, it is quite possibly the darkest place I have ever visited on my travels around the world. When night falls and the streets turn black, the people of Arequipa hide on their doorsteps while chatting silently to one another, the city’s poor dig through trash left out on the curb, dogs bark to one another across the rooftops, drunks ramble along the uneven sidewalks while trying to stay up-right, and flickering streetlights cast formidable shadows on lonely decaying crosswalks.
15Jan
3 Comments
Wow Darren, the pictures are really beautiful in their own dark sort of way. Nice narrative too. Looks like a fair place for someone to try and mug you. I’d be careful if you continue to wander at night.
I have been her a week and I can’t say that your pics are truly representative. I just cycled at night from the bus depot to the centre and certainly the whole of the old town is well lit. Having just spent the weekend cycling with Team Inter a local mountain cycling club they were generous to a fault and not at all furtive. I do hope you find more to enjoy here and your impressions develop more positively.
Alan, you are right. The city as a whole doesn’t look like this. I’ve taken some creative license with the photos here. I wasn’t trying to document your average city street in Arequipa. That would be boring! Instead, I went out in the early morning hours when the city is at its darkest and photographed some of the most interesting places I could find. I don’t dislike Arequipa just because I said the place was dark and there were drunk people walking around. I just think the architecture and the layout of the city makes it a very mysterious sort of place when you walk around at 2 in the morning. I’ve been here for more than three weeks and spent a number of nights wandering around the city on my own… and this is the way I chose capture the city. It’s not the way everyone sees the city obviously… and that’s why I liked taking these photos. The photographs were a challenge for me… and they show a side of Arequipa that most people don’t see.
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