Peruvian-born photographer, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson’s photographs examine the paradox of memory and emotions surrounding loss. Poeta del Lago, (Poet of the Lake), is an homage to Gustafson’s great grand-uncle, Dante Nava, a first-generation Peruvian-Italian, poet, social justice advocate, romantic, and critic of the system. In the 1990s, the family published Dante’s poems.

Interweaving composites from Dante’s time with images from Gustafason’s recent spiritually-charged trip to Peru’s Lake Titicaca—where she learned the poems had been adopted by indigenous organizations and local kids knew the “Poet of the Lake—” she recreates Dante’s narrative, bridging together old and new through the miraculous experience of life.