Bolivian salt flats reflect the Milky Way
The world's largest salt flat provides a stunning setting for photographer Daniel Kordan, who traveled there in search of the darkest possible sky.
The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world. Sprawling over 10,000 sq km, it forms the remnants of a prehistoric lake whose legacy sits in a dazzling reflective surface.
Photographer Daniel Kordan recently went to the southwest Bolivian terrain on a pilgrimage to escape light pollution. His search for a night’s sky as yet untainted by the manufactured luminosity of city life lead him to Salar de Uyuni, which acted as an awe-inspiring mirror for the stars above.
My Modern Met interviewed Kordan about the experience, and the creative reported that the mineralised terrain initially cast him in darkness. However, once his eyes adjusted, the universe seemed to open up to him. He reported a moment almost reverential, in that“[it] seemed that we floated in open space. Our spaceship is parked in a distance, and stars are blinking with blue, red and yellow colours.”
Images by Daniel Kordan
Written by Patrice Sweeney
