In the middle of the twentieth century, the self-taught German-Paraguayan photographer, Klaus Henning, pointed his camera around Paraguay’s capital city of Asunción and the surrounding countryside, capturing the country at its best. To make a living, he sold his now classic images in the then familiar form of picture postcards. These pictures made their way around the world and spread the beauty of Paraguay’s people, buildings, and landscapes to those who may have never seen (or even heard of) Paraguay before. His images are some of the first color pictures of Paraguay that traveled via airmail around the world. Sent home by tourists, missionaries, businesspeople, and foreign journalists, Henning’s postcards were among the first modern blogs about Paraguay. They contained images of Paraguay on the front with words written by Paraguay’s sojourners on the back.
POSTCARD BY KLAUS HENNING. IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION OF THE FAMILY.
POSTCARD BY KLAUS HENNING. IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION OF THE FAMILY.
Paraguay has changed dramatically since the days of Klaus Henning’s photographs. But there are still photographers – digital ones these days – capturing Paraguay’s charming life and vistas. One of them is my dear friend Ana Silke Vera-Schmidt. Ana does not live in Asunción, as did Henning; rather, she lives in the vast wilderness of the Paraguayan Chaco, where she and her husband make their living managing a ranch located 70 kilometers from Filadelfia. Ana has been posting her photos of the ranch and the wilderness that surrounds her home for a few years on Facebook. She captures a part of Paraguay seen by few people on this planet. These images of exotic animals, quiet vistas, and vast landscapes have been filling my Facebook feed for years. I always enjoy them. Today, ParaguayAcademics.org shares her photos with a broader audience. Her images serve as the front of a modern postcard.
PHOTO BY ANA SIKLE VERA-SCHMIDT. WORKERS ON RANCH IN THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO. USED WITH PERMISSION.
PHOTO BY ANA SILKE VERA-SCHMIDT. COW WITH WILDLIFE, PARAGUAYAN CHACO. USED WITH PERMISSION.
PHOTO BY ANA SILKE VERA-SCHMIDT. TAGUA ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, PARAGUAYAN CHACO. USED WITH PERMISSION.
Today’s “postcard writers” about and from Paraguay are friends and colleagues. They are those who obsess about Paraguay daily; who write about it often, but find few places to share their thoughts, ideas, research, and observations. This blog affords them (and me) this rare, and perhaps poignant, opportunity. In the near future we hope to have articles about yerba mate (Paraguayan green tea), work among indigenous communities, politics, zika, and fútbol to name just a few. I know that the potential topics and ideas are sure to fill the blog on topics I never imagined. This collaborative blog will serve as the “address side” of the iconic picture postcard.
I hope that these new electronic “postcards from Paraguay” will become a place for those of us who study the country to share our thoughts and ideas with a broader audience. This blog will not be publishing on a schedule of any kind; we will post when articles are ripe. If you are interested in participating in the blog, please see the contact page and send us an idea.
Thanks so much.
Bridget María Chesterton
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
P.S. Knopfler won’t be sending postcards from Paraguay, but we will.
paraguayacademics 