RA: Not a hero, but they know who I am. I remember in 1992 I was invited to visit some schools so I went back with gift bags of things like magazines and photos. Many of the photos had been done on location in other parts of the world and they couldn't really see the inspiration behind them, but all the inspiration had come from my childhood in those same towns so I wrote text next to the photographs that explained the connection. It was fascinating to see how they loved that.

LC: Looking at your photographs, I can't help but see a similarity to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's dream-like novels of otherworldly, surreal situations beyond our reach.

RA: Totally. Since I left Colombia at 14 he has been like a conduit to keep the Colombian culture near to me. His writing is so much about the Colombian imagination, very surreal. He became a hero to me. Up to the point I started going back to Colombia I became extremely attached to his writing. Funny, he was the person I always wanted to photograph the most, dreaming one day I would. When I got to photograph him it was an incredible experience. We spoke about bullfighting. It was from him I developed an interest in making Torero.