South America at Elevation

Author Photographer
  • Skyler Greene

Camera
  • Nikon D810, Nikon F3
Film
South America at Elevation

A glimpse of the incredible terrain, people, and wildlife of remote Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia


Published: 03-21-2016

Updated: 10-03-2018

About the author

Skyler Greene
Skyler Greene
Born, raised and based in the Bay Area, Skyler Greene is a photographer and Founder and Creative Director of Candy Mountain Collective.

Locations: Atacama Desert, Chile; Salta, Argentina; somewhere, Bolivia

Above four thousand meters, in the middle of the Andes Mountains exists a magical land of vast deserts, pastel bodies of water and volcanic peaks. A land where buildings are made of salt bricks, natural landscapes resemble paintings, and rock formations are extraterrestrial.

The humans who inhabit this part of Earth are resourceful and humble, living symbiotically with their surroundings. Here, the air is thin. Labored breathing makes each step a task, and each scene one to remember. Oasis-like lagoons sprinkled with pink flora and fauna. Strange quadrupeds graze before violent mountains. Oddly striated valleys resemble Satan’s throat.

By evening, the horizon glows with a deep palette of oxidized iron, indigo, and lime. With no cities nearby, no light pollution exists. The sky at night is as dark or as a light as the moon and stars wish it. Shimmering celestial bodies, foreign constellations and foggy nebula clusters speckle the dry atmosphere.

Here, life exists at 4,000 meters.

images by Skyler Greene for Candy Mountain Collective