Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Hell Hole, West Virginia

Almost 2 years ago I hung over this 150' pit in West Virgina as part of a survey team looking at how White Nose Syndrome was effecting hibernating bats. The incredible thing about this photo is not the guy hanging in in space or even the bat flying around but the capture date. It was February and there were bats flying around in the cold and snow.

The disease seemed to be spreading south and the great fear is that it will infect the large bat colonies that we have in the southern cumberland plateau. So far we haven't seen great mortality in Tennessee, but this winter is when the disease would seriously hit. Fingers are crossed here.

Stephen Alvarez

Chattanooga, TN

Hero Twins in Naj Tunich

I ran across this unpublished image today while starting a big edit of my cave work. It is a drawing of the Maya Hero Twins from a cave in Guatemala. The Hero Twins are the central characters of the Maya creation story recorded in the Popul Vuh. The hero twins did battle with the lords of the underworld, emerged victorious and made the world safe for human beings. I've got a soft spot for them, and as I start editing my years and years of underground work to see if it can be a coherent book I want to keep this picture close by.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Grand Canyon

Busy week. I'm headed to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. Last time I was there we rappelled 100 feet down a 600 foot cliff and swung into to a cave to make the photo above. I have to tell you starting the drop over a 600 foot cliff knowing that you don't have enough rope to reach the bottom is pretty intimidating. This time it is a North Rim to South Rim hike. Not nearly as scary, but just as beautiful.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Earth from Below: Catacombs of Paris

It was almost a year ago that I was in Paris to make this image. It is such a wonderful city, full of surprises and twists. There is an entire labyrinth under it that few know about. Yes people know about these catacombs where some 6 million Parisians are buried, but only a few will journey into the hundreds of kilometers of other tunnels. 

Paris Underground was a wonderful story to work on. I look forward to going back to the city of light next month but this time looking for something entirely different.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Earth from Below: adding to big projects

Above an Earth from Below image from Easter Island

A big project like Earth from Below takes work all the time. It also means seizing the opprotunity when it comes. I had gone to Easter Island to make a very different picture but took a little down time to add to Earth from Below. 

Big projects take the ability to work on them all the time, with at least a little part of your brain. Sadly I am in Greece now and even though the country is full of limestone there is not a second to expore any of it.

Stephen Alvarez

Athens

Earth from Below in The Daily Mail UK

Some Earth from Below photos turned up in the Daily Mail yesterday (here). The series keeps on. Now I just need to find a book publisher interested in the 15+ years of work.

Stephen Alvarez

Budapest

Earth from Below: Chez Georges, Paris

A very different view of the Earth from Below than last week, Chez Georges in the Latin Quarter. Dank, hot and crowded it is the opposite extreme of the cold and lonely underground world that most cavers are used to. This was an unpublished frame from the Paris Underground story.

Stephen Alvarez

Budapest

Earth from Below: Herb Laeger in Ora Cave

It occurs to me that I haven't posted an Earth from Below image in quite a long time. Here is one of the hundreds from a 3 month expedition to New Britain that never saw the light of day. To shoot this image I was hanging on a rope over the same raging river that Herb is crossing and my assistant Nancy is firing a flashbulb to light up the water. Flashbulbs have a "slow peak" so the water blurs slightly. I've then got a strobe tightly focused on Herb to light up his face and make sure he's sharp.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Bievre Sewer, Paris

God I am in the weeds today, swamped, subterranean. Hence the photo. I'm judging a contest tomorrow at UAH but still trying to get my talk together, and schedule a shoot in Nashville the next day and break down from yesterday's portrait session...

-Stephen Alvarez

Paris Metro, my favorite pic from months of shooting

Of the days I spent and the hundreds of photos I made in the Paris Metro last year, this one has to be my favorite. Sadly, it never saw the light of day. That is the case with long photo essays sometimes you work really hard on a good set of pictures that you end up not having space for. It is heartbreaking every time. 

-Stephen Alvarez