Kyle Hepp

April 13, 2010

If you’ve ever ridden the metro in Santiago before, chances are good that at one point or another you’ve read one of the Santiago en 100 Palabras billboards. For those of you who don’t live in Chile or speak Spanish, that means “Santiago in 100 hundred words,” and is a contest where people submit their stories. The winners’ stories are then posted all over the metro for passengers to read. I LOVE reading them. Some of them are so very good. I’ve never entered but I’ve written lots of shorts that inspired by them.

This is what I wrote write after the earthquake. Don’t rip me a new one — I’m not a poet and have never claimed to be!

Esposo, mas Chileno que una piscola. “Te amo mi reina de Estacion Central.” Rie y salgo. Viejo mas rancio que fruta 7 dias podrida. “Rucia, casate conmigo! Mijita rrrriiica.” Camino y no miro. Vagabundo, mas cocido que Maradona, “Tengo hambre, dame una moneda.” Sigo. “Gringa culiada,” dice, y sigo. Tiemblo mas que…8.8. Chile no es mio. Aun asi me duele verlo quebrado.

Here’s a loose translation. Keep in mind that it sounds better in Spanish because Spanish is a generally more poetic and descriptive language. Or maybe I just think that because I don’t actually speak it

Husband, more Chilean than a piscola. “I love you, my queen of Estacion Central.” He laughs and I leave. Old man, grosser than a fruit that’s 7 days rotten. “Blondie, marry me! Sexy lady.” I walk and I don’t look. Bum, drunker than Maradona, “I’m hungry, give me some coins.” I keep going. “Fucking gringa,” he says, and I keep walking. I shake more than…8.8. Chile isn’t mine. Even so, it hurts me to see it broken.

I’m just posting this because I feel like too many people have already forgotten about the earthquake — and there are still far too many people sleeping in tents for that to happen. It’s getting cold.

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April 12, 2010

I love photographing pregnant women. It’s such an exciting time — you can see the anticipation in every move they make. Not to mention that they’re beautiful. I want to get pregnant just so I can have “the glow,” that everyone talks about (except I don’t really. I just want “the glow,” without the baby, haha). Maria Paz was no exception. There was just a radiance and a peace on her face. Oh yeah. And I think that Alberto is just a little bit excited too

Me encanta fotografiar mujeres embarazadas. Es un momento muy emocionante — puedes ver la anticpacion en cada moviento que hacen. Ni mencionar que son hermosas. Quiero quedar embarazada solo poara que pueda tener “el brillo” del que todo el mundo habla ( exepto que no quiero, solo quiero “el brillo”, sin el bebe, haha). Maria Paz no fue la excepcion. Solo habia resplandor y paz en su cara. Y si. Y creo que Alberto esta tambien un poco emocionado

Fall/winter time is the best. Instead of 10 minutes of golden perfect light, you get two + solid hours. Amazing!

Invierno/Otono es el mejor momento. En vez de 10 minutos de buena luz, tuvimos mas de 2 horas, Increible!

This picture might just be my favorite of the bunch. It’s a little abstract, but my favorites always are! I think it’s cool the way the curves on the tree follow the curve of her body.

Esta foto es quizas mi favorita de todo el grupo. Es un poco abstracta, pero mis favoritas siempre lo son! Creo que es bakan la forma en que las curvas en el arbol siguen las curvas en su cuerpo

To me, this picture captures that feeling of peace that I was talking about. Maria Paz looks so gorgeous.

Para mi, esta foto captura el sentimiento de paz del que estaba hablando. Maria Paz se ve preciosa.

Love this shot Seba took of the wedding rings. First comes love, then comes marriage…

Me encanta esta foto que tomo Seba de los anillos. Primero viene el amor, despues el matrimonio….(las letras a una cancion en los EEUU).

Seba was experimenting and I thought this came out kind of fun! Weird. But, fun.

Seba estaba experimentando y creo que esta salio mas o menos divertida! Raro, pero divertido.

I know, I know — every photograph in the world does the whole sun in the kiss thing. But my shot almost has a baby in it! That makes it much cooler, in my book

Si se, si se — cada fotografo en el mundo hace la foto del beso y el sol. Pero mi foto casi tiene un bebe en ella! Eso la hace mucho mas bakan, segun yo.

31 Comments

April 9, 2010

First of all, before we dig in to the post, have a look at Rock N’ Roll Bride. We got featured again for Francisca and Juan Pablo’s ridiculously awesome wedding! It’s mostly the same pictures from their blog post but I sent her over more shots of the really cool details they had, so check it out! And while you’re over there – don’t forget to wish the creator, Kat, happy birthday!

So now on to the post. Seba and I went down last week to visit Matt and Allie because of some really amazing earthquake relief efforts that they’re involved in. They live in Santa Cruz, located near a small town called Poblacion. This little town, Poblacion, is basically the luckiest small town in all of Santiago.

It was hit HARD by the earthquake. The entire town is basically a pile of rubble and/or some really dangerously unstable buildings. That’s not why it’s lucky. Poblacion is lucky because there’s a group of really well-connected Chileans and foreigners working hard to not only help the town (where many of the vineyard workers live) but to preserve it’s heritage. I believe they’ve raised somewhere around $40,000 and are now putting up media-aguas as temporary shelter for the winter for families that lost their homes, and/or using the wood in more permanent structures if the family still has something left of their house to build off of.

Anywho, Seba and I went to down to take some pictures and I also shot a few videos. I’m terrible at shooting video, but we (Seba, with me bossing him around) managed to put the photos and videos into a short clip that we hope tells the story, even if it is amateur. I’m sorry we didn’t put translations on the woman speaking, but that’s really the only Spanish of the video, and honestly — it took us forever just to get this far, I wasn’t about to dally around with subtitles too. Just so you get the gist of what’s happening, she’s talking about her house falling down and how she didn’t want to get out, she wanted to die there.

For more information or to find out how you can help, please visit: http://www.savingpoblacion.org/

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