Andres Molestina
Devoted photographer in love with his profession, Andres Molestina curiosity has led him into amazing places only few get to go. He has summited many mountains in Ecuador and in Perú. Travelled all over the globe as a constant observer to photo-document different cultures, life styes and adventures. As long as he lives he will take his camera to every adventure, it’s is his way of sharing back all those amazing unique moments that he experiences in each travel, in other words, it’s his way of being grateful of all that has been given to him.
DREAMS
By all means he followed his dreams and on 2012 he got to live the Shaolin life. Travelled to China into a remote town called Muping, where he lived inside a Kung Fu monastery with people from all over the globe. Lived by the Shaolin discipline, training and meditating from 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. There was no room for pain, only room for learning and growing. Surely was one of his best years, it shaped his mindset and eventually developed a special bond with Chinese culture. Subsequently, on 2014 he travelled back to to publish a photography book about the country «Ojos, Retrato del Dragon». Visited 13 provinces trying different foods, teas and experiences. Each part of the country is an entire world of things to photograph.
MOTIVATIONS
His life of choice is mountaineering. Nothing bring him closer to a sense of living than being in nature, inside the mountains where he can feel rooted to the world, a sense of belonging where all makes sense. He feels that we should all go out there and experience the outdoors, nature has been undoubtedly embedded to us through thousands of years of evolution. It’s a part of who we are as humans but that has been recently replaced by big lights and technology. Andres knows the power behind every image so he created a project called @paraestosevive that tells the stories behind each of his adventures. He shares the photographs to ignite the spark of adventure inside you, surely wishes for you to go out and experience the world.
VALUES
Wondering inside the Ecuadorean Andes, Andres saw that the glacier where disappearing. Each time he visited Cotopaxi he could notice that it was retreating up the mountain. After that he decided to investigate more and found out that in the last 10 years 35% of the Ecuadorian cryosphere had disappear. Overwhelmed by the finding of the studies elaborated by INAMHI, decided to do something about it and raise consciousness about the countries tropical glaciers. Paisajes Efímeros or Ephemeral Landscapes is an ongoing movement that has been collecting images of the 7 mountains with glaciers for the past 4 years.