Raúl Lino - "Casa do Cipreste", Sintra, Portugal (1993)

..

Working on assignment for Editorial Blau, I came to know this absolutely wonderful project from 1912, in the small town of Sintra.

This is actually one of the houses that Raúl Lino (1879 - 1974) built for himself, and is known as the "Casa do Cipreste", a true icon of the portuguese architecture (maybe I should say "in Portugal" instead... In fact, I think that it looks more german than portuguese, what is natural, thinking that Lino studied in Germany).

Being considered by some to be a controversial personality in our 20th century cultural life, Raúl Lino cannot be ignored for sure. His importance and influence still lasts until today.

"Casa do Cipreste" is definitely a magic place full of charm and warmth, a place of outstanding beauty and harmony.

A place that I would undoubtedly love to call home!

The rectangular images were shot using a Sinar F2 camera in 9x12 cm/4x5 inches, equiped with various lenses manufactured by Schneider in Germany.

The square photographs were shot with a Hasselblad camera in 6x6, using Carl Zeiss lenses (Distagon, Planar and Sonnar types), also made in Germany.

Lighting equipment was made by Hensel in Würzburg, Germany.

Light meters by Sekonic and Minolta.

Ektachrome film by Kodak.

I would like to dedicate this post to the architect Luiz Trigueiros from Editorial Blau, a person to whom I owe a lot in personal and professional terms. He was the one who brought me to professional architectural photography, when I returned home from Germany in 1990. After some small misunderstandings that lasted for some time, we are now on good terms, and I was happy to see him and his wife again.

P.S.: Raúl Lino also designed in 1925 Teatro Curvo Semedo in Montemor-o-Novo, wich you might know from some other posts that I have done.

..

Silke in Mannheim, Germany, August 1989 (Agfachrome RS 1000)

..

All photographs shot with a Hasselblad 500 C/M,
with Agfachrome RS 1000 film

Sometime ago, I have mentioned a long discontinued film, that I very much liked to use every now and then.
I found its colours very attractive for some subjects, producing a nice mood.
The (very) coarse grain gave it a strong character of it's own.

Maybe a little too coarse in 35mm, it just produced lovable images in 120 size.

I surely miss it!

Somebody introduced me to Silke, because I needed a model for some school tasks, when I was doing my Gesellenprüfung in Heidelberg, Germany.

Silke was a nice and friendly girl, with lots of Geduld...
I enjoyed her company, and we had the chance to spend some funny days together.

It is a pity, and a shame, that I have lost contact with her when I moved back to Portugal...

On this particular occasion, we went to some Industriegebiet in the town of Mannheim, and I brought along my trusty Hasselblad 500 C/M and a couple of lenses: the Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 4/150mm, together with the Carl Zeiss Planar-C 2.8/80mm or the Carl Zeiss Distagon-C 3.5/60mm.
Although it was obviously a sunny day, I decided to use the Agfachrome RS 1000, probably equipping my lenses with a ND or a polarizing filter.

It is a pity that I can't show the images somewhat bigger, as the grain get's more and more interesting as size increases...

My daughter laughs a little about the clothes on the photographs...

Well, it was twenty years ago today, as the Beatles would say!

..

Assorted Moments

..

I have been turning the pages of an old book that I bought in Cologne, Germany, in 1982. Every once in a while I like to glance through it.

I am talking about a little volume with photographs by André Kertész, called "Americana", edited by Nicolas Ducrot and published in 1979 by Visual Books Inc., New York City.

I must confess that I am not necessarily a great admirer of Kertész, although I find some of his images absolutely outstanding.
It is such a case with this book, and also with the book "Of New York", for example.

Both show some extraordinary work, and both also display some images that look almost commonplace...

My humble opinion...

But doesn't that happens to all of us? Don't we all have our very special days?

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Without daring to compare myself with this exceptional photographer, I feel that many of my images are rather average, too much trivial, too much "bread and butter"...

To discard our own not-so-much-interesting images is not an easy task for sure, as they are a good part of our own memory, of our own heritage, our legacy for the future.

Having said that, life has shown me that the patina of time suddenly can turn a common photograph into one deserving better attention.

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Mont-Saint-Michel, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Normandie, France, February 1977

These are images from my "Minolta Years", from my beginnings as a photographer.

Amateur photographer, that is...

Amateur in the true sense of the word: I ate and slept photography. I nourished my body and soul with it.

I was obsessed and passionate about it.

I was in love with it!

Leica M4-2, Strasbourg, France, April 1982

In the meantime, I had traded all my Minolta equipment for the Leica rangefinder system (except for the light-meters. I still use a Minolta Spotmeter).

As far as I can recall, I was by then only using Leica / Leitz cameras and lenses. It simply better suited my street-photography style, that I used to practice almost exclusively in those days.

I still miss my Minolta XM and the very fine Minolta Rokkor f1.8 35mm, though.

I should have kept them...

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M3, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M3, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

As far as I remember, I only went once in my life to Bremen. From these short visit, I don't have much memories left, but some photographs...

Hasselblad 500CM + Carl Zeiss 60mm Distagon C, TMY in D-76 1+1,
Lisboa, Portugal, August 1988

Hasselblad 500CM + Carl Zeiss 60mm Distagon C, TMY in D-76 1+1,
Lisboa, Portugal, August 1988

When I took these photographs in Lisbon, I also was already using medium format on a regular basis.

I found it to be a nice complement to my 35mm rangefinders.

There was still a lot to come, though...

..

Works of Art (4)

..

By alphabetical order:

Guilherme Camarinha (Vitral, 1964) - Domus Iustitiae, Amarante (9x12)

Jaime Martins Barata (Tapestry, 1962) - Domus Iustitiae, Funchal (9x12)

João Vaz de Carvalho (4x5 inches)

João Vaz de Carvalho (4x5 inches)

Júlio Resende (Vitral, 1972) - Domus Iustitiae, Vagos (9x12)

Karel Apel, 1973 (6x6)

Manuel Cargaleiro, 1976 (8x10 inches)

Marc Chagall, "Vase Bleu" (9x12)

The reproduction in 6x6 was made using a Hasselblad camera, the various 9x12 / 4x5" images were made with a Sinar F2, and the 8x10 inches was shot with a Gandolfi Precision.

The lenses I use on my large format cameras are in general made by Schneider and Rodenstock.

Illumination was made, as usual with me, using Hensel Studiotechnik equipment.

..