Photographer exhibits works for celebrations

As part of the September celebrations, tonight photographer Noel Escalante will launch his fourth exhibition of photographs. For the past year and half Escalante has been touring the country in his spare time, taking snapshots of all he encountered. The photographer says the collection of colorful images depicts the diversity of culture in Belize.

Noel Escalante, Photographer

“I have really sort of tried to just take pictures at random and at the fairs and festivals that are announced. I guess that if you look at Belizean culture and look at the pictures that I have actually produced, you’re gonna find that Belizean culture is very rich, that there is something very important going on in every area of the country at any given day, especially on the weekends. And when they say that Belizean life is dull, I do not really believe that because I think that Belizean culture and Belizean life on a whole is very rich. We only need to look around us and we’re gonna find a lot to do and a lot to see.”

“Due to the amount of pictures that I have taken for this exhibition, the exhibition is not really made up in relation to size, because it would be impossible to enlarge so many pictures that are on display. But the ones that are actually enlarged are the ones that I would consider my favourites, because I gave those special attention. And I have one particular in frame of a Central American dancer that I took at the Costa Maya festival. That picture is my favourite because the dancer has a sort of serene look about her. If you look at the dancer you can actually see the Central American influence in Belize, you can see something spiritual in the picture. Some people have mentioned to me that it looks like the blessed Virgin Mary, but I think it sort of looks like the one of the maidens that is actually waiting for the bridegroom to arrive and she has her lantern lit. So it has a sort of spiritual feeling about the picture.”

The exhibition is being hosted at the House of Culture and runs through the first of November.