Quito’s historic centre was one of the first two sites in the world declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 1978. Cartagena was the other. I have photographed in both cities and I can tell you that Quito’s colonial architecture is not the secondary option. It is as extraordinary as anything Colombia offers and less photographed by a significant margin, which means the streets I work on in Quito give me backgrounds that are not already familiar to anyone scrolling through Instagram. For couples who want architectural elopement photographs and have not yet decided between South American cities, Quito deserves serious consideration.
Plaza Grande and the Streets Around It
The Plaza de la Independencia, known locally as Plaza Grande, is the formal centre of the historic district. The Presidential Palace, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Archbishop’s Palace face the plaza, and the geometry is exactly what it sounds like: Baroque colonial architecture at scale. I do not typically shoot ceremony portraits in the plaza itself because foot traffic is constant during the day. Instead, I use the plaza as a compositional anchor and work the streets surrounding it in the early morning when the light rakes across the facades at an angle that makes the stonework three-dimensional. The streets off Calle Venezuela and Calle Garcia Moreno have archways, painted shutters, and the kind of architectural detail that creates depth in a photograph without requiring any setup from me.
La Compañía de Jesús
La Compañía is considered one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Latin America. The façade is carved stone, detailed to a degree that makes it look like lacework at a distance. The interior is covered in seven tonnes of gold leaf applied over 160 years of construction. I do not photograph ceremonies inside the church (it is an active place of worship with strict visitor protocols), but the exterior and the atrium create frames I come back to repeatedly. The archway at the entrance, the carved cornice above the main door, the contrast between the gilded interior visible through open doors and the worn stone of the street outside: these are the compositional elements that Quito’s colonial centre offers that Cartagena, with all its colour, cannot.
The Narrow Streets and Light Quality
Quito sits at 2,850 metres, and the altitude changes how the light behaves. The atmosphere is thinner, which means the blue sky is deeper and colours appear more saturated than they would at sea level. In the narrow streets of the colonial centre, this creates a contrast between the bright sky visible above the rooflines and the shadowed stone of the facades that gives architectural photographs a graphic quality I find compelling. The best streets are the ones that run north-south and catch the morning or afternoon sun directly. By noon the light is overhead and flat, which is not what you want on stone architecture. I plan Quito sessions for early morning arrival to the colonial centre, specifically for the hour between 7am and 8am when the light is angled, the streets are quiet, and the city looks the way it must have looked when it was first built.
Destination Wedding Photographer
Vancouver · Medellín · Worldwide
