Beyond the City: Eloping in Medellín’s Surrounding Towns (Guatapé, El Peñón, Santa Elena)

Medellín itself is a compelling city for elopements. The transformation of El Poblado and Laureles, the cable car views, the murals of Comunas 13: there is plenty to photograph without leaving the city limits. But the surrounding towns in the Antioquia department take the visual range of a Medellín elopement trip and expand it dramatically. I have photographed couples in Guatapé, at El Peñón, and in the flower farms of Santa Elena, and each one produces a completely different set of images from anything possible in the city itself.

Guatapé and El Peñón de Guatapé

Guatapé is a small lakeside town two hours from Medellín by car. The town itself is famous for its painted zocalos: the lower sections of every building facade are decorated with three-dimensional plaster relief scenes. The color and texture of the Guatapé streets is unlike anywhere else in Colombia. When I photograph couples there, I use the painted facades as I would use Cartagena’s walls, but with a completely different character: folk art instead of colonial grandeur.

El Peñón de Guatapé is the enormous granite rock that rises from the reservoir 15 minutes outside of town. The view from the top, after climbing 740 steps, covers the entire Guatapé reservoir and the hills beyond. I photograph couples on the rock face on the way up, using the texture of the granite and the increasing scale of the view behind them as the session progresses. Couples who arrive at the top after climbing together have a genuine energy that the photographs reflect.

Santa Elena and the Flower District

Santa Elena is a municipality directly east of Medellín in the mountains above the city. It sits at a higher altitude than the urban center, which means cooler temperatures and a completely different botanical landscape. The area is famous for the silleteros, the flower farmers who supply Medellín’s famous Feria de las Flores. The farms themselves, especially outside the festival season when they are not crowded with visitors, are extraordinary settings for wedding photography: endless rows of flowers, cool overcast light from the altitude, and a pastoral quality that has nothing to do with the city a thousand meters below.

I typically pair Santa Elena with a Medellín city session: mornings in the city for the urban architecture, then an afternoon drive up to Santa Elena for the flower farm portraits. The light in Santa Elena in the late afternoon, when the mist comes in from the east, creates a soft and almost otherworldly quality that is completely different from any tropical-light destination I shoot.

Making the Day Work Logistically

The surrounding towns require car transport. I work with a driver I trust for Antioquia routes, and I plan the day around travel time so the photography windows are protected. Guatapé and El Peñón are a full day: two hours each way plus several hours on location. Santa Elena can be done as a half-day add-on. Couples who want to cover multiple locations in the Medellín orbit typically stay three to four nights to make the logistics breathable. Rushing any of these locations would miss the point of going.