Eles não sabem que o sonho...

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Sinto-me esventrado,
Sugado e esvaído,
Traído!

Dos tremoços já as cascas nos levam,
A matança continua, o festim prossegue...

Os sonhos, esses, nunca mos hão-de entaipar!







“Pedra Filosofal” - António Gedeão

Eles não sabem que o sonho
é uma constante da vida
tão concreta e definida
como outra coisa qualquer,
como esta pedra cinzenta
em que me sento e descanso,
como este ribeiro manso
em serenos sobressaltos,
como estes pinheiros altos
que em verde e oiro se agitam,
como estas aves que gritam
em bebedeiras de azul.

eles não sabem que o sonho
é vinho, é espuma, é fermento,
bichinho álacre e sedento,
de focinho pontiagudo,
que fossa através de tudo
num perpétuo movimento.

Eles não sabem que o sonho
é tela, é cor, é pincel,
base, fuste, capitel,
arco em ogiva, vitral,
pináculo de catedral,
contraponto, sinfonia,
máscara grega, magia,
que é retorta de alquimista,
mapa do mundo distante,
rosa-dos-ventos, Infante,
caravela quinhentista,
que é cabo da Boa Esperança,
ouro, canela, marfim,
florete de espadachim,
bastidor, passo de dança,
Colombina e Arlequim,
passarola voadora,
pára-raios, locomotiva,
barco de proa festiva,
alto-forno, geradora,
cisão do átomo, radar,
ultra-som, televisão,
desembarque em foguetão
na superfície lunar.

Eles não sabem, nem sonham,
que o sonho comanda a vida,
que sempre que um homem sonha
o mundo pula e avança
como bola colorida
entre as mãos de uma criança.

In Movimento Perpétuo, 1956



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Trujillo, Spain - August 25th, 2010

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Leica M4-2

Super Angulon 3.4/21mm

Summicron 2/50mm

Tele-Elmarit 2,8/90mm

Agfa APX100

Kodak Tri-X

Rodinal 1+50

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"Perfect Day" - Lou Reed

Just a perfect day

Drink sangria in the park,

And then later, when it gets dark,

We go home.

Just a perfect day,

Feed animals in the zoo

Then later, a movie too,

And then home.

Oh it's just a perfect day,

problems all left alone,

Weekenders on our own.

It's such fun.

Just a perfect day,

You made me forget myself.

I thought I was someone else,

Someone good.

Oh it's just a perfect day,

I'm glad I spent it with you.

Oh such a perfect day,

You just keep me hanging on,

You just keep me hanging on.

You're going to reap just what you sow,

You're going to reap just what you sow.

From the album "Transformer", 1972.

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Working Class Hero - 1st of May, 2010

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Rolleiflex SL 35 + Carl Zeiss Planar 1.4/50mm HFT

Fomapan 200, Kodak D-76 1+1

Lisbon, Portugal, April 2010

Leica M2 + Super Angulon 3.4/21mm

Fomapan 200, Rodinal 1+100 (stand development)

Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, September 2009

Leica M4-2 + collapsible Summicron 2/50mm

Fomapan 200, Rodinal 1+50

Évora, Portugal, December 2009

Rolleiflex SL 35 + Carl Zeiss Planar 1.4/50mm HFT

Fomapan 200, Kodak D-76 1+1

Lisbon, Portugal, April 2010

Zorki 3-C + Jupiter 8 2/5cm

Fomapan 200, Rodinal 1+50

Praia da Amorosa, Portugal, August 2009

Zorki 3-C + Jupiter 8 2/5cm

Fomapan 200, Rodinal 1+100 (stand development)

Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, September 2009

"Working Class Hero" - JOHN LENNON

As soon as you're born they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool

Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be.

When they have tortured and scared you for twenty odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career

When you can't really function you're so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

(Words and music by John Lennon, 1970, from the album "Plastic Ono Band")

"Politician" - CREAM

Hey now baby, get in my big black car

I wanna just show you what my politics are.

I'm a political man and I practice what I preach

So don't deny me baby, not while you're in my reach.

I support the left, tho' I'm leanin', leanin' to the right

But I'm just not there when it's coming to a fight.

Hey now baby, get into my big black car

I wanna just show you what my politics are.

(Written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, 1969. From the record "Goodbye Cream")

It's so long ago and still so fucking true!

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Leica Galerie Wetzlar + Leica Galerie Solms - 1988

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In 1988 my long taxi-driver nights were finally a memory from the past: I was working as a photographer at the Kunsthistorisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg (Art History Institut).

The nightmare of driving ten, twelve, fourteen hours each night was over!

No more small-talk drunkards to drive home, no more lonely hours sitting in the dark waiting for a stranger to come in, no more CB radio beeps, no more rushing like mad for my Pfennigs, no more cold, rain and snow...

Saving for my Leicas behind the wheel belonged to the past!

Leica IIIc+Summitar 5cm, Portugal, Espinho (Feb. 1984)

Don't ask me the month because I can't remember, it got lost somewhere in my brain, but I know that in 1988 I managed to get an exhibition in the Leica Galerie in Wetzlar.

For some months I dove in my darkroom making print after print, rejecting this, accepting that, trying to get a cohesive and meaningful selection of images to display.

My self-appointed theme was Iberia, and the photographs needed to be made with a Leica camera. No one imposed that on me, I decided it like that.
So all the images, with the only exception beeing shown above, were shot with Leica M equipment.
For authenticity's sake, I also refused some "nice" photographs that could easily fall in the touristic style of pictures.

I wanted "raw" stuff!

(On FILM of course!!!)

Leica M2+50mm, Portugal, Castelo Rodrigo (Jan. 1984)

You are actually looking at the "vintage" prints that hung on the wall.
As they were too large for my scanner and I didn't want to stitch or scan the negatives, I reprophotographed the original prints with a digital camera. I didn't even use a repro lens, but just a consumer zoom.

Yes, shame on me, but my repro lenses only fit my analog cameras, and that would have been too much trouble for me.

I apologise, I know (and now you know it too) that I could do better...

Leica M2+28mm, España, Santiago de Compostela (Aug.1981)

In those days I had a Belfort 4x5 inches (very similar to Omega) fitted with a Cold Light tube.

That's the enlarger I used to make the prints.
The enlarging lens was a 60mm Rodagon from Rodenstock.
Most prints were made using Ilford Galerie paper developed in Kodak Dektol.
I also used some then new Ilford Multigrade FB to give it a try.
I think that all the prints were made shortly before the exhibition, that is in 1988.
They are mounted in acid free Museumskarton and I cut the matboards myself.

You are watching a lot of work, but I am going to shut my mouth and let you take a look in peace...

Leica M2+28mm, Portugal, Amareleja (Jan.1984)

Leica M2+35mm, Portugal, Coimbra (Aug. 1981)

Leica M2+35mm, España, Salamanca (Aug. 1981)

Leica M2+50mm, Portugal, Lisboa (Aug. 1984)

Leica M2+90mm, España, Toledo (May 1983)

Leica M3+90mm, Portugal, Lisboa (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3, Portugal, Aveiro (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3, Portugal, Mourão (Feb. 1984)

Leica M3+21mm, Portugal, Lisboa (Jul. 1987)

Leica M3+50mm, Portugal, Lisboa (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3+50mm, Portugal, Aveiro (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3+50mm, Portugal, Braga (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3+50mm, Portugal, Braga (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3+90mm, Portugal, Lisboa (Aug. 1987)

Leica M3+90mm, Portugal, Praia de Mira (Aug. 1985)

Leica M3+90mm, Portugal, Amareleja (Jan.1984)

Leica M4-2, España, Segovia (Dez. 1983)

Leica M4-2+35mm, España, El Escorial (Dez. 1983)

Leica M4-2+50mm, Portugal, Nazaré (Sep. 1980)

Leica M4-2+50mm, Portugal, Peniche/Cruz dos Remédios (Mar. 1980)

Leica M4-2+90mm, Portugal, Sesimbra (Feb. 1984)

Leica M4-2+90mm, España, Segovia (Dez. 1983)

Leica M4-2+90mm, Portugal, Fátima (May 1983)

Leica M4-2+135mm, Portugal, Fátima (May 1983)

Leica M4-2+W+35mm, Portugal, Lisboa Jan. 1984)

SOLMS:

Now try to figure out how amazed I was, when someone called asking me if I would agree that the photographs would stay for one more month...

They should make the small trip to Solms, to hang on the walls of the new plant (that's when I knew about Solms) that was going to be officially inagurated soon.

Of course, I could only say yes! And it felt so rewarding...

Can you imagine my photographs hanging on the walls in Wetzlar and Solms for two months? Me, the cab driver who had to save his little coins for his Summicrons and Elmarits?
Me, who had to drive endless miles to buy my rolls and my soup (meaning my developer)?

In that little moment in time I understood that somehow all the struggle was worthing it, in that little instant I could see a light shining somewhere down the road...

Maybe it would not shine forever, but it shone then...

The images below are from Solms. It was Tag der offenen Tür (open house), and the public was invited to visit the plant.

I drove to Solms with my friend Jorge Gomes, and we had a very nice and interesting day.

Not only the atmosphere was very relaxed and easy-going, with Bier, Bratwürst und Luftballons, but it also was a very good chance to take a look inside The Sanctuary of 35mm photography.

Had the exhibited images belonged to someone else, I wouldn't have forgotten that day anyway...

We made some pictures for the posterity...

I think it was the only time that I saw the 800mm Telyt! Nice "little" camera attached...

As you see, I didn't lie...

Yes, that was me...

And those were my photographs...

The next generation of Leica users?

That is the poster Leica made for the occasion...

I guess that I can proudly say:"NOT BAD FOR A CAB DRIVER...". Cheers !

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