He went for a walk, took a picture and made something he had never imagined: “It didn’t go as planned”

Andres Ardila Larota is Colombian – specifically from the city of Santander – he is 35 years old and has started taking photos For landscape for fun. and it’s just one photography Which led him to earn more than a thousand US dollars and half of Europe’s recognition… all by chance.

For more than four years, Andres turned up the heat of his hometown, baroncabermezabecause of the cold Kiruna, a city of Sweden. A is environmental engineer He had little interest in cameras, and the pictures he took were with his cell phone. “A friend from a few years ago Colombia And took pictures of the northern lights and there I decided to buy a camera and start capturing city landscapes,” he said.

Well, on a cold day in October 2020, Andres decided to go for a walk in the mountains and took the camera. The plan was to capture the snow-capped mountains, but a 180-degree turn and several shots later turned out to be a photograph. It will evoke nostalgia for dozens of Kiruna citizens.

“I turned the camera and took a few shots and on the other side was the city and I composed the photo with the church and the houses in the middle; But it was something unplanned”Andres commented. This photo, where you can see the church in the center of Kiruna and several colorful houses bathing in the snow of the first winter of the yearcreated a Colombian sounding name among the inhabitants of this city.

The city is undergoing a transformation: it will be moved three kilometers away from where it is currently due to land problems as it is slowly sinking. ,The piece I took is about to disappear, For example, the church will be moved to the new center. The photo shows what Kiruna is, a winter town and colorful houses, people feel nostalgic for what Kiruna is going to suffer”Describes Ardilla.

In the same month of October, Andres published the photo on his Instagram where he usually puts the pictures he likes the most and had a certain reach … .

They started sharing the post locally in Sweden, then it spread to Europe and even Asia, with architecture magazines even sharing it. “But it was only when a person shared it in the Kiruna Facebook group that it went viral.”, He says. In this group, dozens of people began to find out who the author was because they were interested in having a memory of the city.

“There I appeared and said I was the photographer and then I contacted a page that sells these photos in frames, puzzles and various things, it’s called Printlr. They They give me 20 percent of what they sell.” Tells the Santanderian.

Another forum in the US was interested in selling this picture and it sold so well that EIn about three months he received over 45 million Colombian pesos in commission This picture is for sale. Andres continues to photograph natural phenomena occurring in Kiruna, such as the northern lights.

Too He is involved in capturing Kiruna’s endemic fauna and falls in love with photography on a daily basis.