North Carolina, Raleigh – Through images captured by the camera and the memories of a young Dutch artist, Bob Schalkwijk, who is now 89 years old, we embark on a magical journey through history.
Like every journey, this one has a beginning and in its development the main actor stands out, whom we will affectionately call Bob.
The starting point is the port city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, where Bob was born in 1933 and as a premonition of what his profession would become, at the age of 12 he received the gift of a Kodak Brownie camera from his father.
“I loved taking photos with that camera,” he recalled to Enlace Latino NC , Bob Schalkwijk.
Bob also remembered that his father took photographs, non-professionally, as did his older brother, and his memories abound:
“My grandfather was an amateur photographer in the early years of the 20th century. He took color photos, with a process called autochrome, patented by the Lumière Brothers. I don't have any of his photographs, although I have his cameras, and although I didn't know my grandfather, I loved knowing his story and since I was little I said, "I'm going to be a photographer."
Louis Armstrong, the first photo
With simplicity and kindness, Bob commented that the desire to be a photographer faded very quickly when he realized that “there was no money in it.”
“Then I thought: where am I going to have money from? The photographs could be sold for one florin, the currency of the Netherlands in those years, but I couldn't live like that..."
Bob travels back in time and remembers that the first photograph he sold was a portrait of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong that he took on November 2, 1952.
“He arrived in Amsterdam, at the Concertgebouw, for a concert. Since there were no problems taking photographs, I went with my camera, by then it was no longer my first Brownie,” she indicated.
“I sold the photographs to my schoolmates for one florin each. It wasn’t a big deal, but for me it was fantastic,” she stated.
From future engineer to photographer
Just like the more than 9 thousand kilometers that separate the Netherlands from Mexico, Bob chose to embrace a totally different profession than planned prior to his trip to the United States.
“I'm from Rotterdam, the big port where they moved oil in small barges of 800 to 1000 tons. One day I told my boss that it would be more logical to do it through a tube and that I wanted to investigate how to do it.”
At the age of twenty-three, already determined to study engineering with the intention of building pipelines to make oil transportation more agile, Bob began his journey to the United States.
“I arrived in Texas, where technology was cutting edge. I arrived first in New Orleans by boat and my car (a Volkswagen) arrived in New York in another. “I took a plane, the first commercial flight I took, to go pick up my car and thus fulfilled the dream of traveling through the United States by road,” he mentioned.
Bob first took a pipeline construction course in Baytown, Texas; He later headed to California to study petroleum engineering at Stanford University.
“I was obviously no expert when I finished the course in Baytown, but it was interesting and while I was waiting to start classes at Stanford, I tried to get a job in Calgary, Canada, but I couldn't,” he recalled.
Jalisco, Mexico, your first stop
The twists and turns of life and destiny made Bob discover Mexico, fall in love with this country and adopt it as his own.
“I had to wait four months to start studying at Stanford. So I traveled to Mexico to learn Spanish,” she commented.
Bob, share that a copy of the magazine Esquire of 1958, said that, in Ajijic, Jalisco, a couple could live very well, having a drink at night and indulging in some treats, for $150 dollars a month.
“With another Dutchman I met in Canada, we took my Volkswagen and drove to Jalisco. There I began to see that there were only people 50 years old and up, and I wanted to be with young people,” he said.
So, Bob and his traveling friend decided to change their destination and headed to Mexico City.
“I stayed until I returned to Stanford and took courses to speak Spanish,” he said.
Bob was 25 years old when he first arrived in Mexico and of course, a camera faithfully accompanied him.
“I started taking photographs and realized that this is what I wanted to do in the future,” he said.
“I went back to Stanford, took some classes, but I left the university because I felt more passionate about photography than oil,” he added.
“I learned by earning money and then I got to take pretty good photographs”
in conversation with Enlace Latino NC , Bob commented that he began his career working in the area of commercial photography.
“It paid very well at that time.”
Bob shared that he worked for Palacio de Hierro, one of the best department stores in Mexico, and that he was also a photographer for the catalogs of Aurrera, the first Mexican chain of self-service stores.
“At 5 in the afternoon I took the photographs, developed the roll, and at night I made a 5 x 7 inch print; The next day at 9 in the morning, she delivered the impressions.”
“From 5 in the afternoon to 9 in the morning I worked non-stop. I learned that there are many ways to take photographs, but correctly photographing a cup or an archaeological piece is exactly the same,” she stated.
“I learned by earning money and over time I managed to take pretty good photographs of old pieces that are incredible; Just holding them in your hand makes you happy and you also make money.”
57 years after Bob's first trip to the Sierra Tarahumara
The magazine National Geographic It sparked in young Bob the interest in getting to know other peoples and different cultures.
“After the Second World War I had, thanks to my father, a subscription to this magazine; It was incredible, I could see how people lived in other places,” he mentioned.
And those images and stories described in the magazine, which seemed so far away in his homeland, became reality for Bob in 1965, when he made his first trip to the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, more than 1,500 kilometers from Mexico City.
“At that time, the Rarámuri or Tarahumaras, who I visited, had never seen a photographer and years later, when I returned to show them the photographs I had taken of them, they did not recognize themselves because they had not seen themselves in a mirror either,” he noted.
There were 17 trips to the Sierra Tarahumara, where more than 7 thousand photos bear witness to the Rarámuri population, their ceremonies and festivities, their landscapes and how they made their tortillas and traditional pinole.
Bob's presentation with the Jesuits
Contact with the Rarámuri population, Bob explained, was through the Jesuits who have had missions in the Tarahumara Mountains since the 17th century.
“In Chihuahua I met the vicar of the Jesuits, Pepe Llaguno, one of the most generous and exceptional people I have ever met; An expert pilot, aviator, respectful, defender of the most humble, he became bishop of La Tarahumara. We talked and he told me that we arrived 'at the best time.'”
“He told me to go with Father Luis Martínez, another Jesuit, that he would go to a small town, Tehuerichi, and that there they would celebrate Tarahumara Holy Week,” he added.
Bob remembered that they traveled in their Willys for two or three hours and then the final journey was traveled with mules and horses for another five hours.
“I was accompanied by my wife, Nina Lincoln, and a French boy. I would stop and take photographs of the landscape,” she indicated.
“We arrived in the afternoon, and they gave us a place at the school to sleep. We were well received because we were with Father Martínez and they let me take photographs,” he mentioned.
Could you live like a Tarahumara?
Bob and Nina, his wife, married in 1962; Their honeymoon trip was to Guatemala, to the Ixil region, where Nina's father, Dr. Jackson Stewart Lincoln, had conducted anthropological research in the 30s and 40s that linked the use of the ancient Mayan calendar in the culture. Ixil. During that trip Bob and Nina decided to form a photographic archive. Years later, with his first trip to the Sierra Tarahumara, Bob's gaze was already aware that his photographs would form a historical photographic collection for Mexico.
In 1975, Bob, Nina and Don Burgess, an American linguist and translator of Rarámuri, published the book Could you live like a Tarahumara?
The book focuses on the history, social customs and culture of the Tarahumara or Rarámuri people, who inhabit the Sierra Tarahumara, in Chihuahua in northwest Mexico.
“I published it on my own initiative and with my money; “I sold 5 copies,” Bob reiterates, proudly. Currently, this book is considered among the most important photobooks in Latin America.
“Calm and patience” , Bob's learning
Bob shared with Enlace Latino NC what he learned from the Rarámuri.
“When you get there, you want everything to be fast, immediate. Indigenous people don’t work like that, they are different,” Bob said.
And as an example, he explained what a Rarámuri considers good manners when visiting someone.
“You never get to knock on the door or shout the person's name… “You just sit with your back to the house and wait. And if no one comes out, you get up and leave, after walking for two hours,” she explained.
Bob highlights the respect that exists in the Rarámuri people, remembers the treatment they gave him and the learning he had to be calm and patient.
I learned to be patient. I'm not a very patient man... There you have to adapt to their way of life. You learn to be silent and take your time to respond. .
Bob Schalkwijk about his experience with the Tarahumara.
An archive of more than 650 thousand photographs
The more than 650 thousand photographs that Bob has taken since 1958 are invaluable memories of a world that has been transformed.
Since 2006, Bob, together with a team of specialists, has been working on his archive to digitize his photographs and catalog them into different themes: art, countries, nature, travel.
“My career is not over. I plan to publish other books with photographs selected from my archive,” she said.
He reiterates that to do it there is no need to be in a hurry, and affirms that the “great reward for the photographs I have taken is that people see them, they like them and they say: 'I want to see them again.'”
Welcome to the digital age
Bob expresses being happy for his profession, where the combination of traveling and taking photographs go hand in hand; But times change and so does technology, especially that which refers to the field of photography.
“Photography from half a century ago is like seeing a rotary telephone today to dial numbers. It no longer exists,” she emphasized.
“Photography has changed, like everything has changed. In 2005 I started working with a digital camera and it was difficult for me, because I was not trained in that when I was young.”
Bob clarified that digital photography has many advantages and few disadvantages.
“Nowadays everything is much simpler, you make a 'click' and immediately see the photograph you took,” he noted.
Before, Bob explained, you had “a roll of 36 exposures and to see the photographs you had to take each of the 36. You had to develop the roll, make a contact copy and once the shots were in order, choose the one or those that you were interested; then do printing tests until you get the one you like best. It was a long process, it could take a month to finish the roll and be able to print the photographs.”
Bob Schalkwijk: “corner piece”
After more than an hour of conversation, Bob continues 'patiently and calmly' reviewing Enlace Latino NC the past, present and future of his work.
“I still had a lot to do, but I am satisfied… For the last 10 years I have been working more with the photographs in my archive and going out less to photograph. I look at my photographs from more than 50 years ago and I do so with pleasure; 'I have a good eye,'” she said with a laugh.
The time for the end of the conversation is approaching, and Luis Téllez Cabrera, a Mexican member of the Enlace Latino NC expresses the feeling and relevance that this artist represents for Mexico.
“Through his camera, Bob has documented the changes and events that have taken place in the urban space of Mexico City, from the construction of the National Museum of Anthropology and the Azteca Stadium, the 1968 Olympics, the first trolleybuses, the earthquake of 1985, the impact of all this on the way in which we Mexicans live.”
“Bob's work is a cornerstone for the preservation of memory in Mexico, a wink for anyone who wants to look and understand Mexico and many of the countries that Bob has photographed from the 60's to the present day,” he concluded.
To learn more about Bob Schalkwijk's work you can visit his site
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