Happy Birthday, Jorge! - January 2nd 2011

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(Giving me a serious look in the Castle of Heidelberg, Germany - November 1982)

Jorge is my eldest sun. He celebrated his 33rd anniversary last Sunday, January 2nd. That makes me realize how the years fly faster and faster...

I was lucky to be with him for a couple of hours, but I didn't manage to make this post on time. I believe that Jorge will forgive me... Like we say around here: "mais vale tarde do que nunca!"(what means something in the way of "better late than never!").

Jorge runs a company specializing in Sound, Light and Multimedia (Mainvision Media Solutions, Lda.), with the help of his girlfriend Marcia and his brother Luís.

They just got a new studio in Lisbon, so please allow me to also wish them all the luck, prosperity and success in the world.
I know that they are very, very hard workers, but some luck won't do no harm in such a competitive field...

(At home in Heidelberg - Ziegelhausen, with Rudi - December 1986)


When Jorge started growing up, I used to listen to a lot of records from singers and musicians that we can, broadly speaking, call the Woodstock Generation. One of my favourite groups (and solo singers) was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Wonderful voices backed up by meaningful words and music.

One of their songs that used to give me strength when I was assaulted by the demons of doubt, regarding my competence, or its absence, in the role of a young father, was "Teach Your Children", by Graham Nash. I kind of used the lyrics of that song as a certain psychological crutch, a kind of moral guide to lead me through the dark.

I guess that I did more or less well...

So, besides my love, respect and admiration for Jorge ("Um grande beijo de parabéns, meu filho"), I would like to remember the words of that tune, as Jorge must have been too young to recall them:

"Teach Your Children" – by Graham Nash

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by,
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

From the album “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu”, 1970
(with Dallas Taylor & Greg Reeves + Jerry Garcia, John Sebastian)

(Thanks for your song Mister Nash! I know that you are a great lover of photography too...).



Technical data:
Camera - Hasselblad 500 EL/M
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm and Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm respectively
Film - Ilford HP5 (old version)
Developer - Ilford ID-11 and Kodak D-76, both diluted 1+1
Location - Heidelberg, Germany
Date - 1982 and 1986
Scanner - Epson 4990 Photo

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