“THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH.” - Helen Keller
The Through Line is about the celebration of dark and light in photography and in our lives. It explores the necessary balance in all things, advancing our awareness of beauty while documenting the necessity to love life. Just as a film negative goes through the process of development to become a photograph, we evolve in our own way, challenged with the task of manifesting who we want to be by how we view the world.
- Jay Koppelman
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CHIAPAS & OAXACA
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
14 year old mexican bride with pigeons. San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
School boys wait for band practice in Teotitlan, Oaxaca
Boy with gun. Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
Teotitlan, Oaxaca
Zinacantan, Chiapas
Teotitlan, Oaxaca
Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
A hairstylist demonstrates his technique on a white mannequin to an all Mexican crowd in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Indigenous women leave church in Teotitlan, Oaxaca.
Teotitlan, Oaxaca
Indigenous girl and child in Zinacantan, Chiapas.
Indigenous rug weaver in Teotitlan, Oaxaca.
Haircut in Chamula, Chiapas.
Chamula, Chiapas
Zinacantan, Chiapas
Tzotzil indigenous girl in Zinacantan, Chiapas.
Tlacomula, Oaxaca
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Teotitlan, Oaxaca
Woman at graveyard funeral. Teotitlan, Oaxaca
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MEXICO & SOUTH AMERICA
Workers at Walmart. Ajijic, Mexico
Indian warrior with wooden weapons on the street in Mexico.
Street portrait of a young mexican male.
Street portrait of elderly mexican man.
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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Marianne Williamson
Quechua girl. Zumbahua, Ecuador
Huichol indigenous child. Ajijic, Mexico
“La Morusa” (Breadcrumb). Ajijic, Mexico
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
- Carl Jung
Woman sitting on the edge of volcano. Quilotoa, Ecuador
Old man and nude painting. Ajijic, Mexico
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
- Michelangelo Buonarroti
Australian blue heeler and horse. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Huichol indigenous family. Ajijic, Mexico
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. DISCOVER.”
– Mark Twain
Fishing boat in weeds. Chapala, Mexico
Mariachi/Musica Norteña musicians. Chapala, Mexico
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”
- Amelia Earhart
Woman between the lines. Quito, Ecuador
Cormorant birds roosting in trees. Chapala, Mexico
“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
- Buddha
Cowboys on cell phones. Ajijic, Mexico
Popayan, Colombia
“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.”
- Alan Alda, to his daughter
Huichol bead worker. Ajijic, Mexico
Day of the Dead. Chapala, Mexico
“What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth.”
- John Keats
Twelve year old girl. Zumbahua, Ecuador
Shuar indian. Amazon Jungle, Kuim, Ecuador
“I must not be awake for everything looks to me as it never did before, or else I’m awake for the first time and all that was before was just a dream.”
- Walt Whitman
Andes mountain range. Quilotoa, Ecuador
Dance of the Old Men. Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico
“Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead and those over which we have traveled, and if the feature road looms ominous or unpromising, and the road back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that one as well.”
- Maya Angelou
Shark and Fisherman. Manta, Ecuador
Huichol indigenous girl and flowers. Ajijic, Mexico
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quechua indigenous woman and house. Guamote, Ecuador
Shadows and hats. Cuenca, Ecuador
“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his. Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light. Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties. Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’ Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved. That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.”
- Paulo Coelho
Indigenous tribal indian. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Shuar indian children at river. Amazon Jungle, Macas, Ecuador
“When you are dead seek for your resting place not in the earth but in the hearts of men.”
- Rumi
Man checking out mannequins. Guayaquil, Ecuador
The butcher. Chapala, Mexico
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, diving dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
- Martha Graham
Folkloric dancer. Ajijic, Mexico
Woman in cold. Ajijic, Mexico
“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. My advice to you is: Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine. Go out and try to recapture happiness in yourself and in God. Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy!”
- Anne Frank
Quechua indigenous children. Zumbahua, Ecuador
Mexican weaver. Ajijic, Mexico
“One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.”
- Helen Keller
Child chasing bubbles. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Girls all dressed up. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
“When love exists, nothing else matters, not life’s predicaments, not the fury of the years, not a physical winding down or scarcity of opportunity.”
- Isabel Allende
Young mexican girl behind fan. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
First haircut. Ajijic, Mexico
“I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.”
- Bruce Lee
Gang member showing bullet hole scars. Guadalajara, Mexico
Unexplainable – an indian in front of Starbucks. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
“Let us not judge life by the number of breaths taken, but by the number of times the breath is held, or lost, either under a deep emotion, caused by love, or when we stand before an object of interest and beauty.”
- W.H. Davies
Gang leader. Quito, Ecuador
Young woman in cold Andes Mountains. Quilotoa, Ecuador
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, diving dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
- Martha Graham
Blind musician. Quito, Ecuador
Mariachi’s reflection. Ajijic, Mexico
“Do not say, ‘It is morning,’ and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.”
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Quechua ecuadorian girl. Riobamba, Ecuador
- Man with bananas. Zumbahua, Ecuador
“We are constantly invited to be who we are.”
- Henry David Thoreau
- Indigenous woman in the Otavalo market. Ecuador
- Street portrait of woman with wonderful smile. Riobamaba, Ecuador
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
- Elie Wiesel
- Woman in motion. Saquisili, Ecuador
- Shepherd and sheep. Otavalo, Ecuador
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.”
- Rumi
- Hat maker. Cuenca, Ecuador
- Storekeeper. Otavalo, Ecuador
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”
- Georgia O’Keefe
- Mexican girl in traditional dress. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- Maria. Chapala, Mexico
This above all; to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Polonius, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Prince of Denmark
- La Parroquia. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- La Parroquia and smoke in black and white. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
“Press close bare-bosomed night — press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! Night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! Mad naked summer night.”
- Walt Whitman
- The Balloon Man. Ajijic, Mexico
- The Dance of the Old Men (Danza de los Viejitos). Ajijic, Mexico
“We are constantly invited to be who we are.”
- Henry David Thoreau
- Woman praying on black Jesus while virgen looks on. Guadalajara, Mexico
- ‘Black Cat Bar,’ mexican cantina. Chapala, Mexico
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
Helen Keller
- Man and pork pie hat. Quito, Ecuador
- Woman selling corn. Chapala, Mexico
“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
- Carl Jung
- Man dressed as woman for Carnival (Zayacas festival). Ajijic, Mexico
- Sisters. Guamote, Ecuador
Huichol indigenous child. Ajijic, Mexico
Quechua woman. Zumbahua, Ecuador
Mexican musician in front of church. Chapala, Mexico
Huichol indian boy. Ajijic, Mexico
Elderly mexican woman’s hand. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
“Every young artist has to do it one way, his way, and the hell with paterns. Remember who you are and where you are and what you’re doing. Nobody else can do anything for you and you really wouldn’t want them to, anyway. And mever take advice, including this.”
- Katherine Anne Porter
- Elderly woman on market day. Guamote, Ecuador
- Barbershop. Loja, Ecuador
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Man praying in church. Loja, Ecuador
- Woman selling roses. Cuenca, Ecuador
“Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know. ”
- Isabella, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
- Girl carrying baskets. Riobamba, Ecuador
- Child and bycicle. Riobamba, Ecuador
“What is required is sight and insight – then you might add one more: excite.”
- Robert Frost
- Woman and horses at dusk. Quilotoa, Ecuador
- Mexican cowboys at bullring. Ajijic, Mexico
“For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress, and as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Indigenous tribe playing soccer. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Loja, Ecuador
- Native Huichol mexican woman. Ajijic, Mexico
Loja, Ecuador
- Tribal indian. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Shuar tribal indians. Amazon Jungle, Huim, Macas, Ecuador
- Huichol mexican girl and mask. Ajijic, Mexico
- Fisherman and catch. Ajijic, Mexico
- Fishermen in Lake Chapala. Ajijic, Mexico
Girl who sat next to me on the bus. Moments later she asked for my phone number…. Somewhere in the Andes mountains, Ecuador.
- Lake Chapala Sunset. Chapala, Mexico
Cross and trees. Zumbahua, Ecuador
Baños, Ecuador
Quito, Ecuador
Riobamba, Ecuador 
Armless lottery ticket salesman. Guayaquil, Ecuador
Lake Chapala after rain storm. Chapala, Mexico
Young mexican boy. Ajijic, Mexico
Mexican folkloric dancer. Ajijic, Mexico
Peguche, Ecuador
Copyright 2010 © Jay Koppelman
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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