Quodlibetica

A Journey to Galapagos: A Photo Essay

Written By: Jonathon Wells Constellation 04 9.23.09

Jonathon Wells: An Introduction

My trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2006 was exciting for me because I love to explore the earth’s environments, especially those least touched by the hand of humans. I felt privileged to be able to witness and experience the unusual and rich environments of the Galapagos Islands.

The challenges for me, however, were that the trip didn’t match my artistic process.  Typically, I visit a site tens of times and spend lots of time researching its geology and history, before photographing all the necessary geologic rock types to create a surface/subsurface image.

During this trip, which was designed for tourists, a guide was always kind enough to linger for a very short time (park regulations) when I was struck by a landscape or by wildlife.  The artist in me felt as though I was only gaining fleeting glimpses of the Galapagos Islands.  I basically photographed with a vengeance, hoping that I may come home with enough images to put something together.  In a similar vein to the photography, I condensed my geologic library research from what typically takes days and weeks down to three hasty hours spent at the Charles Darwin Research Station library.  In hind-site, as a traveler and, yes, partly as a tourist, I must say that I feel very fortunate to have gained an appreciation for the character of the entire Galapagos Archipelago as we visited 10 islands in 11 days.

After returning home with the images, I have revisited them many times and faced the challenge of how to put something together. Each time, I see more and come up with new ideas. So far, I have put together a number of composite images of surface landscape scenes.  There are also many images of scenes that captured my interest along the way, such as animals, birds, underwater critters, trees, landscapes, geology, lots of volcanic rock cliffs, sky, etc.  I have played with ideas of surface / subsurface but they live in a “working draft” state.

The most exciting image that I have imagined has been to show how the islands formed over a geologic hotspot or tectonic plate spreading center.  I picture showing the sea floor and a volcano extending to the surface to form an island.

Conceptually, I was taken by the idea that we humans were plodding along, marveling at nature and this unusual treasure on the earth.  I was interested in tourists peering at the earth — at birds, iguanas, seals. At times, it felt like being at a gigantic outdoor zoo, an animal park.  I am concerned that the Galapagos are being stressed by an ever-increasing population of tourists visiting the islands.

With more time or trips to the islands, I would like to have looked at how the local populations generate power for the islands by shipping oil to burn in generators, or what the underground aquifers look like that supply the drinking water, or where the garbage ends up.

Finally, of course, I am interested in Charles Darwin and all that he did to push science forward. He was as much a geologist as a naturalist. I love his geologic observations and descriptions written in the Voyage of the Beagle.