The last strong man

This is the most powerful photo I’ve taken…

Not because of the lighting or composition, but because of the man in it.

He’s 93 years old. Still strong, still working the farms in Peru, and still moving through life with purpose.

 I met him on a 4-day cargo ship traveling from Leticia (Colombia) to Iquitos (Peru). He was making the journey alone to visit his family. With no help, no special treatment, just his own capable body.

What struck me most was his energy. He spent his time walking around the boat trying to speak with everyone. I couldn’t follow most of what he was saying, his accent was so thick, and my Spanish was not strong enough to understand. but the way he engaged with people said more than words could.

There was a seriousness to him, a weight. At one point, I watched him just stare out at the riverbanks of the Amazon, and I wondered what he was thinking. What he’d seen. How many times he’d made a journey like this before. 

The patience and physical strength it takes for someone his age to sit for days on a hard bench like this, to endure the heat, the noise, the long hours, all of this without complaint.

This photo reminds me how much can be carried in silence. It’s a portrait of endurance, presence, and quiet strength the kind you don’t see often, and definitely not in a man nearing a century of life.