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A tepui silhouetted and mirrored in still water at dusk

Photographer / Canaima, Venezuela

Rodolfo Gerstl

Ángel: a jump into the lost world

A tepui silhouetted and mirrored in still water at dusk

Since his first jump from Angel Falls in 1982, Rodolfo Gerstl has kept returning to the tepuis of Canaima. This exhibition is what he brought back: light on black water, rainbows in the spray, and the small worlds of stone and foam.

Photographs from Ángel, un salto al mundo perdido (2017).

Cover of Ángel, un salto al mundo perdido

About the photographer

Rodolfo Gerstl

Born in Caracas in 1952, Gerstl made his first parachute jump at 18. In 1982 he made his first BASE jump from Angel Falls, and he went on to jump from Kukenán and into the Sima Mayor de Sarisariñama. Years of working in the Gran Sabana made him a conservationist and a guide to the region.

Ángel, un salto al mundo perdido follows the Carrao and Churún rivers, the Canaima lagoon, and the tepuis of Auyantepuy, Roraima, Kukenán and Tramen, ending at Angel Falls. It was printed in Madrid in April 2017.

All photographs © Rodolfo Gerstl. Reproduction is not permitted without the photographer’s consent.

More information, prints and bookings: angelfallsphotos.com, Rodolfo’s personal site. Contact Rodolfo there.

All artists

Chapter 01

Light on the water

Dusk, storm and stillness. The lagoons and rivers of Canaima hold the sky twice.

01Storm clouds burning orange and blue at sunset
02Storm clouds and a tepui reflected in dark water
03Rock pools in the river bed reflecting a cliff face
04Savanna, river and tepuis mirrored in the clouds

Chapter 02

Falling water

From the air, from behind and from the very lip of the drop.

05A rainbow arcing over a roaring, sediment-brown waterfall
06Water pouring over the edge of a dark tepui cliff
07A tall waterfall in a green valley beneath a tepui wall
08A waterfall and rainbow deep in the jungle, seen from the air
09A slender waterfall dropping into a green cirque, seen from above
10A waterfall streaming down a cliff into a forested valley
11A wide waterfall and rainbow over dark, misty water
12Looking out through a cave behind a waterfall
13A waterfall’s plume splaying over rust-coloured rock, seen from above

Chapter 03

Small worlds

Foam, stone and leaf: the close-up inventory of a place usually seen from far away.

14Rock towers reflected in red river water
15Swirling patterns of foam on dark river water
16Red river stones seen through rippling water
17White water crashing over dark red rock
18Rosette plants growing on the tepui summit

Chapter 04

The tepuis

Table mountains above the clouds, and the rock and mist on their summits.

19Tepui cliffs rising above a river under a deep blue sky
20A river valley beneath towering tepui cliffs
21A rock spire above a forested canyon
22A tepui plateau emerging from the cloud
23A tepui summit wrapped in cloud, seen from the air
24Mist-shrouded rock towers on a tepui summit
A river valley beneath towering tepui cliffs

Canaima National Park

See it with your own eyes.

Everything in this exhibition was photographed in Canaima. The tepuis, the black-water lagoons and the falls are real places, and you can go.
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