Michelle McFarlane, Helado, Helado, Helado, Saquisilí, Ecuador, 2004 (December theme: The Moment )

In 2004 I travelled around South America with an old school film camera. The transparencies were processed in local labs and I mailed the prints home along my journey. One day sitting in my lounge room in Melbourne, a year later, I came across this image. The memory of those men laughing came flooding back to me and I longed for that Latin American sense of humour. I came across them in a small town along the Pan American Highway in the middle of the Andes. I thought it was sweet that they were all ordering ice-creams and they loved the idea of me taking a photo of them. The ice-cream vendor asked me why I would want to photograph such ugly men? I told him that no one in Australia would believe me unless I have photographic evidence. So here it is… Australia.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.