Couple Taking a Picture Using a Selfie Stick in Front of the Venus Platform, Chichen Itza, Mexico
Photograph of a couple standing in front of the Venus Platform in Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The setting they are using for the background is El Castillo, the great sun pyramid that is the architectural and religious center of the site. The platform was used to track the planet Venus and aided the Mayans in calculating agricultural and other cycles of the year. The economic and social class that the tourists represent would likely be non-existent in Pre-Columbian Mayan culture. The contrast between the lover’s joyful and almost offhand experience is profound considering the Mayans would have viewed the temples as vitally necessary for their very survival. Their simple presence represents the revolutionary achievements of contemporary western culture.