On a stormy day in March 2002, the tower of the church of Chonchi in Chiloe fell on my car. In the seven years that followed, I returned to the Chilean region again and again.

Chiloe is an archipelago 1,100 kilometers from Santiago, Chile. Its isolation has created a strong sense of identity, reflecting the constant struggle with the land and the sea.
I believe we have special connections with places, like we have with people. The perception of the world brings us back to memory, to an infinitely intimate place. In the solitude of these moments, the discovery of the others and of oneself pushes us to write a story as we have experienced it, emotionally, past the exoticism of places and moments.
Brigitte Grignet is a Belgian photographer focusing on a personal and emotional type of documentary photography. She has covered indigenous communities in Guatemala, Colombia and Chile, as well as the Middle East, New York and Europe. She is represented by l'Agence Vu; more of her work can be found on her website.
100 Words is a series in which photographers describe their work, in their own words. Curated by Graham Letorney
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.