Valparaíso

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project © Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project © Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project View all images ↓
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As the road from Santiago enters its last turn, rows of colorful houses sitting on the hillside pass before my eyes. They bring a smile to my lips and butterflies to my stomach: Valparaíso, finally.

I never imagined I would live in Chile one day, it is a stroke of luck, an incredible adventure. Anyone who has been to Valparaíso will understand the siren call of the port, the invitation to rest a moment on its shores. The poetry I saw in Sergio Larraín's images is there, intact. Wedged between land and sea, Valparaíso has a particular aura. It is a city of mysteries and contradictions, filled with beauty and shadows, injustice and solidarity, calm and storms. A true collage. Wandering its streets, I found improvised choreographies, full of life, and moments of tranquility, unexpected situations and others imbued with a gentle everydayness. I turned my eyes towards the horizon and closer to its people, its stray animals and, thanks to these encounters, to myself.

By photographing in black and white, I want to remove Valparaíso from the here and now, take a step aside, ask questions and suspend the answers. While firmly anchored in everyday life, my images are a tightrope between the world I see and the one I would like to present, to imagine. It is a matter of always keeping the balance—wonderful in its fragility—step by step, image by image.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Caleta Portales, 2018. The fishermen at the Caleta Portales took it upon themselves to create a lively performance—with pelicans in the starring roles—filled with grand gestures, shouting, and fish heads thrown high in the air, or low, right at my feet.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Avenida Errázuriz, 2017. A chance encounter that hinges on so little: her, walking towards Barón, and me, sitting in a bus speeding in the opposite direction. The signs on the window of the bus mention her destination, mine, and others that I cannot remember.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Panteón, 2020. Behind the black veil lies Valparaíso, the old and the new, the riches and the misery, the calm and the storms. Mysteries and contradictions.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Concepción, 2017. Those of you who know Valparaíso will understand the siren call of the port, the temptation to venture into the labyrinth of its narrow, winding streets, without even looking for a way out.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Cárcel, 2017. My first few weeks in Valparaíso, I find myself coming back to the Cultural Center, its modern architecture feeling familiar in the rundown seaport. I look at the shadows down below when suddenly: two men carrying a triangle! I couldn’t have dreamed it any better.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Concepción, 2017. Between two brush strokes, and without paying me much attention, a painter shows me his work in progress. Remains the question of where reality ends and where fiction begins.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Cordillera, 2017. A pack of stray dogs gives chase to a gas delivery truck, a pursuit as brief as it is uneven, but a moment full of life, disorder, and adrenaline.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Avenida Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, 2017. Not far from the bus terminal, the encounter between a passer-by, a drab pillar, a harsh light and an undeniable stroke of luck recompose a lifeless urban landscape into a curious rebus.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Barón, 2017. While the circus performers take a moment to rest or practice a few tricks for tonight’s show, I discreetly walk away. On the other side of the tent, two dogs share a secret. I lend an ear.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Muelle Barón, 2017. I wonder what he could be dreaming of, his body set on a bed of graffiti, head towards the hills and heels turned to the Ocean.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Plan de Valparaíso, 2017. Behind the obstructed vista lies a peculiar ballet. Soon the trucks leaving the industrial seaport will send the seagulls twirling in the air; cloud of feathers that will settle back down like specks of dust.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Muelle Prat, 2017. On a sunny April day, the lifeguards of Valparaíso pay homage to their comrades who have passed away. Ceremony at sea—flowers offered to the Pacific—and on land—what is dust will return to dust.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Concepción, 2017. Sitting on a bench, I absentmindedly watch the shadows forming on the ground. A stray dog decides to join a conversation that is going in circles. I barely have time to press the shutter before it leaves for another adventure.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro San Juan de Dios, 2020. A staircase straight out of Sergio Larraín's book, I said to myself as I walked passed at night. Later on, it was impossible for me to find in the labyrinth of the city this embodiment of another era and another perspective. As luck would have it, I moved a few doors down two years later. A whim of time, which is full of wonder and promise.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Caleta Portales, 2020. Late in the morning, I hesitantly make my way to the fish market—it would have been wise to leave earlier. While the vendors pack up their stands and the children play between the stalls, a fisherman washes off with a generous amount of water. It seems to wash his worries away with the rest.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Florida, 2020. In the courtyard of the church, the curious union of the religious and the secular, united by a light that perhaps belongs to one as much as to the other.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cementerio de Playa Ancha, 2020. On Sunday, families visit their relatives buried in the cemetery of Playa Ancha. I am touched by this young couple, so obviously happy. I approach them and ask them if they would let me hold their memory.

© Éléonore Simon - Cerro Larraín, 2020. Electric cables cut through the clouds, the sky, and the hills in Cerro Larraín, so aptly named.
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Cerro Larraín, 2020. Electric cables cut through the clouds, the sky, and the hills in Cerro Larraín, so aptly named.

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Plan de Valparaíso, 2020. Wandering with my camera on the first day of 2020, I only seize moments of infinite tenderness which must, without a doubt, announce a beautiful year. Could the omens be playing tricks on me?

© Éléonore Simon - Image from the Valparaíso photography project
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Cerro Barón, 2017. At the top of the funicular, a stray cat greets us. On its hind leg, a worm. In the corner, at the top, an opening onto the port and the Pacific. The promise of a wandering life, free but on the edge, between land and sea.

Valparaíso by Éléonore Simon

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