Rafael Fabrés

Quilotoa Lake, Ecuador 2010

Rafael Fabrés (b.1982, Spain) graduated in Media Communications from the Universidad Europea de Madrid and later studied photography at the Escuela de Fotografía y Centro de Imagen in Madrid. He became involved with  photography in 2006, two months after documenting the north of India and working with an NGO in Kolkata. He is currently based between Haiti and Spain. His clients include Getty Images, and Deutsche Presse Agentur. His work has been published in GEO, Wild Magazine and The Record.

About the Photograph:

“Quilotoa lake is 170 Km from Quito Ecuador on the Panamerican Highway. At almost four thousand meters above sea level, a huge turquoise lagoon of about 3.15 kilometers in diameter, extends into the interior of the crater. To reach it one must descend a steep road of about 440 meters, coming from a small town at the top called Chugchilán. This people of this village live mainly from tourism and local crafts. Manuel Yampa’s family run a small inn in Chugchilán. He and his wife rent mules who bring tourists uphill from the lake. With a height of almost six thousand meters the “Neck of Fire”, as it is called in Quechua, the Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.”