A visual essay by Mario Dávalos
Walking in Slow Motion
A vision by Mario Dávalos
'Life is a mountain.' This is one of the great metaphors we live by. You struggle to go up, you eventually reach the peak and it’s all downhill from there. It was in this mindset that my wife and I decided to celebrate 10 years of marriage: by climbing the highest point in Africa. Landscapes kept changing, as did feelings and expectations. At 13,000 ft, there was no more jungle. At 15,000 the terrain was lunar; the most alien-like place I have ever seen. The air was thin, it was dark and cold and it felt like we were walking in slow motion. When we reached the summit we were euphoric but with no energy to show it. Kili, as I imagine other mountains do, shows you just how estranged from our true nature we have drifted. It reinforces strengths, it breaks boundaries and it marks you for life.
Photography and words by Mario Dávalos
Edited by Bis Turnor
Traveller/s
Mario Dávalos
Artist, Writer and Photographer
Mario is a Dominican artist, writer and photographer. His work has been featured in the NY Times, Discover Wildlife by BBC and Outdoor Photographer Magazine. He is the author of “Narraciones para Incriminarme”(2003), “Todo lo que quiero es olvidar” (2012), “Wildscapes”(2013) and “Africa: narraciones de un viajero”(2014). Mario works in some of the last wild places of Earth, producing images that explore beauty and silence. He is 40 and lives in Santo Domingo.
@mariodavalos_
