PUERTO BAQUERIZO MORENO - A visual documentation of the human history of Galápagos and its first inhabitants, who bore witness to the development of the last century.
At the age of 18, Charlotte Schmitz travelled to the Galápagos Islands for the first time. Before travelling, she had images of iguanas and crystal clear waters in her head; after all, the islands are still considered the last archipelago of dinosaurs, a natural heritage of humanity. Upon arrival, she thought mostly of the inhabitants. What does living on such remote islands do to a person? And how did they end up there?
Ten years later, she returned to the islands as a photographer and started talking to witnesses of the young settlement history. The first people only moved to the islands about 150 years ago and today about 25,000 people live on Galápagos and more than a quarter of a million visitors come here every year. Before that, the archipelago was temporarily used by pirates, whalers and scientists.
In her photographic work, she has portrayed about 70 people including the first settlers of the Galápagos Islands or their direct descendants. she has deliberately not made a classic reportage about the people; the intention is to visually intertwine them with nature and the other images. There are also photographs from personal archives, documentary photos of nature, wildlife and the ecological changes of the island.
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- De mens, een onderbelichte diersoort op Galapagos, De Volkskrant, 10/07/2024.
- Galapagosinseln: Paradies mit Hindernissen, die Zeit, 22/05/2024
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