Era uma vez um país... (Linhares da Beira, Fevereiro de 1978)

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Já venho de outros tempos, em que a pequeneza dos lugares lhes conferia uma vivência diferente e distinta.

Chegava-se, nessa época, a Linhares da Beira por uma estrada, incógnita e irregular, de terra batida. Encontrava-se, talvez, mais por acaso do que por conhecimento.

A solidez vagamente inesperada das muralhas do castelo, realçava a humildade do casario.

Rapidamente nos víamos rodeados pelos rostos da catraiada.

Revejo agora estas caras, perdidas algures entre o boçal e o angélico, e questiono-me o que terá a vida feito destas crianças.

Homens e mulheres medrosos não serão certamente, que para vingar em paragens tão inóspitas era obrigatório ser de boa cepa...

Povo, que tão mal te tratam, onde te escondes?

Onde guardas as tuas forquilhas e estadulhos, onde deixas repousar os teus cajados e varapaus?

Oiço eu o entoar do clarim, ou será já e apenas a alucinação de ouvidos moucos?

Vislumbro eu uma luz de esperança, ou será somente o ardor da cegueira colectiva?

Pressinto eu o frémito da revolta nascente, ou será únicamente o ressonar da besta apática?

Do nosso intelecto escorre, agora, uma verborreia tão informe como inútil, baba fétida que as nossas bocas vomitam num balbuciar desconexo e inofensivo.

Que falta fazem a este país, vozes da estirpe de um Alves Redol, seres com a dimensão e integridade de espírito, e de actos!, de um Aquilino Ribeiro ou de um Miguel Torga!

Nas nossas veias e nos nossos testículos, flui um líquidozinho ridículo, pálido e anémico, sem vigor...

Minolta XM, Kodak Ektachrome, 1978

"Vampiros" - José Afonso

No céu cinzento sob o astro mudo

Batendo as asas pela noite calada

Vêm em bandos com pés de veludo

Chupar o sangue fresco da manada.

Se alguém se engana com seu ar sisudo

E lhes franqueia as portas à chegada

Eles comem tudo, eles comem tudo

Eles comem tudo e não deixam nada.

A toda a parte chegam os vampiros

Poisam nos prédios, poisam nas calçadas

Trazem no ventre despojos antigos

Mas nada os prende às vidas acabadas.

São os mordomos do universo todo

Senhores à força, mandadores sem lei

Enchem as tulhas, bebem vinho novo

Dançam a ronda no pinhal do rei.

Eles comem tudo, eles comem tudo

Eles comem tudo e não deixam nada.

No chão do medo tombam os vencidos

Ouvem-se os gritos na noite abafada

Jazem nos fossos vítimas dum credo

E não se esgota o sangue da manada.

Se alguém se engana com seu ar sisudo

E lhes franqueia as portas à chegada

Eles comem tudo, eles comem tudo

Eles comem tudo e não deixam nada.

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The Minolta Years - Nene Valley Railway, UK, July - August 1978

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Sadness and sorrow seem to be out of fashion these days...

So does happiness and joy...

So does pain and innocence...

Or whatever feelings we might experience, for that matter!

We are well-drilled to be cool and sophisticated...

When I started growing up, photographically speaking, I cared about feelings and emotions and I cared about the human condition.

I had big respect for people who struggled for authenticity and visual integrity in their photographic creations and in their personality.

People like Josef Koudelka and Henri Cartier-Bresson were my unquestionable heroes.

I strived to follow their paths, I wished that I could "suck" the influence of their oeuvres in my brain and blood, in my vision and character!

So it hurts a little, to see a certain highly regarded brand of equipment, holder of a long photojournalistic tradition and heritage, introducing a new camera in a very nice brochure with a "reportage" (that's their chosen word, not mine!) about a "boxer" (the inverted commas are mine!) in Cuba, that could be taken out of a high-gloss fashion magazine.

I will admit that the photographs even look nice, but I could bet that the fighter and his girl-friend came straight out of a modeling agency...

Even the old cars and houses so typical of the cuban images we got accustomed to see, seem to be washed and a little bleached, sterilised.

Yes, it all looks so clean and sophisticated... It all looks so fake!

Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1

Travelling all the way up to Scotland, we came across Nene Valley Railway completely by chance.

Being an enthusiast of steam locomotives and old trains, although not a cognoscenti one!, I couldn't resist but stop and photograph for a couple of days.

So our trip took a little unplanned intermezzo, with an extra opportunity to enjoy a little nostalgia.

Time washed my faint memories away (I even started thinking that Nene Valley was in Scotland...), and very little reminisces here and now, but these simple images from my beginnings as a photography lover.

Minolta XM, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1


Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1


Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50



Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

I can't recall with exactitude which lenses I owned by the time of this trip, but I only used Minolta Rokkor lenses in my Minoltas: 21mm Rokkor, 28mm Rokkor, 35mm Rokkor, 50mm Rokkor, 50mm Macro-Rokkor, 135mm Rokkor, 80-200 Zoom-Rokkor, whatever!

I found the quality in most cases to be very good, and I still regret that I didn't keep the XM camera (Minolta used different nomenclature according to the different markets, so a Minolta XM, in the european market, could be called a XK in the USA, the XD-7 was also known as the XD-11, etc.). Together with the very fine 1.8/35mm Rokkor, it made a specially pleasing combo in my opinion. I loved it!

The XM tried to compete in the professional segment with the Nikon F2 and the Canon F-1, although it was by far not so dependable in my opinion, I must add! Nevertheless, it was a very interesting camera with aperture priority automation, as well as manual mode of course, and you also could buy a (much more expensive) motorized version, the Minolta XM-Motor. It looked very nice, but I never managed to get my hands on one, so I can't speak for myself.

The SRT models were rather robust and efficient cameras (the electronic models were prone to have some occasional failures, at least my cameras did have them...).

If I remember well, the XD-7 was the first multi-mode exposure camera model on the world market that supported multiple automatism: you could choose between aperture priority or shutter priority (a hard to believe "luxus" on those days...), as well as fully metered manual mode.

A rather well balanced piece of equipment, it was developed in conjunction with Leitz/Leica, and the body served also as the basis for the Leica R4, if I am not wrong (another example of the collaboration between both companies, was the smaller Leica CL, the body beeing made by Minolta in Japan, and the lenses by Leitz in Germany. As a side note, the Leica CL was my first Leica ever!).

I also owned a Minolta SRT 101, which was a somewhat simplified version of the 303b, but, as it seems, I had left it at home and didn't bring it along in this trip (I doubt it, but it can also be the case that I bought it at a later time...).

On those days I was a big fan of the light meters made by Minolta too, and used two different models of Minolta-Autometer extensively. I still have and use the Minolta-Spotmeter M.

As I have said before, I gradually traded my Minolta equipment for Leica-M stuff, a change that greatly influenced my way of shooting, although I should further say that that change was due to the distinct characteristics of both types of camera (Single-Lens Reflex versus Rangefinder), and not necessarily due to a eventual difference in quality between both brands (that also existed...).

I hope that you enjoy these memories from my own long vanished personal past, and from a bygone era.

See you soon!

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Cibachrome - A II "vintage" prints

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Leica M3+Visoflex III+280mm Telyt - Escalhão, Portugal, 1983

This is my first ever atempt at Cibachrome - A II!

The first, and I might as well say, almost the only one! Back in 1985, I decided to give it a try. So I choosed a couple of 35mm slides, got the developing tank and the necessary chemistry (process P-30) , and made a couple of prints. As I didn't have yet a Jobo processor, or any other processor, I rolled the tank on the bath-room floor back and forth, what quickly proved to be rather tedious. Worse still, it was very hard to keep temperature constant. As a consequence, results were rather erroneous and inaccurate. I quickly decided to give up, and never tried it again. Somehow the process later on changed to Ilfochrome, but I don't really know what that change means...

Please take a look at these images as a kind of curiosity, more a kind of memory. I found them, and I thought it might be funny to post them. The years gone by, kind of excuse my inaptitude...

Leica M4-2+Visoflex III+280mm Telyt. Azoren, Pico, 1982

Leica M4+Visoflex III+280mm. Azoren, Angra do Heroísmo, 1982

Leica M4-2+Visoflex III+280mm. Azoren: sunrise behind S. Jorge, seen from Pico, 1982

Minolta XM+80-200mm Rokkor. Lagos, Portugal, 1979

Minolta XM+135mm Rokkor. Mira, Portugal, 1977

Minolta XM+135mm Rokkor. Monsanto, Portugal, 1977

These photographs are getting kind of "historic", and they remind me that the years keep on going by. I no longer own any Minolta cameras or lenses (only keep my Minolta Spotmeter), but I must say that I to these days regret that I sold the XM. A rather nice camera, that tried to compete with the F models from Nikon.
I can't talk bad about Minolta. I started with a 303b and soon added a 101b. Fine cameras with fine lenses. I was satisfied! That is, until one day I picked up a Leica in a shop, and from that moment on I knew a change had to take place! In that moment I did understand that Leica was not only a mythus, but rather another league. I soon substituted all my Minolta equipment for Leicas! So I am using Leicas for thirty years now, and I have never looked back.

My oldest model, a double-stroke M3 (took the first picture above!) is fifty-three years old, looking beatiful and going strong. Wish I could also keep forever young... I bought my "youngest" M Leica, (I first had a CL for a short time), in 1979!!! Keeps on working like in the first day! Every now and then (maybe every ten years or so) they get a CLA and keep on moving... Really great stuff!!!


It is a pity and a shame that Leica is becoming more and more a kind of status symbol, a kind of fashion accessory, mostly treasured and inflaccionated by collectors than actually used by photographers. Worse still, it seems Leica (the company) likes to play the game, what I can in a way understand because of the big bucks involved. Sad... sad...


The Visoflex mentioned above was a device, long gone from Leica's catalogue, that turned the M model (a so called rangefinder camera), into a single lens reflex. It is too late and I am too tired now, for to dive deep in the subject, but basically it allowed the use of long lenses and macro equipment with the M cameras. I imagine that some of you (I mean, IF there is somebody out there reading this!) don't know much about those kind of odditys, as they belong to a already gone age... Yes, there once was a time, when photographers didn't have auto-everything, super-fast and super-easy photography-producing machines, backed up by everything-correcting computers.

Once upon a time photographers did have to know their trade...

Good night, sleep tight.

(P.S.: Please excuse me, if some of you are Leica experts. Maybe you know a lot more about Leicas, and equipment in general, than I do, but I must assume that not everyone who might read these posts is a leicaphile...)

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