Scenes From The Armed Conflict

A girl and her father, driven from their
homes by violence, carry away
their few belongings.

Jesús Abad Colorado is Colombia's most distinguished documentary photographer, particularly of the country's armed conflict. And it seems to me that his work lives up to the term 'documentation,' because he documents all parts of the conflict's tragedy and anguish.

Leftist guerrillas; right-wing paramilitaries; the regular military - all have committed terrible crimes, which Colorado documents impartially. Perhaps this characteristic is in his blood, as his family story carries scars dealt from all sides.

During Colombia's La Violencia period paramilitaries murdered his grandfather and a child. Colorado's grandmother stopped eating out of sadness and died a few months afterwards. In more recent times, one of his cousins was disappeared by the military, another cousin was kidnapped and murdered by the FARC guerrillas, and the guerrillas have kidnapped Colorado himself - twice.

An exhibition of Colorado's work, called Testigos, is on now in the Claustro de San Agustin in La Candelaria.

If you go by bike, however, be forewarned: Even tho the Claustro is part of the Universidad Nacional, whose campus is full of bicycles, the Claustro has no bike parking. You'll have to leave it in one of the commercial lots on Carrera 9.

Comedian and journalist Jaime Garzon, who was assassinated by right-wing groups working with the government.

The Convivir were legal organizations of rural residents which often turned into paramilitary organizations.

A crematorium with which the paramilitaries burned their victims.

A woman cries in her devastated town.

Investigators retrieve the remains of conflict victims.

Indigenous people displaced by violence.

A girl holds a photo of her murdered father.

A girl and her mother flee with the girl's beloved chicken.

A happy fighter. 

The interior of the San Augustin cloister.

Mourning a murdered relative.

Visitors in the Claustro San Augustin.

Excavating a mass grave.

A river polluted with oil from a pipeline bombed by guerrillas.

A displaced girl and a soldier.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Ernst Röthlisberger's View of Bogotá

An indigenous man being punished by public humiliation in the stocks.

Born in Switzerland in 1858, Ernst Röthlisberger arrived in Bogotá 23 years later hired as one of the National University's first foreign professors to teach history, philosophy and law.

The machine room in El Charquito,
the hydroelectric works at Tequendama.

Fortunately for us, Röthlisberger was also an enthusiastic documentary photographer, and chronicled soldiers, tragedies, construction work and everyday people. He returned to Switzerland about 1900, but his work was only revealed in 2015, when his descendents donated two albums of photographs to Bogotá's National University, which restored them. Dozens of his photographs are now on display in the Archivo de Bogotá.

Röthlisberger's photos show an interest in dramatic events, such as the construction of the El Charquito hydroelectric complex near the Tequendama falls, whose ruined machines still remain, and the conflaguration in the Arrubla shopping mall, located in what is today City Hall on Plaza Bolivar, which destroyed the complex and also many priceless historical papers, including Colombia's independence documents. 

Soldiers.

He also photographed recruits to the Thousand Days War, as well as common people on the street. To me, those are the most interesting pics: The wealthy in their bowler hats and the poor in their bulky ruanas and dark faces - whether due to heredity or work. 

I liked the photo of the wealthy businessmen chatting and ignoring the indigenous street vendor alongside them - a scene which can be seen today. The bareness of Bogotá's eastern hills is a testament to the fact that residents cooked and heated their homes with firewood. 

Also jarring is the photo of the indigenous man seated on a sidewalk with his legs in the stock. Which is crueler, public humiliation or today's private solitary confinement?

The train to Zipaquira.

Carrying a confessional.

Mules on Plaza Bolivar.

Falls on the Rio del Arzobispo, today above the Parque Nacional - and almost off limits because of muggers.

Note the dramatic class differences in dress. Which side are the rich on?

A mill on the way up to what is now Monserrate.

A warship, presumably from the Thousand Days War.

The Arrubla conflaguration on Plaza Bolivar in 1900.

A view along the Calle Real, today's Carrera Septima, looking toward Plaza Bolivar.

The U.S. Embassy was located off of the Plaza Bolivar.

A view of the Iglesia de Egipto when it stood almost alone.

The Eastern Hills were completely deforested. Today, they are forested - with exotic pines and eucalyptus.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Boards of Memory

When Juan Manuel Echavarría traveled thru the Montes de Maria region in 2010, in a community depopulated by Colombia's conflict, he came upon a schoolhouse abandoned by the fleeing residents. Inside, he entered a classroom - and found the teacher's final lesson still on the blackboard.

That haunting experience started Echavarría  and a friend on an oddysey across the remote region, where they visited more than 100 abandoned schoolhouses, photographing more than 200 classrooms as memorials to disappeared schoolchildren, families and whole communities.

According to Verdad Abierta, from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, nearly 50 massacres took place in this bucolic hill country just a few hours outside of Cartagena, mostly committed by right-wing paramilitary groups against landless campesinos.

Echavarría's work, named Rios y Silencio, preserving a history Colombia hopes not to repeat, is on now  thru Jan. 7 at Bogotá's Museum of Modern Art.

The museum has, incidentally, done a good job of becoming bilingual.

A mule outside of a school, apparently waiting for a child who long ago went away.

An abandoned chalkboard in a deserted school conserves its final lesson.

Photos of abandoned schools in the Museum of Modern Art.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Frenchman's View of Old Colombia

A riverboat at a coffee plantation.

Bourgarel on horseback.

A lifelong diplomat, Ernest Bourgarel was France's consul general and chief minister in Colombia at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. Between 1890 and 1902, Bourgarel traveled widely across Colombia, particularly along the Magdalena River, documenting in his notebooks and with his camera a nation which was growing economically and developing its coffee industry - but also suffering from repeated civil wars.

Bourgarel's are some of the earliest documentary photographs of Colombia.

A selection of Bourgarel's photos and notes are on display this month in the Museum of Bogotá, in its new building on Calle 10 between carreras 3 and 4.

A cargo train.

La Candelaria Church in Medellin.

Working on the Panama Canal.

A steam train crosses a bridge.

Mules and men cross a wood plank bridge.

Bolivar street in Medellin.

The exhibition in the Museo de Bogota.

An old map of the Magdalena River.

Interior patio of the Museo de Bogotá.

Ernest Bourgarel, a self-portrait.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours