When I first found out about the Cono de Arita in Argentina, I knew I had to go there. The first image I saw of it was not remarkable - it had been made in the middle of the day and was front facing. It still looked unearthly, and was sufficiently different enough for me to know I had to visit the Puna de Atacama.

These images were made between 2015 and 2024. I don’t go back every year. The Puna trip is too niche to offer it every single year, so I have been back maybe around five times so far. Always enjoying visiting the region very much.

And often, coming home finding that out of all the subjects I photographed, the Cono de Arita always seems to dominate my editing and final portfolios.

To me, it’s a gravitating subject. Especially when I discovered that it was much more interesting to shoot it backlit. What now may appear to be a rather obvious way to shoot it, wasn’t the case before I made my silhouette photo that you see top right.

As I’ve returned, I seem to have developed the idea more, often focussing in on the Cono de Aritas shape. It is less subject and more ‘line and contrast’. Graphic shape, rather than volcano.

I will be returning to the Puna next year, so I’m wondering if I will shoot it differently, how the light will interact with it, and whether the images to come, will be a continuation of this theme?

I think it’s fine to have subjects that you gravitate towards, and keep returning to make new images of. We of course all know that a photo of a subject isn’t enough (don’t we?). We all know that landscape photography has so many variables to it - from composition, placement in the frame and the kind of light that one is working in. We could not repeat the shot exactly, even if we tried. So even if one feels that they have ‘already done it’, the truth is that we haven’t. There’s always another way the same subject can be interpreted, and that is what photography is all about.