During my first months in Mexico, I often spent my weekend afternoons wandering the arts and antiques market that sprawls along the median of avenue Alvaro Obregon. I rarely purchased anything, but it was a pleasant enough means of dulling the loneliness. Amongst the brightly painted boxes and burnished copper bowls, Ivan's photos of rural street scenes stood out. They were, in many ways, the classic picturesque images of a Mexico far from the city, yet they were somehow more real than the glossy insert of a Lonely Planet guide. Eventually I asked if the photos were his, and we began chatting about photography; conveniently, we both shot Nikon cameras. Over time, I came to visit more frequently and chat as he sat and chain smoked and watched over the large assortment of obscure DVDs that was his primary market business. Yet it was his photos, and enthusiasm for traveling, for exploring small towns and capturing images of life there, that inspired me to search for my own adventures beyond the concrete ramparts of the city.
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