Der Schornsteinfeger und die Prinzessin - Heidelberg, Germany, February 1977 (The Minolta Years)

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I must admit, that at first I didn't know what this peculiar man was all about!
I thought that he was just dressing some kind of Fashingskostüm, as the calendar was reading February...

I had never before seen a Schornsteinfeger (chimney sweeper).
The man, which I met in the Bergheimer Strasse in Heidelberg, Germany, was kind enough to make a little interruption in his work, and allowed me to take some pictures.

I still regard his portrait (the first image) as one of the best photographs that I took in those times.

I guess, that he must habe brought me luck... I am a fortunate man!

Some seconds for eternity!

Likewise I came upon this beautiful Faschingsprinzessin, which I also met in the Bergheimer Strasse.

I chose several negatives to give you an idea of the evolution of this happy encounter.

Besides, I think that it is funny to reminisce about the cars and the shop signs that decorated our streets then.

Do you still recognize the legendary VW Käfer, the Fiat 127, the Ford Cortina?

Time heals!

Yes, time can improve some ordinary images, turning them into some sort of documents.

This photograph of Feuermänner in Bismarckplatz, Heidelberg, might be rather banal at first look, but then I have noticed that Baden-Württemberg was then celebrating its 25th anniversary, and all of a sudden the picture had a new meaning (Baden-Württemberg is the third largest state in Germany).

Time heals and makes feel old...

Just like the image before, this one is part of the roll that includes the little princess.

For no particular reason, but being nice, I close with a bucolic view.

I am not able to recognize the village on the background, but I am sure that it is the surroundings of Heidelberg: Dossenheim, Schriesheim, Ladenburg?

Somebody out there to refresh my memories?

Cheers!


Technical data:
Cameras - Minolta SRT 303b (chimney sweep) + Minolta SRT 101
Film - Ilford HP5
Developers - Ilford Perceptol 1+1 (chimney sweep) + Tetenal Emofin
Location - Heidelberg, Germany
Date - February 1977
Scanner - Epson 4990 Photo





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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 C/M - Heidelberg Altklinikum, November 1988

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Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M
Lenses: Carl Zeiss Distagon C 4/50mm, Carl Zeiss Planar C 2.8/80mm
Yellow or Red filter
Film: Kodak T-Max 400
Developer: Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Date: 1st of November, 1988

Scanner: Epson 4990 Photo


No words today!





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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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Hasselblad 500 EL/M - Photo Gear (8) Hommage à Peter Borkenhagen, Uwe Feigenbutz, Friederich Hackstein and Horst Kunnert

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I have very often expressed, in various Photography Forums, my dislike and discontent over the trend of the photographic industry to produce countless, and meaningless, limited editions of camera models.

I would speculate that my annoyance with such fashionable ways, comes principally from the fact that most of them are, well, meaningless...

So, I should possibly feel a little embarrassment, admiting that I also purchased a couple of these cameras along the years... I think that I don't have to feel contradictory, but please, read on.

My first ever Leica, was a "Leica CL 50th Anniversary", one of those special edition models that Leitz introduced in 1975, marking the 50th Anniversary of the manufacture of the Leica.

I got the complete set, used, with Summicron-C 40mm and Elmar-C 90mm. I must say that I was delighted with the camera: exceptional optical quality in a very compact set! For someone who was coming from the SLR corner with big and heavy cameras and lenses, it was a revelation! I had seen nothing better or more efficcient for my humanitarian street photography.

Then, I made the "mistake" of touching a Leica M, and there could be no return: the CL was traded for my M4-2. That was in 1979, and I never felt sorry for that decision. Somehow, every time I see a CL, my heart beats a little faster...

By the way, I do think that 50 years of Leica production was reason enough for the Leitz company to celebrate with some special edition cameras!

Another uncommon camera I got around that time, was the Hasselblad 500 EL/M "20 Years in Space" that I have pictured on these photographs. It was produced to celebrate the use of Hasselblad cameras by the NASA, between 1962 and 1982: 2 Hasselblad EL electric cameras were used for the first time on Apollo 8, in 1968, bringing back 1100 photographs from the mission. Kodak was even asked by NASA to develop thin new films with special emulsions! Needless to say, many of these improvements on equipment, and films, have found their way on our consumer products.

The "20 Years in Space" consisted on a limited edition of 1500 cameras with grey leather covering, in the style of the cameras used by the Apollo Space Program (The leatherette was actually removed and replaced by metal plates, on the cameras sent to space. At first, the cameras had black anodized surfaces to eliminate reflections. Later on, the outer surface of the 500EL data camera was colored silver to help maintain more uniform internal temperatures in the extremes encountered on the moon. The conventional lubricants were also replaced with low friction materials, or eliminated, because they would boil off in the vacuum).

About a dozen Hasselblad/NASA cameras were left on the surface of the moon. Only the film magazines were brought back... Who gives me a ride to Tranquility Base?

The special edition you see here is, of course, the "normal" camera, except for the leatherette and the shutter-release button, which was also unusual for the 500 EL/M that you found on the normal consumer market (the subsequent civilian models also adopted the astronaut style, I should note).

The camera was supplied with the first-class Planar 2.8/80mm by Carl Zeiss, and A12 film magazine. It came in a special golden box, with certificate and battery charger.

Being rather "affordable" these days (the normal version, I mean), the main drawback of the Hasselblad 500 EL/M, is that it needs special rechargeable batteries, and they are hard to find and expensive. It is also not cheap to convert the cameras to use other types of batteries.

Only in 1988, with the introduction of the 553 ELX, the electric Hasselblads started to use five AA/R6 alkaline battery cells with 1,5 volts. Please, be aware of that.

Above shots made with Canon 30D + Leitz 4/200mm Telyt

(lens made in 1961! For the Visoflex)

+ 14167 Leitz Adapter + Enjoyyourcamera adapter

Both Leica CL and Hasselblad 500 EL/M, were sold to me by a great photographic artist, namely Peter Borkenhagen. Being a trained portrait photographer, Borkenhagen worked in some fine Fotogeschäfte in Heidelberg. He was the best photographic equipment seller that you can dream of: not only friendly and honest, but also knowledgeable and extremely competent. You can surely trust Peter's opinion. All photographic community around Heidelberg respects him very much.

At heart and soul, Borkenhagen is an Artist!

I didn't see, or have any contact with him, for some years now. I can imagine that he maybe is retired from his salesman activity...

I have no doubt, though, that his Art is going strong, and that he keeps being an engaged Artist, with capital A !

Uwe Feigenbutz was a friend of ours. He ran a kind of itinerant gallery ("x. producer's Gallery"), and he organized some exhibitions of our work, very often having the support of a jazz combo, in the pursuit of a broader artistic experience.

Together with Friederich Hackstein who, I believe, still runs London Pub in Lampertheim, Bundesland Hessen, we constituted a curious quartet of different photographic styles: Peter Borkenhagen would heat his Polaroids or literally burn his negatives (chemically and with fire!), before making his own prints, Hackstein would show his abstract Polaroid nudes, Uwe would typically display serigraphies, and I was the "conservative" one, with my straight photography.

We went to Ljubljana, Lisbon, Lampertheim, Heilbronn... Sometimes all four, other times just two of us, some other times maybe alone. Nevertheless, I think that we made a skilled group of talents!

Then I came back to Portugal, Uwe sadly passed away...

The above exhibition was made possible with the help of the american photographer Kristi Eisenberg, Coordinator of the Photography Program at Cecil Community College, Maryland, USA.

Thank you Kristy, it was very kind of you!

Mr. Horst Kunnert wrote an article about my photographs on the magazine "Leica Fotografie", nr. 3/1983 (Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt/am Main). I only have the french edition with me, where the article is entitled "Un Amateur Engagé". I remember spending a nice afternoon in Mr. Kunnert's home, in the balcony, while some enthusiastic conversation about Photography was going on.

"Ses photos noir et blanc m'avaient vivement impressioné et éveillé ma curiosité. Qui pouvait-il être, celui qui avec autant de doigté réussissait d'aussi subtiles photos de personnes?", started the kind words of Mr. Kunnert. I was 27 years old...

On my part, I mentioned Josef Koudelka, Cartier Bresson, Robert Frank, William Klein, Bruce Davidson, Eugene Smith, André Kertesz, Robert Doisneau, Don McCullin, as my biggest influences then... I think that I certainly had good taste at 27...

I wasn't yet into large format. As you might imagine, the list grew a little longer along the years...But those names still remain among my favourites, I should tell!

The above portrait of Mr. Kunnert was photographed some years later, on April 1st, 1990.

Both headshots were made during a workshop with Fotoclub Meckesheim, organized by Peter Borkenhagen. He would do his experimental photographs and Polaroids, I would teach some lighting technics for portrait photography. Obviously, on both examples, I was demonstrating how to use only one light source (Hensel Monoflash 800) with a normal reflector...
Film material was Kodak T-Max 100.
Shooting camera was also a Hasselblad, this time the 500 C/M, with Carl Zeiss Sonnar 4/150mm.

Such a workshop would take a weekend of work, but it surely was rewarding to see the enthusiastic involvement of all participants.

I am sorry to say, but I forgot the name of the gentleman with the wonderful moustache. He absolutely looked fantastic!

Above image shot with Canon 30D + Micro-Nikkor 2.8/55mm

+ enjoyyourcamera adapter

Another shot of the Hasselblad 500 EL/M, in the way that I prefer to use the camera: with the traditional EL shutter button and, simultaneously, with electric cable release, so that I can quickly switch between both at will.

I am not that big fan of the square release...

To conclude this already long post, allow me to say hello to all the nice people involved: it was good to know you all, and I hope that we meet again soon!

Tschüss!

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