“Epecuen” by Irina Werning

PhotoVogue community member Irina Werning describes her encounter with Paolo Novak, an elderly man inhabiting Epecuen alone. The photographer created a visual conversation about nature and preservation through his point of view. Paolo s life can be seen as a lens through which we can investigate climate change and the relationship we should nurture with nature. 

Anxieties about climate change can have a big impact on our wellbeing. “Try planting trees, native ones are best as they contribute to the ecosystem by having lower maintenance costs and providing food and shelter to local wildlife”, says Pablo.

Pablo stands at the exact location where this postcard was shot. Years after the flood, the area experienced one of the driest periods ever and the lake is shrinking in size.

Back in the 1920s, a tourist village was established along the shore of Lago Epecuen, a salt lake with healing properties, some 600 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The resort town, named Villa Epecuen thrived for several decades, peaking in the 1970s with a population of 1500 accommodating 5000 visitors. In the 1980s, a long-term weather event was delivering far more rain than usual and in 1985, the salty waters broke through an earthen dam, and Villa Epecuen was doomed. The entire town went under water, reaching a depth of 10 meters (33 feet). After 25 years, Epecuen re-emerged in 2009. The water evaporated due to extreme dry weather conditions.

 "When I heard about 95-year-old Pablo Novak, the only habitant of Epecuen I contacted his grandson to do a project with him. His family invited me to spend New Year with them so I packed my bags and family and we travelled 600 km to Epecuen.

Epecuen, a tourist village founded by Lake Epecuen with healing properties in the 1920s, submerged underwater in the 1980s due to years of heavy rain resulting in a dam break. It resurfaced in 2009 after 25 years due to extreme dry weather, fascinating us.

Argentine Engineer Juan Baigorri Velar was believed to have invented the effective rainmaking device in the 1930s. It was said that his rainmaking device helped Argentina’s remote and driest regions to experience rain, even ending the harshest and long-standing drought. He visited Epecuen twice (in the dry period) and met Pablo who helped him transport the device from the train station to his hotel.

“I am one with my animals”. The psychological bond between humans and animals appears to have important health consequences.

Pablo and I embarked on a photographic collaboration about nature, climate and biodiversity. Unfamiliar with the term "Climate Change," he embodies the vital connection to nature we must emulate. Such individuals hold the key to sustainable solutions by using resources in harmony with their needs. Most of the human population, currently 77% and increasing, lives in urban areas and don’t rely on the immediate ecosystem around them but on complex and industrialized processes to provide for their daily needs.

I am not so naive as to think that the uncontrolled technologisation of the modern world will stop or even slow down. But I did learn from Pablo that we need to be more mindful of what this technology has cost us and the vital importance of direct experiences with nature to incorporate them in the education of our children. To defend nature, we must first fall in love with it. To fall in love with it we must experience it."

Vehicle sales are used as an indication of the strength of consumer spending and optimism about the outlook of the economy. Human beings have become the slaves of economy. And nature also has become an instrument of economic growth; a resource to be exploited for the purpose of economic growth.