the power lines of Chile

I am weirdly obsessed by the electricity infrastructure of Chile. They immediately caught my attention and i found it hard to focus on anything else..

The fateful first photo of power lines that started the obsession, shot from a driving car in Puerto Varas.

As a dutch/zimbabwean i am familiar with two very extreme sides of power infrastructure- in Holland you’d struggle to imagine where the voltage from your socket comes from because it is tucked away so neatly, and in Zimbabwe you’d have power cuts all the time, see powerlines and hear news of hydro dams drying up which means no electricity.

Power lines frame the street art of Valdivia.

But Chile brings something new, and extremely visual to my imagination of electricity infrastructure.

Human at busstop admiring power lines with me, shot from driving car in Osorno.

The seemingly chaotic has a personal quality: there is no chaos, rather it is hectically organised.

“Muerte al Macho”- power lines underline political statements in Puerto Natales.

Every city has a fingerprint, and I feel like every single line represents a solved problem and a human story.

Power lines in Punta Arenas.

Power lines bring electricity to someone with a flat tyre who loves blue and lives at no. 842.

This tree became too entangled with Santiago power lines, and a bird perches thankfully on a perfect outpost.

This tree carefully grows around the lethal high voltage wires of Santiago.

Chile’s power lines inevitably allow some of the natural beauty to shine through.. Chilco shrubs, nuestros Notros, Gote, Ibis.. the weather that changes with no warning.

Ibis fly over power lines.

the iridescent red Chilco shrubs reach for power lines.

to me, the iconic Alerces pines started to look surprisingly similar to power lines.

A condor ruins my image whilst it inspects an uncharacteristically well-organised power line at Laguna Amarga.

Power lines in the border town of Cerro Castillo.

I initially avoided power lines and tried to find a spot with a clean view of whatever i was trying to frame…

Power lines mock a tiny house that is clearly disconnected from electricity close to Puerto Natales.

…but now i feel like they tell a story worth telling because of all the different ways in which this fascinating spaghetti of wires in this country manifests.

A radio antennae house clearly is connected to power lines in Puerto Natales.

Power lines watch over Jesus as they watch over the ships and fishers of Puerto Natales.

The cold rough landscape contorts the warm El Niño sea winds into beautiful cloud formations, like this beginning altocumulus lenticularis.

Power lines connect a house to the electricity grid.