Dark Star

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Mourão, Portugal - August, 1985

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

“Dark Star” – Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter

Dark star crashes
pouring its light
into ashes

Reason tatters
the forces tear loose
from the axis

Searchlight casting
for faults in the
clouds of delusion

Shall we go,
you and I
while we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall of diamonds

Mirror shatters in formless reflections
of matter

Glass hand dissolving
to ice petal flowers
revolving

Lady in velvet
recedes
in the nights of goodbye

Shall we go,
you and I
While we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds

From the album “Live/Dead” by the Grateful Dead (1969)

(And many other recordings by the Grateful Dead)

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Minha Namorada

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Alfama, Lisboa - Julho de 1987

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

"Minha Namorada" - Vinicius de Moraes / Carlos Lyra

 

Se você quer ser minha namorada

Ah, que linda namorada você poderia ser

Se quiser ser somente minha

Exatamente essa coisinha, essa coisa toda minha

Que ninguém mais pode ser

Você tem que me fazer um juramento

De só ter um pensamento, ser só minha até morrer

E também de não perder esse jeitinho de falar devagarinho

Essas histórias de você

E de repente me fazer muito carinho

E chorar bem de mansinho sem ninguém saber porquê.

E se mais do que minha namorada
Você quer ser minha amada, minha amada, mas amada pra valer
Aquela amada pelo amor predestinada
Sem a qual a vida é nada, sem a qual se quer morrer
Você tem que vir comigo em meu caminho
E talvez o meu caminho seja triste pra você.
Os seus olhos tem que ser só dos meus olhos
Os seus braços o meu ninho no silêncio de depois
E você tem que ser a estrela derradeira
Minha amiga e companheira
No infinito de nós dois.

 

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Lac de Gaube, Hautes-Pyrénées, France - September 1985

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Photographed with Hasselblad 500 EL/M and Carl Zeiss lenses.

For my good friend "Paquica" - Salut!

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Gente Humilde

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Lisboa, Alfama, 1987
(Hasselblad 500 EL/M+Carl Zeiss Distagon)

"Gente Humilde" - Garoto / Vinicius de Moraes / Chico Buarque


Tem certos dias em que eu penso em minha gente
E sinto assim todo o meu peito se apertar
Porque parece que acontece de repente
Como um desejo de eu viver sem me notar

Igual a como quando eu passo no subúrbio
Eu muito bem, vindo de trem, de algum lugar
E aí me dá uma inveja dessa gente
Que vai em frente, sem nem ter com que contar

São casas simples, com cadeiras na calçada
E na fachada escrito em cima que é um lar
Pela varanda, flores tristes e baldias
Como a alegria que não tem onde encostar

E aí me dá uma tristeza no meu peito
Feito um despeito de eu não ter como lutar
E eu que não creio, peço a Deus por minha gente
É gente humilde, que vontade de chorar


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Industrielandschaften - Mannheim, Deutschland, November 1985

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Three years later, also on November, but on a very dissimilar mood from my previuos post, I felt an urge to shoot urban landscapes.

The Rhein (Rhine) and Neckar rivers are the home of one of the most important European inland ports, spreading around the German towns of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

I decided on medium format equipment for the task, bringing along the Hasselblad 500 EL/M and the Rolleiflex T.

Wish I had done these photographs in large format, but that was still zukunftsmusik...

So, will you please excuse me for some inaccurate perspective?

Shot with Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Rolleiflex T

Technical Data:
Cameras - Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Rolleiflex T
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Tessar, Planar or Sonnar (Distagon?)
Film - Kodak Tri-X + Ilford HP5
Developer - Kodak D-76 1+1
Location - Mannheim, Germany (last one on the border to Ludwigshafen)
Date - November 1985
Scanner - Epson Perfection 4990 Photo

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Monsaraz, Portugal - Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Sinar F2 (1984, 1988?)

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It is rather evident: when I made the trip to Monsaraz in August 1984, I was using the Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 150mm.
I can see it by the number of images that display that short-tele feeling, that little compression that fits so well some photographs (at least my little me likes it!).
I cannot say for sure, so many films and years have gone by, but it is imaginable that I was eager to try my new spielzeug...

To photograph Monsaraz in August can be a pain. The light is very strong, and the heat can simply knock you off!
I tried to do it last Summer and I couldn't make my feet move! I should maybe clarify that I was striving to produce some 5x7 inches negatives with the Gandolfi...

Shamelessly, I was reminded that my endurance is not bound to eternity!

Twenty six years before, things seemed a little easier though...

You will notice that some pictures are not square. As a matter of fact I found some Large Format (9x12cm/4x5 inches negatives - no location, no date...)that I know were shot with the Sinar camera.
Why I know it was the Sinar? Easy: it was the only one by then...

I believe that they must have been shot in, or around, 1988.
Why I didn't take notes? What the heck do I know? Laziness, sloppiness, second-choice negatives?
Too many questions that I don't remenber the answers, please don't demand so much...

Now you know that I am also far from perfect... You are not alone at that!

Some negatives are far from optimal. So I am glad that I don't need to retouch with brush and Spotone dyes, as I would have to if I was displaying true darkroom prints...

Maybe the film just got cooked by the hot summer heat...

On those days, Monsaraz still had some real life. The times of the "Open Museum" were still to come. The population, even though old, was still alive.

If this topic should deserve your attention, please just click on the tag bellow, I shouldn't repeat myself.

Thanks for watching! I am glad to share!

Technical data:
Cameras - Hasselblad 500 EL/M (square images) + Sinar F2
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Planar-C 80mm f/2.8 + Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 150 f/4 (for the Hassy)
Schneider Symmar-S 210 f/5.6 + Schneider Super Angulon 90mm f/8 (for the Sinar)
Film - Kodak
Developer - Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1
Location - Monsaraz, Alentejo, Portugal
Date - August 1984 for the square images.
Rectangular ones not dated, probably 1988.
Scanner - Epson Photo 4990



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Happy Birthday, Jorge! - January 2nd 2011

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(Giving me a serious look in the Castle of Heidelberg, Germany - November 1982)

Jorge is my eldest sun. He celebrated his 33rd anniversary last Sunday, January 2nd. That makes me realize how the years fly faster and faster...

I was lucky to be with him for a couple of hours, but I didn't manage to make this post on time. I believe that Jorge will forgive me... Like we say around here: "mais vale tarde do que nunca!"(what means something in the way of "better late than never!").

Jorge runs a company specializing in Sound, Light and Multimedia (Mainvision Media Solutions, Lda.), with the help of his girlfriend Marcia and his brother Luís.

They just got a new studio in Lisbon, so please allow me to also wish them all the luck, prosperity and success in the world.
I know that they are very, very hard workers, but some luck won't do no harm in such a competitive field...

(At home in Heidelberg - Ziegelhausen, with Rudi - December 1986)


When Jorge started growing up, I used to listen to a lot of records from singers and musicians that we can, broadly speaking, call the Woodstock Generation. One of my favourite groups (and solo singers) was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Wonderful voices backed up by meaningful words and music.

One of their songs that used to give me strength when I was assaulted by the demons of doubt, regarding my competence, or its absence, in the role of a young father, was "Teach Your Children", by Graham Nash. I kind of used the lyrics of that song as a certain psychological crutch, a kind of moral guide to lead me through the dark.

I guess that I did more or less well...

So, besides my love, respect and admiration for Jorge ("Um grande beijo de parabéns, meu filho"), I would like to remember the words of that tune, as Jorge must have been too young to recall them:

"Teach Your Children" – by Graham Nash

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by,
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

From the album “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu”, 1970
(with Dallas Taylor & Greg Reeves + Jerry Garcia, John Sebastian)

(Thanks for your song Mister Nash! I know that you are a great lover of photography too...).



Technical data:
Camera - Hasselblad 500 EL/M
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm and Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm respectively
Film - Ilford HP5 (old version)
Developer - Ilford ID-11 and Kodak D-76, both diluted 1+1
Location - Heidelberg, Germany
Date - 1982 and 1986
Scanner - Epson 4990 Photo

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Hasselblad 500 EL/M - First Photographs (Circus Giovanni Althoff - Heidelberg, November 1982)

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I did a lot of mistakes in that day!

The first time that I tried to load a roll of film on the camera magazine, I lost half of its exposures. I must have forgotten to wind it to frame one, before I started shooting...

The plane of focus was obviously not correctly placed on some pictures, and I had some bad surprises about the shallow depth of field that I got in some negatives...

The shape and weight of the camera didn't help me to feel confident either. Being much different to hold than a Leica, or any 35mm SLR of that era, I didn't have yet the opportunity to master the "left-hand Hasselblad grip". As far as I remember, all these frames were done handheld.

The focusing hood was a little disorienting, with its reversed image, left-right (nowadays, it really doesn't matter if it's reversed or upside down, or whatever, I got so used to it!).

Having only twelve frames per roll, definitely seemed too short for me, at least for capturing moving subjects...

On some situations, I could have benefitted from the use of another focal distance, but all I had at the time was the normal lens, the 80mm Carl Zeiss Planar, supplied with the camera.

I also recognize that it was difficult for me to come to terms with the square shape of the format. A few pictures could be improved with some cropping... I opt to show you the full frame instead (when I die, please don't change it! This is the way that I want it!).

Fortunately, I was accustomed to fully manual controlled cameras. I also knew well my Minolta Autometer, so using an external meter was not new for me.

All I had to do, was to go out and get the pictures done! Enough of excuses for their success or failure... I was the only one to blame!

Here they are...

All the photographs above, were indeed made on the very first day that I used the Hasselblad 500 EL/M, the nice grey camera that I have introduced to you a couple of posts ago.

Two days later, I came back to make the other photographs, apparently feeling a bit more at ease.

Maybe the light was just a little better that day... Moreover the film was correctly loaded on the A12 magazine...

The Ilford HP5 negatives are hard to print on the traditional darkroom, and they surely are a pain to scan, at least for poor unskilled me and my Epson.

Yes, I am barely satisfied with the results, I should admit...

In any case, I do like some of the images, regardless of their flaws.

So I find it appealing to show you my very first atempts on using this noble camera from Sweden, a brand that so many professional photographers have cherished for generations.

A Hasselblad used to be an investment for life!

In fact, all this equipment keeps on working, as it always did on the last three decades!
We should try that with our digi-dings!...

Well, that can't be me, I believe...

To become invisible is not an easy task to accomplish, when you carry a grey Hasselblad 500 EL/M in your hands...

The noise of the motor can be rather annoying and irritating when you don't wish to catch all the attention from the neighborhood...

Despite that, I believe that most of these photographs show natural looking people, people that don't seem to be intimidated by a camera pointing at them.

They just kept doing what they had to do.


I just kept trying to do what I wanted to do!

Was I effective? The decision is left to you...





Technical data:
Camera - Hasselblad 500 EL/M (for the ones who are lazy to read the whole story...)
Lens - Carl Zeiss Planar 2.8/80mm
Film - Ilford HP5 (the old one, of course!)
Developer - Ilford ID-11, dilution 1+1
Location - Heidelberg, Germany
Date - November 1982

Scanner - Epson 4990 Photo



Circus Giovanni Althoff was in town!

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