Journey 03 · Chile
The Driest Light
Atacama on slow film
Published 12 Jun 2026 · Travelled 4–12 May 2026
- 9 moments
- 9 days
- 266 km
- Spring
- Chile
- 105mm · f/8 · 1/500 · Ektar 100
- 22.9110° S, 68.2000° W
- Frame 2, roll one
- San Pedro de Atacama
- 15:40
- 22°C, dry wind
First afternoon, still dizzy from the altitude, I watched a dust devil walk through the edge of town past the adobe walls with Licancabur standing witness behind. Nobody else looked up. Here the desert's moods are just weather; only visitors call them omens.
- 105mm · f/16 · 1/60 · Ektar 100
- 22.9170° S, 68.2900° W
- Frame 5, roll one
- Valle de la Luna
- 18:10
- 16°C, clear, cooling fast
Valle de la Luna is ridge after ridge of salt-crusted rock arranged like crumpled kraft paper. The crust glitters if you crouch, which at 2,400 metres you do carefully. I gave the big amphitheatre one frame at f/16 and trusted Ektar with the reds. It did not disappoint.
- San Pedro de Atacama
- 21:00
Parts of this desert have recorded no rainfall in the entire history of measurement. My film, rated for humidity it will never see again, went flat and perfect in the holder like it was home.
- 105mm · f/8 · 1/250 · Ektar 100
- 22.3350° S, 68.0100° W
- Frames 1–3, roll two
- El Tatio geysers
- 06:35
- -10°C, minus ten, dead clear
Alarm at four, van at five, minus ten at the top and the geyser field steaming like a city of kettles. The columns only stand in the cold hour; by nine they are gone. My shutter, veteran of Hokkaido, worked without complaint, which felt like loyalty.
- 105mm · f/4 · 1/500 · Ektar 100
- 22.5900° S, 68.0700° W
- Frame 6, roll two
- Machuca wetland
- 09:50
- 4°C, thin sun
At the wetland above Machuca a llama in a red ear tassel walked over and inspected the tripod, the bag, and me, in that order of importance. It stood exactly where the frame wanted it for as long as I deserved. The herder up the slope laughed at us both.
the tassel means it is somebody's. everything here is somebody's
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/250 · Ektar 100
- 23.0500° S, 68.2200° W
- Frames 2 and 7, roll three
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/250 · Ektar 100
- 23.0500° S, 68.2200° W
- Frames 2 and 7, roll three
- Salar de Atacama
- 11:20
- 18°C, hard light
Morning at a lagoon in the salar, an eye of impossible blue set in white crust. Afternoon on the big dune, where the ridge line takes footprints and keeps them for weeks. The desert does not mind being walked on. It minds being hurried.
- 105mm · f/2.4 · 90 s · Portra 400
- 22.9500° S, 68.1500° W
- Frame 1, roll four
- Outside San Pedro
- 23:30
- 2°C, perfectly clear
The Belgian from the hostel took me out past the last streetlight and named things for an hour. I put the 67 on the tripod, opened the shutter, and counted ninety seconds under a Milky Way with real weight to it. One frame of night on a roll of day. It came back with more stars than judgement.
Overheard · Road to the salar · 10:05
"You came with that big old camera? One photo, one minute?" — "Sometimes one photo, one hour." — "Then you and the desert will get along. It has been making one photo for ten million years."
- Laguna near the altiplano
- 07:05
- -3°C, still, first light
- Last frame
Last dawn, a lagoon out toward the altiplano, no wind. The volcano came up out of the dark and then came up again in the water, symmetrical as a playing card. I exposed the final frame of the trip, wound on to nothing, and stood there while the colour changed with the film already finished. You have to let the last one go.
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/30 · Ektar 100
- 23.4800° S, 67.6500° W
- Frame 10, roll five
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Nine days, nine stories
- Frames exposed
- 61
- Altitude at El Tatio
- 4,320 m
- Humidity, average
- 8%
- Lip balm, tubes
- 2
- Favourite moment
- The volcano arriving in the lagoon at dawn, upside down and perfect
- Best food
- Cazuela at a family kitchen behind the artisans' market, broth against the altitude headache
