When I made these photographs I had not taken pictures of people before and wasn't brave enough to do so yet. However, the physical town of Valparaíso reflects its people beautifully. Before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, Valparaíso was a booming town, and a necessary stop for all ships trying to cross South America. The resulting cultural diversity is reflected in its architectural diversity. The passing of the decades and the subsequent economic changes is reflected too, as is the spontaneous and colorful nature of the people.  

     Doors and windows are what connect and divide us from the rest of the world. There is something particularly organic and beautiful about the physical structures of Valparaíso's homes that speaks of the elasticity of time. As Henry Fox Talbot said with his photograph The Open Door, doors represent the changes that come with time. 

     I will never forget a neighbor in Valparaíso who spent all day looking out of the window. She watched everything that happened and never said a word. She must have been a hundred years old and was content to watch time continue forth. That window connected her to the outside world, which she had stopped setting foot in long ago. 

     Doors and windows also represent an attempt at order as we try our best to control our privacy. We often live in two very different worlds: one in our house and one outside.

     As Roy Cooter wrote in his book Stories From LA, "Behind every door, a strange world."