This is one of those projects I've had in my drawer for a while. A trip that didn't get off the ground because I wanted it to be perfect... and also, the way I understand that sometimes the word "perfect" prevents wonderful things from happening.

This photographic journey began with the passion and passion for a digital camera that the Three Wise Men brought me. I was young. I was enthusiastic but didn't know what I liked. However, I experimented with self-portraits and nature. It was fun to go out and take photographs, even though I didn't practice consistently.

I never considered myself a photographer. I felt it was a world of technicalities and a sensitivity that my eye lacked.

Time passed, and digital cameras ceased to be popular, becoming phones. We entered the era of learning to tell our stories, and I had a small blog on Instagram where, very naively, I shared photographs of my travels around Venezuela.

It was on a trip I took in 2018 through 14 states in Venezuela that I took the photograph that would change everything.

I had the image in my head since before starting the trip: an indigenous portrait with marked expression lines and the passing of the years... when we arrived at the banks of the Orinoco River in Delta Amacuro, we got off to meet a community of Warao indigenous people who lived on stilts and such.

It was in the middle of a sudden downpour that I found myself trapped on a stilt house next to a very old woman, with those expression lines I'd imagined. I took a picture of her with my phone.

When I got back on the bus, I was excited to capture the photo I was looking for. I wrote a heartfelt post on my Instagram, and a follower suggested I enter it into a photo contest.

Many "real" photographers applied for this contest, those I felt were "right" and I wasn't. With their professional cameras and unusual work. I wasn't at all confident about my entry.

Well... I won. I couldn't believe it. Not only because I believed for the first time that I could have talent and talent for photography, but also because the prize of this contest would represent my first professional camera.

Thanks to that professional camera I bought with the prize money from the contest, I ventured into photography as a means to tell my travel stories. I created a window through which I can promote destinations everywhere and have been able to achieve opportunities I never imagined possible.

Today, from that window, many people have been able to travel with me to places I never imagined in Venezuela and around the world. Together, we reached the summit of Mount Roraima, we also reached the top of Pico Bolívar on an epic trek, we rappelled down the kilometer-long vertical wall of Kerepakupai Wená (Angel Falls) in front of the Devil's Canyon; we went on safari in Zambia, Africa, we ate Korean food in South Korea, and we even toured ancient Egyptian temples on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. We have given TED Talks and conferences at major companies and universities.

This is another stop on that journey, and I'm happy to bring it to life with you, who read and accompany me. It all began with a phone photo; the rest is a story I hope to continue telling along the way.

Isaias Landaeta