Álvaro Siza, Terraços de Bragança, Lisboa, 2005 - Wasted Project (1)

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This could have been a beautiful White & Blue book, about a beautiful architectural project in Lisbon downtown by Álvaro Siza. Mr. Siza was kind enough, as always, to guarantee all his collaboration, but somehow the book never came to life.

Feeling pity that it remains wasted, I don't want it to be a completely lost project, so I let you enjoy the photographs, while it's publication keeps on waiting for a better opportunity.

Film cameras were used exclusively on the documentation shown above:

- Sinar F2, with Rodenstock and Schneider lenses, for 4x5" and 6x12 (Horseman back);
- Horseman SW612 Pro, with Rodenstock lenses, for 6x12.

- Corfield WA67, Schneider Super-Angulon 47mm, for 6x7.

- Hasselblad 500 C/M, with Carl Zeiss lenses, for 6x6.

Light meter and color meter by Gossen.

Film by Kodak.

Tripods by Gitzo and Manfrotto.

Transparencies and b&w negatives scanned with Epson Perfection 4990.

Assistance by Luís Morais de Sousa, my son.

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The Making of a Photograph - Water Tower, 20th of June, 2010

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Near Montemor-o-Novo, 20 of June 2010

Gandolfi Precision 8x10"+Docter Apo-Germinar 11.5/600mm+Leitz Or Filter

Fomapan 100, Rodinal 1+50

You know my name, you know my face, you know some of my cameras, so why not let you take a look at me making a photograph?

So, I asked Helena to do a little reportage of me and my Gandolfi at work. Take this as a little story, how the image above came to happen.

It's almost 50ºC today, I drink some cool beer and I talk to you out there, what better way of spending a hot sunday afternoon could I dream of?

Hope that you have some fun...

Setting up the camera

First adjustments and leveling of the camera

Checking up the Copal 3 shutter

A little smile for the photograph...

(notice the box of the Rodenstock filter, to avoid bellows vignetting)

Another smile with the 8x10" film holder

Inserting the Fomapan 100

Abusing the comfort of the Rimowa cases...

Getting a little lazy

The beauty from the back

To filter or not to filter?

Waiting for the wind to stand still

A special thank you goes to Helena Roque who took these wonderful photographs with a Canon 30D, and who was kind enough to help me carrying the heavy equipment.

She was not only lucky enough to survive one more ride in the Defender, but she also survived the boring company of a photographer and his passion...

It takes some guts to accomplish that!

P.S.: The big camera above is equivalent to use a Nikon or Canon and a 85-90mm lens (in 35mm). That's more or less what you get with the 600mm in 8x10"...

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Happy Birthday father!

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José Morais de Sousa, Coimbra - April 1980

If my father was alive today, 17th of June, he would be 88 years old.

My mother reveals that he often declared that he wanted to live until he was 84. He was lucky, that's how old he got!

He was an army officer but, on occasion, he also served in Guarda Nacional Republicana. That's where I have pictured him, in his office in Coimbra, with my Leica.

So please allow me to pay him this little tribute and say "Happy Birthday father".

Evelise Morais de Sousa, Coimbra, 6 of April 1980.

Yes, that's my mother on her 48th birthday, holding a bouquet of roses.

In reality, both photographs were presumably shot on the same day, as my parents lived inside the base (for some years I lived there too, by then I was on vacation from Germany).

Time goes by...

Both photographs were shot with my (at that time) almost-new Leica M4-2 and Summicron 50mm, on Kodak Tri-X film, developed in Kodak D-76 1+1.

You should be acquainted with that camera from former posts on this blog. As it so happens, she keeps on going strong after all these years. A good friend of mine!

Funny: she keeps on being my youngest Leica!

Wish we could all be forever young...

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Central Tejo, Lisbon, July 1996.

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I have yet to meet a photographer who, in a way or another, doesn't feel fascinated by old and abandoned industrial sites.

Doubtless, there seems to be a certain kind of magic inherent to such locations, rendering very inspiring and photogenic material for many creative minds.

In small, medium or large format, analogic or digital, you will be rewarded with some appealing images if you enter such an environment with open eyes and a curious mind.

Some others prefer to simply use it as a backdrop for their creativity: fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh has produced some memorable shots in those places where the machines have long stood still.

I had just switched my main 35mm SLR equipment from Nikon to Canon when I made these shots, way back in 1996. I had decided to "modernize" and go auto-focus, with the help of some exposure automation, for my "bread and butter photography".

In those times I was exceptionally busy, so I thought that it was maybe clever to simplify my life a little and leave some heavier equipment in the studio: for many assignments (when transparency size was not of primordial importance) I started leaving the Hasselblad and brought the Canon stuff along. So I also could save on film expenses and rescue us from too many E-6 developments, which we used to do by ourselves.

I had already enough jobs to do in 9x12/4x5", my back was needing to take a break!

All shots with Canon EOS-1n + EF 70-200mm f2.8 L in Ektachrome film.
(older version, without Image Stabilization)
Close-focus capability with extension tube EF-12.

It was not an option then, but I never missed Image Stabilization, as you can find in the newer model (the photographs above were shot with the camera on a solid tripod, making IS unnecessary).

In any case, there is still a strong argument in favor of the newer lens: it is weather-sealed!

You could find very wet conditions where I used to live before I have moved to Montemor-o-Novo, so my lens got some nice fungus inside, after I had it at home for some monthes...

I suspect that weather seal could have avoided it.

In any case, stupid me! I should have known better...

The Minolta Years - Linha do Corgo, North Portugal, 1978

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I was fortunate enough to go through some old folders and find these old images of Linha do Corgo, between Peso da Régua (by the Douro River, in the heart of the region that produces the wellknown Port Wine) and the beautiful town of Chaves.

I really was afraid that they had got lost...

So, running the risk of excessively bothering you with old trains and old lives, I decided to share them just for the fun of it, just to get myself amazed how old I am becoming, and how wonderful this country used to be.

Please, ponder that these photographs have very little resemblance with the ones that I have posted before about Nene Valley Railway, in the United Kingdom. The difference, evidently, consists not only in the use of Ektachrome film for sure...

In this case you are not looking at an open air museum run by some aficionados: instead, these images let you take a look at the Real Thing! Here you can take a glimpse at everyday life in the region some 32 years ago!

All photographs made with Minolta cameras and Kodak Ektachrome film.

How should my beard not grow snowy white, when I see so much great things being mercilessly and forever destroyed, when I watch our too well paid public administrators happily and carelessly contributing for the loss of such património cultural in the name of a very questionable progress?

Don't understand me wrong, I also can see that time doesn't stand still, and that the population needs comfort and modern facilities. I only can't accept that such a potencially rich region sees itself rid of such a heritage: the wonderful stations and trains are just foolishly destroyed or simply disappeared. Even the rails are gone and the bridge is impassable!

Why don't THEY (the people that sit at the top and that should look after us and the nation. It's for that that they get paid...) learn the lessons by people like the ones who run places like Nene Valley Railway?

I have no doubt that many train lovers and tourists in general would come for a ride and would gladly take the chance of visiting the region, learn it's tasteful food and wine, gaze at it's beauties. How can we be so stupid and despise that?

How can we allow that everything goes kaputt?

(Oh yes, I guess that we get what we deserve. We are the ones who waste our votes...)

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The Family of Zé Preto and the Horse - Montemor-o-Novo, March 2010

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All photographs were made using a Rolleiflex SL 35 (Rollei Singapore) equiped with german made Carl Zeiss lenses, namely the Planar 1.4 / 50mm HFT and the Sonnar 2.8 / 85 mm. A Rollei yellow filter was also used with both lenses.

Fomapan 200 developed in Kodak D-76 1+1.

I would like to dedicate these modest photographs to someone that I very much respect and admire for many years: JOSEF KOUDELKA.

His book "Gitans - La Fin du Voyage" (copyright 1975 by Josef Koudelka, Delpire éditeur Paris and Aperture, Inc. New York) has been a true companion of mine since many years now, and a true source of inspiration.
I wish I could have the genius and the integrity of Mr. Koudelka's vision...

A special thank you goes also, of course, to the portrayed family!

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