Last month I was delighted to shoot the opening of JOSA Tulum – a fashionable little addition to Tulum’s budding boutique lineup. Headed by Joanne Salt and Ana Cabello, JOSA Tulum is a perfect fusion of Tulum and New York City. The goal and concept of JOSA is to provide women with dresses that can be tossed into a beach bag in the morning and are there on hand throughout the day as a cover-up, yet are stylish and sexy enough to take you into the evening hours for a late cocktail or a glamorous dinner – the perfect go-to dress for all occasions. My personal opinion – these dresses are sexy, gorgeous and everyone should have one! Explore more on www.josatulum.com and become their fan on facebook.

In the south of Mexican state of Campeche, only 35 kilometers from the border with Guatemala, there sits buried in the jungle an enormous and forgotten Mayan capital city Calakmul. It’s difficult to get to because of the thick surrounding jungle and only one dirt road leading through it to the ruins. But the hours of bouncing up and down along this road are well worth it because Calakmul is truly a magnificent archeological site and happens to be my personal favorite! The enormous stepped pyramid structures and the overall infrastructure of the city serve as one of the best examples of direct incorporation of Mayan cosmology into the ancient tradition’s architecture and urban planning. The core area of Calakmul is approximately 2 square kilometers, containing 1000 structures, most still in the process of being uncovered by archeologists. The city axis were predetermined by cardinal directions, while ritual temples, observatories and governmental buildings were constructed according to the Maya interpretation of star orbits. Large platforms and plazas were connected by causeways called ‘sacbe.’ Amazingly, the city’s water supply was collected with the help of an intricate system of canals and large fresh-water reservoirs, estimated to have supported from 50,000 to 100,000 people!

The name ‘Calakmul’ literally translates to mean ’City of Two Adjacent Pyramids’ and during most of the Classic Period (250-900 CE) in the chronology of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica it was a warrior city and a major seat of  power  to the inhabitants of the era’s so-called Kingdom of the Snake. Calakmul’s population is estimated to have been 50,000 people and its dominions included areas as far away as 150 kilometers! Throughout the Classic Period, Calakmul maintained an intense rivalry with another major city of Tikal in today’s Guatemala, and the political relationship and maneuverings of these two cities attest to an ongoing struggle between two Maya superpowers. Wandering around the site, for the most part completely alone, you can almost hear the echoes of that forgotten world… Perhaps with the help of this slideshow you’ll be able to hear them as well.

It was a great pleasure to take part in helping out Santa during the project’s 2011 chapter. Please visit the Juguetón Baxal-Paal Facebook page to find out more and/or to offer your own support. A special thanks goes to Mexico Kan Tours, local travel agency who sponsored this season’s cheerful Mayan Christmas story.

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]]> http://everystring.com/2011/12/santa-comes-to-maya-land/feed/ 0 http://everystring.com/2011/12/welcome-to-playa-azul/ http://everystring.com/2011/12/welcome-to-playa-azul/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:09:45 +0000 anutus http://everystring.com/?p=874

For my latest assignment I was hired to shoot Playa Azul Hotel in Tulum, Mexico. It happens to be one of my long-time favorite establishments in the area, so I was thrilled about the opportunity to play freely on its beach turf. Playa Azul has all the trappings of what Tulum has become famous for – pristine white-sand beach lined with lush tropical gardens, hammocks swaying under palm trees, and accommodations of rooms and free-standing cabañas with a perfect balance of rustic and modern comfort. Conveniently, there’s a great beachside bar and restaurant to quench your cravings for local flavors and even a sports club for the hyperactive guest in search of a kitesurfing lesson or a kayak adventure. To top things off, Playa Azul frequently hosts live dj sessions, acoustic musical events and destination dream-weddings.

Yet all the Caribbean details aside, what’s truly unique about Playa Azul for me, is the undeniably Catalan influence in its ambience. Manifested into life by one of the hotel owners hailing from Barcelona, it feels as if Miró and Picasso reincarnated in Mexico and put together a perfectly laid-back Caribbean beach hotel. Exploring Playa Azul’s humorous and unrestrained collection of discarded objects repurposed for new use as furniture, lamps and chandeliers crafted out of otherwise useless glass bottles, and other curiosities hauled to Tulum from markets in Oaxaca, I often felt like I was on a photographic treasure hunt. The slideshow above includes some of my favorite finds from the shoot.

www.playaazultulum.com

When I first moved to Tulum, I couldn’t stop shooting sunsets. Now, two years later, I’m still shooting them. To mark the second anniversary of my tumultuous relationship with Mexico, I want to share this second installment of Tulum Sunsets series. And here is the first if you’d like to revisit.

In September, the ancient and beautiful city of Venice, Italy, inspired me to begin including cityscapes to my blog’s current photography repertoire. It often seems like another life, but before relocating to a small town of Tulum on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, I had always been an urban dweller. As such, the experience of suddenly living in close connection with nature drastically enhanced my understanding of our existence and its interconnectedness with the planet and entire universe. Therefore it’s not surprising that as a reaction, main focus of my photography during this time of enormous transition predominantly dealt with subjects directly or loosely connected to nature. Two years later, I’m getting used to the continuously changing sky and the ripple effect of that experience is now expanding my field of vision to focus on previously excluded urban subjects. With my new eyes I’m looking back at cities and trying to make sense of how I’ve changed.

It’s premature to say what shall be revealed in this process, though one thing is certain – I’m completely fascinated with cycles of light in urban spaces. From New York City, to Chicago, to Venice, to Brussels, to Bruges and Antwerp this fall, I noticed myself mostly paying attention to how depending on location of the city, its seasonal weather and structural patterns, the positioning and angle of the sun control the qualities of shadow, mood, culture and flow of local life itself… Incidentally, I think it’s quite appropriate to begin the series with my images of Venice, thus paying homage to the city whose natural lighting has inspired artists of every generation.

As I write this post on my Apple MacBook Pro at a friend’s apartment in Brussels, I am delighted to relive every moment captured during my September shoot at Coco Tulum Hotel. I love Europe so dearly, especially the brisk October weather up north, yet this particular slideshow makes me realize yet again that more than any particular place in the world, what I actually love most is my job! Photography, writing and all the amazing technology tools available today, allow me the luxury of complete geographical flexibility as well as ability to share the magic of places like Coco Tulum in Mexico from all the way across the Atlantic! For me, despite all our global and territorial problems, moments like this make the entire planet feel like home. Therefore, as I send big love to all my friends at Coco and in Tulum, I also want to take this opportunity to express enormous thanks to someone who may seem completely disconnected from this story, but actually has everything to do with it – namely my personal hero, Steve Jobs. Sad as I am about this great man’s untimely passing this week, I celebrate his enduring legacy in a very personal way because years before becoming so ubiquitous, his ‘bite-the-apple’ logo inspired me to listen to my inner voice and drastically switch universities in order to follow a career in graphic design. To this day it never ceases to amaze me how this choice made so long in the past, ultimately paved the road to living my dream in the present…

In the meantime, I hope that all who read my blog, wherever you are in the world, will share with me this little bit of Caribbean warmth by watching the Coco Tulum slideshow. And if you have the option, do yourself a favor, visit www.cocotulum.com and book a trip to this haven of beauty and simplicity, where you can slow down time and reflect on your own dreams.

What happens when you put a photographer in front of the camera? Well, very good things. Especially when the subject is a documentary photographer Masha Osipova. Born in Moscow and grown up in Amsterdam, this talented young lady moved to Mexico with a heartfelt mission and a unique perspective. Among several intriguing projects, Masha’s long-term documentary work is about the Lacandon Maya, a group of people living in the state of Chiapas and deriving their name from the Lacandon Jungle, which lies along the Mexican side of the Usumacinta River and its tributaries. The Lacandon are one of the most isolated and culturally conservative of Mexico’s native peoples. Almost extinct in 1943, today their population has grown significantly, yet remains small, at approximately 650 speakers of the Lacandon language.

Having previously embarked on personal expeditions to the homeland of Lacandon Maya, Masha will currently be based in San Cristobal de las Casas. There she will collaborate with Casa Na Bolom, a non-profit organization, museum and research center founded by the late archeologist Frans Blom and his photographer wife Gertrude Duby Blom. The center is also dedicated to the protection of Lacandon Maya and preservation of Chiapas rain forest.

I want to thank Masha for her quick and genuine friendship, for sharing with me her story, and for greatly inspiring me in the process! I also want to take this opportunity to showcase Masha Osipova’s website with previous work completed in Russia, as well as her blog. Stay tuned when I follow up on the story later this fall in Chiapas.

http://mashaosipova.com
http://globalista.tumblr.com

I felt like putting together some images depicting Mexico’s typical gastronomic staples. Personally, I can’t live without mango.