A Road Trip Through Northern Argentina in 35mm Photos
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For documentary and travel photographer Michael Turek, a trip without a shot-list is rare. Wherever he travels, whether for work or pleasure, he arrives knowing which photos he wants to come home with.
That wasn't the case on a 2021 road trip through northern Argentina. “It was kind of unusual for me because it was pure travel, with very little agenda,” says Turek. “There was no shot-list. I wasn't shooting for a magazine. It was just my own opportunity to see a place.” Well, and to photograph a destination for the sheer joy of it—so he packed a Leica R8 and a Leica M-A Type 127, both shooting on 35mm film. (Turek only uses film.)
Over seven days, Turek and his partner Rosanna, with the help of local guide Santiago and Plan South America, took a winding road trip from Salta, Argentina, past the painted mountains of Purmamarca, across the moon-like salt flats of Salar Grande, and, finally, through the undulating hills of the Desierto del Diablo to a massive cone formation known as the Cono de Arita.
“There's a challenge in photographing a place that huge—how do you fit that into a little square frame?" says Turek of the journey. But the greater hurdle proved to be properly documenting the landscapes Turek was confronted with over hundreds of miles packed with mind-boggling natural beauty. “You go to these places that are, to the eye, astounding, and you may never be able to do it justice. [This is] a challenging place to photograph because of its objective beauty, but the practice of photography is trying to do just that."
Below, in his own words, Turek traces the road trip through the photos he came home with—one attempt to capture the allure of the destination at a time.