Photographer: Fabian Soderstrom
Student, Communication Studies
Ruins of the Ancient City of Machu Picchu
Joanne asked Fabian a few questions about his trip:
Importance of Traveling:
“I think it’s very important for students and staff members of Harrington to travel. It gives us a new paradigm, a new worldview that allows us then to better appreciate culture as a whole. It also helps us to understand that there is much more to the world than what we see or hear every day.” -Fabian Soderstrom
Why did you travel to Peru?
My stepfather is from Peru, and he wanted my siblings and I to gain a new cultural understanding, a new worldview from a country that is very different from our own.
Did you travel with other people?
Yes, my mother, stepfather, and three siblings.
Describe this country to someone who has never been or seen it in one short sentence.
Peru is a melting pot of culture; it mixes the environments of its sprawling, crowded cities, and the long-held traditions of the pre-Columbian Incas into a culture that is unlike any other in the world.
Tell us about what it was it like looking over Machu Picchu.
Looking over Machu Picchu was breathtaking to say the least. I had seen pictures of the site many times growing up, but for a place like Machu Picchu, the pictures in the history books don’t do it justice. Standing from the point where I took the picture, keeping in mind that the site had been built in such a place, with such precise methods, nearly 600 years ago without modern tools, is an incredible sight to behold. It’s even more impressive when you learn that the site was hidden from most of the world for more than 300 of those years; it sounds like a long time, but we only ‘discovered’ Machu Picchu a little over a hundred years ago. All of the rich history, surrounded by the incredible scenery, is what makes the Incan city one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and you definitely get that sense of wonder when you see it in person.
What observations did you make about the way of life in Peru, compared with how we live here in the US?
There is a noticeable class divide in Peru, but on a bit of a smaller scale than what we have here. In Lima I saw families of five or six living in a single bedroom apartment, where the biggest luxury they had was a television. Then I returned to my apartment in the wealthy Miraflores district after a 10 minute taxi ride, where even the public park outside had a Wi-Fi connection, and the local shopping center had a Starbucks.
Cuzco blended the modern world with the ancient world almost seamlessly. I remember being kept from sleep in my hotel room because of a drum banging, horn blowing festival happening that night in the city square. The locals held festivals where they sang and dressed according to Incan tradition, while 500-year-old cathedrals built by the Spanish conquerors still reside in the same areas of town. I’ve never seen so much culture in one place.
Finally, do you think it is important for a student, faculty, or staff member of the Harrington School of Communications and Media to travel? If so, why?
Yes, I think it’s very important for students and staff members of Harrington to travel. It gives us a new paradigm, a new worldview that allows us then to better appreciate culture as a whole. It also helps us to understand that there is much more to the world than what we see or hear every day; that there is much more outside of our own little spheres of consciousness, and the only way to discover what we don’t know about the world, is to continue travel and experience different cultures.
GALLERY OF GLOBAL PHOTOGRAPHY 