The fictions of Mario Vargas Llosa
For Andes, a book published by the National Geographic Society in 2001, Nobel Prize winning author Mario Vargas Llosa wrote twenty short stories inspired by my photos. He authorized me to publish his texts along with the photographs, in this website.
In the introduction to Andes he wrote: “In Pablo Corral’s photographs there is always hope, an affirmation of life, a will for survival in even the worst adversity, that is seen in the most humble and mistreated–whether by their fellows or by natural catastrophes. And perhaps the images depicting the ability to survive, to withstand the elemental and terrible conditions in which life is lived, are the most persuasive and forceful of the collection. These photographs introduce us to beings weighed down by the oppression of centuries, people who have been exploited and then forgotten, people condemned to live amid precarious conditions and the constant awareness of death. And yet, nothing has dimmed the joy for life, for celebrating fiestas, for dressing in costumes and dancing to the stirring music of village bands, for parading saints and virgins in sumptuous processions.”
Introduction of the book 25
Photography has the unique ability to call up our past. Its journalistic, scientific, and commercial uses represent just a tiny percentage of the images captured around the world each day. The vast majority of people take photographs simply to remember.
When we press the shutter, we are saying Here I am; This moment matters, I matter; These are the people I love; I wish this moment would last. When we take photographs, we are rebelling against death, rebelling against the passing of time. This subversive act is the human act par excellence — only we humans are conscious of the passing of time, so only we humans can conceive the impossible: stopping it, freezing it.
Talks & Interviews
Recording of a keynote presentation that I gave at the 2008 Educational Travel Conference, in Baltimore. I talk about my work and what I’ve learned from being a photographer. The parts where I showed my work were removed from this recording.