Mineral De Pozos, Mexico / November 2016

Two friends and I spent an afternoon at this magical abandoned mining town about a 45 minute drive from San Miguel de Allende. It appears to be getting a push from the government as a tourist destination. It’s being revived from a virtual ghost town from almost a century ago.

Its key feature, besides these mining holes that seems to descend for several hundred feet, are 3 narrow inverted stone cones that are pyramid styled. I was keen to get a photo of them but as I approached to get a low angled shot, this old man came forward carrying a machete. He certainly wasn’t aggressive but as usual, I had prepared myself to offer him some pesos to take some close up photos. He appeared to be the ‘guardian’ of these iconic monuments of a time gone by. Although he spoke no English, I offered him money to take ‘his’ photo, which was all negotiated by improvised gesticulation.

I converted this to black and white, which seems to accentuate the years on his face. Note the dirt and threads on his rarely washed white shirt and the dust and grit under his hat brim. He was curious of my camera. I had a sincere interest in photographing him, but I was incapable of getting him to smile.