The Minolta Years - Weihnachten in Venedig, 1978 (Part Two)

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Observing these photographs that I made so long ago, longer than I can recall, I am afraid that any word that I might write down will be doomed to become a superfluous word.

What can my gossip add to these winter shades, to the cold and wetness (so much wet that you can nearly smell the mildew...) of these not far from surreal landscapes, these glimpses of ethereal life?

Aren't these photographs more alive than my vanishing memories?

All photographs made with Minolta cameras and Rokkor lenses

Minolta Autometer

Kodak Ektachrome Film

“Magic Carpet Ride”

I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine

On a cloud of sound I drift in the night

Any place it goes is right

Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here

Well, you don't know what we can find

Why don't you come with me little girl

On a magic carpet ride

You don't know what we can see

Why don't you tell your dreams to me

Fantasy will set you free

Close your eyes girl

Look inside girl

Let the sound take you away

Last night I held Aladdin's lamp

And so I wished that I could stay

Before the thing could answer me

Well, someone came and took the lamp away

I looked around, a lousy candle's all I found

Well, you don't know what we can find

Why don't you come with me little girl

On a magic carpet ride

Well, you don't know what we can see

Why don't you tell your dreams to me

Fantasy will set you free

Close your eyes girl

Look inside girl

Let the sound take you away

(Words and music by John Kay and Rushton Moreve)

From the album “The Second” by STEPPENWOLF, 1968

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The Minolta Years - Christmas in Venice, 1978 (Part One)

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Way back in 1978, my ex-wife and I took the chance of having some vacation time, and decided to drive down to Venice to spend Christmas season over there. Jorge, our oldest sun, was almost one year old, and we brought him along.

In those years, one could still sometimes enjoy Venice free of multilingual crowds flooding all the place.

In fact, I hardly remember someone not speaking Italian, but ourselves (we did speak by then a strange kind of mix of English, German dialect, Portuguese, and who knows what more... I guess that no one could really understand us...).

Venice was mostly a magical place full of charm and quietness on those winter days, and I believe that the (bad?) characteristics of the film material of those times actually helps to mirror and accentuate the feelings and sensations that one could experience crossing those thousands of bridges over those thousands of canals.

Time could stand still amidst the haze floating over the lagoon, you could levitate and melt with the mist, becoming part of the mistery surrounding you.

Like any other town, Venice is not only made of harmony and pretty colored postcards.

Struggle for survival and death happen like everywhere else, and I am glad that I felt enough attracted by everything I saw, so much that I felt the wish to document it.

I did try to shape my photographs with true colors...

The colors of life!

All photographs made with Minolta cameras and lenses

Light meters by Minolta

Kodak Ektachrome film

“Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)”

Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?
The magic carpet waits for you so don't you be late
Oh, (I wanna show you) the different emotions
(I wanna run to) the sounds and motions
Electric woman waits for you and me
So it's time we take a ride, we can cast all of your hang-ups over
the seaside
While we fly right over the love filled sea
Look up ahead, I see the loveland, soon you'll understand.

Make love, make love, make love, make love.

The angels will spread their wings, spread their wings
Good and evil lay side by side while electric love penetrates the sky
Lord, Lord I wanna show you
Hmm, hmmm, hmmm
Show you.

(Words and music by Jimi Hendrix)

From the album “Electric Ladyland” by THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, 1968

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The Minolta Years - Heidelberger Messplatz, 1976 & 1977

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Travelling back in time, I bring you all the way up to Heidelberg, Germany.

That's one of the funny things photography let us do: go back and forth in our lives, for free!

On this particular occasion, we are rewinding about three and a half decades back in my existence.

Enjoy the voyage!

All images above: Minolta SRT cameras

Kodachrome 64 film

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1977

The above images just remind me how much I miss that wonderful film made famous by a Paul Simon song: Kodachrome!

In fact, Kodachrome is one of photography's biggest losses!

It is sometimes hard to believe how vivid and natural, almost alive, the colors look on those chromes after so many years (not to be confused with some other exaggerations present in some other films that came to life in more recent years).

They just want to jump on the light table!

If I had done this images with today's digital technology, do you believe that I could still be showing them to you? Now?

Do you really think that the digital images that we are shooting today will be compatible with any technology that we may use in some decades from now?

Sorry, but I do have my serious doubts... Hope time proves me wrong...

Minolta SRT 303b + 2.8/135mm Rokkor

Ektachrome High Speed

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1976

Minolta SRT 303b + 1.8/35mm Rokkor + Pol Filter

Ektachrome High Speed

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1976

"Kodachrome"

When I think back

On all the crap I learned in high school

It's a wonder

I can think at all

And though my lack of education

Hasn't hurt me none

I can read the writing on the wall.

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world is a sunny day

I got a Nikon camera

I love to take a photograph

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

If you took all the girls I knew

When I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they would never match my sweet imagination

Everything looks worse in black and white.

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world is a sunny day

I got a Nikon camera

I love to take a photograph

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

Words and music by Paul Simon

From the album "There Goes Rhymin' Simon", 1973.

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too much blue!

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Kiev 4a + Jupiter 8, Tri-X, D-76 1+1, Ferreira do Alentejo, 2009

too much blue - an overabundance of stars

the moon high above a complete waste

there ain't no summer breeze - can blow away the dark clouds of my hole emptiness

next time your ghost approaches me

riding on top of your high-heeled shoes

whisper gently on my ear who I am

maybe I will better understand who you are

by then I'll be going home to nowhere

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Happy birthday Luís! (18th of August)

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Not that I photograph my sons and daughter very often (I should do a lot more!), but being a photographer and the lucky father of some "wonderful kids" (I guess that I may sound pretentious to state that, but that is what I honestly think...), I possibly have a bigger chance to create some memorable images that eventually transcend the mere function of memories in one's life.

Luís in Heidelberg, Ziegelhausen, December 15th, 1986

Hasselblad 500EL/M + Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm

Ilford HP5, developed in Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1

Luís celebrates today his 27th birthday, and these photographs remember me of a long gone age when we lived back in Germany. Sometimes I have the feeling that an eternity has gone by...

The clock doesn't stop for no one, and the child on these lovely pictures is a mature young man today, a man that I cherish and very much admire.

Allow me to say "Happy birthday my son! I am proud of you!"

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Chicago, The Loop - Summer 1999 (Horseman SW612Pro)

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The Loop seen from the South Side, IIT Campus in the foreground

Riding the train from O'Hare International Airport into the Windy City, we soon started to have the funny bitter feeling that maybe we made the wrong decision when, wanting to save some bucks, we left the expensive cabs behind us and rushed to the train station.

As the city got nearer and nearer, numerous strange and peculiar looking people seemed to feel a certain kind of special attraction for all the crazy bags and cases that we transported.

Who knows, maybe it was just simple curiosity?

I bet that all the gangsters in Chicago must have gotten scared of that two little funny creatures coming maybe from the outer space, carrying only-God knows what kind of secret weapons on their metallic cases...

Strange robot cops out of nowhere going to everywhere? Who dares to ask?

In fact, we are loaded with cases of precious photographic equipment: 4x5 inches Gandolfi Variant, Horseman SW612Pro (both of course with the necessary lenses), exposure meters, color meter, filters, roll film holders, tripods, film, and so on and so on.

Did I mention our wallets, credit cards, passport, money, clothes, sleeping bags and the like?

My son Jorge, by then in the beginning of his twenties, looks like asking if we will ever get out of there alive... I try to look calm and reply that he should pretend that we are at home, that we are just doing the most natural thing in the world, we are hardcore Chicagoans and no one can do us no harm, no matter which hellbound train we ride!

Truth is, we are for the first time in our lives walking on american soil...

Chicago Transit Authority was kind enough to offer us the very first cheap emotions!

Chicago, here we come!!!

As possibly some of you know, I was in Chicago on assignment, photographing the works of Mies van der Rohe for Editorial Blau. I have posted some material before, so people familiar with this blog should know what I am talking about.

This time around, the talk won't be about Mies, but about the "few times in between", the few times that I took the chance of photographing something else. Looking back, I understand that in a way it was a lost chance, as I realize that I should have made much more images than I did on my spare time.

Photographing for a book on Mies' architecture obliged us to be focused on our task, also losing countless hours on burocratic stuff like permissions and the like.

Chicago is a fantastic city and Lake Michigan is just unforgettable, you can find millions of motives to photograph and a lot of music to hear! Maybe I will be back one day shooting on my own, without pressures and obligations. I will then maybe find the peace of mind to do my own stuff at my own pace, with my own rhythm.

If chance happens, should I do it in Large Format? Leica? One lens, ten lenses?

Color, black and white? Sheet film, roll film? Square, panoramic?

I guess that I better do it all and then some more...

And I promise that I will try some other pizzas, not only Luigi's world famous (in IIT Common's... He invariably asked if we wanted one - paper - plate or two plates... You understood right, for both of us! Wanna get Luigi fucked up? Ask him for a napkin... And then maybe some salt... You better run soon!).

And I won't forget the world's best chicken wings, and the world's dearest donuts, and the world's funkiest McDonald's, and the world's best blues, and the world's nicest everything...

Yes, that is Chicago too!

All photographs made with Horseman SW612Pro + Rodenstock lenses

(Faraway view with Gandolfi Variant and Schneider lens)

All images shot on 120 film (6x12 and 6x9): Kodak E100S and E100VS

On this trip I had the chance of testing the then new Ektachrome E100VS. I found it a touch too saturated and with a little bit too much contrast.

I know that it is supposed to be saturated...

It just happens that I am an old dog, and old dogs not always like to change their food...

As I said before, my son Jorge was my assistant on this trip. God knows that I would have gone mad for sure without his help. Jorge happens to be a very nice guy, taking it easy... His patience and good nature made me do it with a smile, very often even with a loud laugh.

Once again "thank you, my son. In the end, we did have a really good time, didn't we?"!

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Circus Willy Hagenbeck - Heidelberg, Germany, March 1977 (Mamiya C330f)

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It is rather hot, I've been maybe drinking too much beer and wine, but if memory still serves me any good, the first Medium Format camera that I have ever owned and used, was the Mamiya C330f (6x6), with two distinct lenses. Please, don't ask me about which ones, I could almost declare that the 180mm was one of them...

Beeing a fine camera, with fine lenses, I believe that I was not yet mature for this, somewhat heavy and cumbersome, TLR (Twin Lens Reflex): I sold it again after a short time.

Oddly enough, I would later on fall deeply in love (up until today) with other TLR cameras: the wonderful and elegant Rolleiflex!

Honesty makes me concede, that the Mamiya has some "advantages" over the Rollei: interchangeable lenses, 120 and 220 film capability, focusing bellows for easy close-up photography...

But, like everything else in life, chemistry sometimes doesn't work...

These are the first "serious" square format photographs that I ever took of a circus (another long-lasting photographic love of mine): Circus Wylly Hagenbeck, pictured in Heidelberg, Germany, on the 2nd of March, 1977 (Shit, time flies!).


Can you dig it? The film was still Ilford HP-4! (Yes, FOUR!).
I developed it in Tetenal Emofin, and the negatives are a little thin for my taste...
What should I care, these are "historic" images (well, at least for me...), nice to look at on a hot summer night.
Who cares if they are not so good-looking?

I still had (and have) a loooooong way to go...

Camera: Mamiya C330f (6x6 TLR)

Ilford HP-4, developed in Tetenal Emofin.

Circus Wylly Hagenbeck, Heidelberg, BRD, 1977

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