The Minolta Years - Natal em Veneza, 1978 (Part Three)

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I never had so much bridges to cross in my life!

Jorge's kinderwagen and my cameras seemed to weight a ton.

At the end of the day my legs would be exhausted and I would feel wet to the bones.

My back would ache and I would starve.

But what a sight! What a magical sensation!

Everything I saw was just dazzling.

How I gazed with wonder...

Venice might be drowning, but it's place in eternity is unquestionably guaranteed!

Minolta cameras + Rokkor lenses

Minolta Autometer

Kodak Ektachrome film

“Mr. Spaceman”

Woke up this morning with light in my eyes
And then realized it was still dark outside
It was a light coming down from the sky
I don't know who or why

Must be those strangers that come every night
Those saucer shaped lights put people uptight
Leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark
I hope they get home all right

Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won't you please take me along
I won't do anything wrong
Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won't you please take me along for a ride

Woke up this morning, I was feeling quite weird
Had flies in my beard, my toothpaste was smeared
Over my window, they'd written my name
Said, so long, we'll see you again

(Words and music by Roger McGuinn)

From the album “Fifth Dimension” by THE BYRDS, 1966

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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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