Belmond presents: ‘I lost my train of thought’ | Colin Dodgson

Aboard the Andean Explorer, Dodgson’s lyrical photographs of the four-day journey – from Cusco to Arequipa, with stops at Lake Titicaca, the floating island of Uro, the Colca Canyon and the market at La Raya – reveal a palpable sensitivity to the particular rhythms and atmospheres of a given place and capture intimate moments onboard. Hand-printed by the artist, they are imbued with a warm, luminous glow, a muted and distinctive palette that often evokes the last moments of daylight.

Colin Dodgson is an American photographer whose work intertwines fine art and commercial commissions, distinguished by his adept use of analogue methodologies and natural light. Favouring spontaneity and imperfection, he conjures a painterly, oneiric quality through the alchemy of traditional darkroom printing techniques. His images exude both curiosity and wry humour, often unearthing subtle absurdities through diverse firsthand encounters.

“From about the age of 12 to 20, all I thought about was surfing,” says Dodgson, who grew up in Southern California. A practice subject to the vagaries of currents, waves and wind, it instilled in him a sense of patience and openness that is evident in his photographic approach to the Andean Explorer.

“When I take pictures, I collect things”, he explains, listing objects ranging from a plastic bottle to a rock to a pouch filled with liquid used to sell drinks on the side of the road. “I want to possess them and engage with them.”

His fascination with the mundane and sometimes absurd is also evident in images of a pop-up market on the railway tracks, which he describes as “an anthropological study. There was everything: an orange, shampoo, a dishwasher, a car engine, a door, baby stuff… magical.”

Just like his photographs, born of intuition and chance. Dodgson recalls his fascination with the Dutch Golden Age where still life dominated the art scene with food and plants playing as protagonist to painters who documented the Dutch Republic’s status as a preeminent trading centre, renowned for its global sourcing of exotic goods. Dodgson replicates this sentiment through his Andean photography, making use of a variety of indigenous gnarled potatoes, a recurring central figure in his photographs as he came to learn that potatoes originated in Peru, grown at altitudes of up to 4,200 metres.