This is a photo I took a month ago of this beautiful (at least in my opinion) house which was just across from the Estadio Nacional in Jesus Maria.  What drew my attention to this building was it´s wonderful big balcony just above the main entrance.  The way it was designed for being a house on a street corner just gives it so much appeal and those tall palm trees seem to add to it´s personality. 

So a few weeks ago a bunch of my co-workers, Ryan, and I headed out to the famous Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima to produce a small film about the highly underrated nightclubs.  I personally had no clue that there even existed nightclubs in the Plaza, aside from the well known bars and pubs.  Some of the bars turned out to be really cool while others were nothing more than average dark and crammed meat markets. I was in-charge of photos that night and with the constant flow of free drinks that I received while working I can honestly say that the quality began to take a downward spiral fast.  The video was taken by The Break's very own videographer, Carlos who did an excellent job putting the film together. 


Noches en el centro de Lima from The Break on Vimeo.

Since I arrived in Lima I have been taking photos like crazy of anything and everything that best captures life in the big coastal city.  When I'm not on the streets I spend quite a bit of time searching the web for Limeñans and Peruvians who share a similar passion for photography and art, fortunately there are ALOT!

A favorite website of mine is PeruFotoLibre, which is a blog that covers everything interesting the photography world.  It is also a great page to find out about what is hot and current in the photography community in Lima, like events and art expositions.  The page is in Spanish but there is a lot of useful and interesting content on there page.

Another great photography page is also that of an private exhibition gallery in Barranco called Espacio Exhibe.  Their website has photos from several great Peruvian artists. 


Lastly another El Comercio, the popular Peruvian newspaper has put together a Flash photo slideshow of the Rimac river from it's beautiful beginnings high in the mountains of the Peruvian Sierra to it's appalling and depressing form found in Lima, the countries capital.  The slideshow documents the grim and sad reality of one of Peru's most well known rivers.  I highly recommend this!

Yesterday marked the beginning of the annual art exhibition Noche de Arte which was created and is run by the US Embassy Association of Lima.  The goal of this art exhibition for the past years has been to promote Peru's art culture, this is done through the support of over 400 local artists who collaborate each year close to 500 pieces of artwork. 


Noche de Arte has existed for more than 41 years in Peru with the goal of generating funds to support the needs of several social institutions that lack the necessary resources crucial for their development.  A charitable cultural event that has had great success over the years.

This the event was held in the BBVA Banco Continental headquarters office in San Isidro and will continue its exhibition until this Sunday.  Tickets can be purchased through their website and the times for the event are listed below.

Viernes 22 de octubre 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Noche de estreno
S/. 50
Sábado 23 de octubre, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Noche del artistas
S/. 25
Domingo 24 de octubre, 2:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Tarde Popular
S/. 10 (niños y tercera edad S/. 5.00)


I managed to take a few photos while inside the bank though I did not have a ticket since I was teaching English there but I might just go this weekend.

I don't often post articles about photography but I figured I would share this amazing website I came across today by photographer Trey Ratcliff.  Now those of you who are big on photography may know who this guy is while I imagine that the rest of you probably have a blank expression on your face.  He is one of a handful of talented photographers who has truly mastered the controversial topic of HDR photography, HDR meaning High Dynamic Range imaging.  I won't get into the technical stuff too much but all you should really know is that it is a current method where the artist/photographer takes several photographs of a scene at various exposures, both light and dark and then uploads these photos into a photo editing software program where they are then merged and post-processed to create the final image.  The idea behind the technique/method is to have a final image that captures all of the ranges of lights, darks, and greys to make a very appealing photograph.


Japan - Heartbeats of Time from Trey Ratcliff on Vimeo.


Anyways, back to Ratcliff, this guy has his very own blog/website where he posts many of his photos as well as videos which are all simply amazing!  Now I am not a hardcore fan of HDR photography but when it is done right and not overdone like many examples floating around on the internet, it is a truly beautiful thing.  What makes Ratcliff's website even better is that he offers his readers FREE inside knowledge as to how he created his artwork.  We're talking FREE HDR photography tutorials from a talented photographer, something which is very hard to come by these days with having to pay for it!  I have yet to try my hand at HDR photography but his tutorials are very interesting to watch and I might just have to give it a try sometime.

If you are a big time fan of photography or a fellow artist then I highly encourage you to check out his Free HDR photography tutorials as they are simply gold!

Here is Trey Ratcliff talking at Google.com about HDR photography, a must watch!

Ok for those of you who don't know (either because your not in Peru or because you live under a rock)since last Friday the city of Lima has been celebrating the Grand Week of Lima, a FREE 9 day event that encourages Lima's citizens to take back the streets in recognition of the City of Kings.  The festivities are being hosted by the Municipalidad de Lima and are sponsored by various established Peruvian businesses (Inka Cola, RPP, Cristal, etc.).

Most of the events will take place in the Plaza de Armas and surrounding areas including Jiron de La Union.  The Festivies include exhibitions of various local and regional art and artisan craftworks, as well as music and entertainment (from a dog show to a surprise concert to be held in the Plaza de Armas, word has it that Hermanos Yaipen and Grupo 5 will be there but don't quote me on that).

Here is a link to the main website where you can see the calender of events scheduled to take place.

Also for those currently in Lima, Chilean Artist Francisca Sánchez has setup a huge platform around the statue of Independence hero José de San Martín in the Plaza San Martin.  She titles it: "Yo y San Martín (Me and San Martín)".  This allows citizens and tourists the opportunity to get up close to the statue as well as receive a spectacular view of the city below.  The exhibit is available to the public up until the 1st of November and is open from 9am to 6pm.

Here is a cool video that talks about the project



IMPORTANT: LADIES IF YOU WANT TO CLIMB THE PLATFORM DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.  THE SECURITY AT THE EXHIBIT IS STRICT AND WILL NOT LET YOU CLIMB THE STAIRS OF THE PLATFORM IF ARE WEARING HEELS!

Exhausted from a late saturday night of drinking and tom foolery, I chose to spend most of Sunday hibernating in an attempt to rejunenate my aging body.  When I did finally manage to crawl out of bed I decided to go get some outdoor exercise and headed with my dad to the local soccer stadium here in Chorrillos where the regular Sunday match was already underway.  There I found a few wonderful little ma and pa food stands selling the perfect Sunday morning meal Ceviche with Chicharron de Calamar (Ceviche with Fried Calamari).  Not really 100% in the mood for Ceviche I decided to go for the straight Chicharron platter instead, which was tender and delicious with just a hint of lime and ginger.

I then packed my camera gear as I normally do when I plan my weekend excursions and hailed a ride in a collectivo.  Once in Lima I met up with Zdenka and we headed over to the Plaza de San Martin where I rushed over to the monument platform eager to climb it to the top where I would undoubtly take several photos only to later rejoice at my photographic evidence.  Unfortuantely.........I was unaware of the NO HIGH HEELS policy and thanks to my beloved girlfriend was unable to wait in what was probably a 1 hour line.

Disappointed and anxious to take cool artsy photos we continued along Jiron de La Union which due to the festivities was packed.  It was there in Jiron that I spotted the most beautiful of all houses, a true work of art.  The ARCHITECTURE was like an architechs wet dream, I still have dreams about those columns and the 19th century hard wood floors. Saddly the beautiful shrine to artistic design and possible good old fashion slave labor had been converted as with most buildings on Jiron, into a god damn SHOE STORE of all things!
The thought still haunts me.




I managed to snap a few decent photos while in the Plaza de Armas and even passed through an open art exhibit in the Municipal building.  I really liked this painting.



The night finally ended in Jesus Maria where a craving for great, down to earth cooking came in the form of anticuchos and picarones.  The meal was put together by the local Catholic church on Av. Cuba as a fundraiser for some recently initiated sisters or something.