The faraway Patagonia: “Land of the Wind”

This is the story of a faraway land. Patagonia, referred to by many travelers as the tip of the Americas, is located in the south of Argentina.

If you are unfamiliar with Patagonia, it is a region located 5,600 miles southwest of Pittsburgh stretching across southern Argentina and Chile, the last stop before bumping into the icy Antarctica. The grandeur and majesty of this remote land captures the heart of the country with its green mountain valleys standing in stark contrast to arid hillsides and lowlands. Its geography ranges from rain forest to desert to alpine glaciers.

There are so many stories about this largely unexplored and remote land. Charles Darwin once traveled Patagonia on his voyages of scientific discovery and referred to it as “the cursed land”. Instead, when Eliseo Miciu tells the story of Patagonia through his photography book, he names it “the Land of the Wind” (Tierra Del Viento).

When you drive through this inhospitable land, you find the wind as a constant, defining the landscape and its life. The wind becomes Patagonia’s moving soul and during his trips, the fine-art photographer Eliseo Miciu was determined to capture it.

During five years of multiple journeys, he has been depicting the effects of the wind on the life and the landscape of Patagonia, documenting and interpreting this elemental force that shapes everything there.

Eliseo Miciu

Born in Uruguay, Eliseo Miciu grew up in the hills of Cordoba, Argentina between the paint brushes of his grandfather, Konstantino, and the palette fingers of his father, Georg. With a gift from his grandfather on his thirteenth birthday, his first camera, he began shooting pictures of everything around him. In 1993, he settled in San Martin de los Andes with his parents and his eight siblings. Seduced by the colors and landscapes of what surrounded him, he immersed himself in photographic techniques that can reveal the relationship between the environment and its ever-changing landscape. Mostly self-taught, his learning came through traveling and visiting museums and art galleries in Europe and the United States.

He became a professional photographer at a very young age developing a reputation for capturing stunning outdoor imagery. He has produced high quality advertising images for national and international companies and was selected as the exclusive photographer for National Geographic Traveler Argentina.

Eliseo has published numerous books and photographic essays and has been featured in gallery exhibitions in South America, Europe, and the US. His work is on permanent display in fine art galleries in Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as several cities in the US, among them, our very own Pittsburgh.

Last year, MVG Fine Art gallery in Pittsburgh was honored with the presence of Eliseo Miciu, who presented the exhibition appropriately named: Tierra del Viento (Land of the Wind) at the Grand Opening. This was a solo exhibition of more than 10 large-scale photographs featuring stunning images of the land and wildlife that exist in the wind-driven expanse of southern Patagonia.

The exhibition also included his book presentation and an astonishing short film produced by Theo Ribeiro and Laura Belinky who followed Eliseo on his long journey, capturing the essence behind this project. Since then, this short film has won several awards in various film festivals and was selected as a finalist for the 2018-2019 Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour, giving Eliseo the chance to exhibit to a larger audience his passion for this remote land he calls his own.

Be ready to experience a series of inspirational adventure films, like “Tierra del Viento” by Eliseo Miciu, and many others at #banffpgh!

You can see more about his work at these websites.
www.mvgfineart.com | www.eliseomiciu.com