The River (Part 3) - Rio Tejo, Lisbon, September 1994

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Technical Data:
Camera - Hasselblad 500 C/M
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Distagon-C 3.5/60mm + Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 4/150mm
Film - Kodak T-MAX 100
Developers - Kodak HC-110 + Tetenal Neofin Blau
Location - Lisbon, Portugal
Date - September 1994
Scanner - Epson Perfection 4990 Photo


XXXIV

Acho tão natural que não se pense
Que me ponho a rir às vezes, sozinho,
Não sei bem de quê, mas é de qualquer coisa
Que tem que ver com haver gente que pensa…

Que pensará o meu muro da minha sombra?
Pergunto-me às vezes isto até dar por mim
A perguntar-me coisas...
E então desagrado-me, e incomodo-me
Como se desse por mim com um pé dormente...

Que pensará isto de aquilo?
Nada pensa nada.
Terá a terra consciência das pedras e plantas que tem?
Se ela a tiver, que a tenha...
Que me importa isso a mim?
Se eu pensasse nessas coisas,
Deixaria de ver as árvores e as plantas
E deixava de ver a Terra,
Para ver só os meus pensamentos...
Entristecia e ficava às escuras.
E assim, sem pensar, tenho a Terra e o Céu.


Poemas de Alberto Caeiro – Obras completas de Fernando Pessoa
(Lisboa, Edições Ática, 1979), pp. 57


XXXIV

I find it so natural not to think
I start to laugh sometimes, all alone,
I don’t really know why, but it’s about something
To do with knowing there are people who think...

What is my wall thinking about my shadow?
I ask myself this sometimes until I notice
I’m asking myself things...
And then I get mad at myself, and feel uncomfortable
Like when my foot falls asleep...

What does this think about that?
Nothing thinks about anything.
Does the earth have consciousness of its stones and plants?
If it did, it would be people. . .
Why am I worrying about this?
If I think about these things,
I’ll stop seeing trees and plants
And stop seeing the Earth
For only seeing my thoughts...
I’ll get unhappy and stay in the dark.
And so, without thinking, I have the Earth and the Sky.

Translation from Fernando Pessoa: Alberto Caeiro: Complete Poems


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Silke in Mannheim, Germany, August 1989 (Agfachrome RS 1000)

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All photographs shot with a Hasselblad 500 C/M,
with Agfachrome RS 1000 film

Sometime ago, I have mentioned a long discontinued film, that I very much liked to use every now and then.
I found its colours very attractive for some subjects, producing a nice mood.
The (very) coarse grain gave it a strong character of it's own.

Maybe a little too coarse in 35mm, it just produced lovable images in 120 size.

I surely miss it!

Somebody introduced me to Silke, because I needed a model for some school tasks, when I was doing my Gesellenprüfung in Heidelberg, Germany.

Silke was a nice and friendly girl, with lots of Geduld...
I enjoyed her company, and we had the chance to spend some funny days together.

It is a pity, and a shame, that I have lost contact with her when I moved back to Portugal...

On this particular occasion, we went to some Industriegebiet in the town of Mannheim, and I brought along my trusty Hasselblad 500 C/M and a couple of lenses: the Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 4/150mm, together with the Carl Zeiss Planar-C 2.8/80mm or the Carl Zeiss Distagon-C 3.5/60mm.
Although it was obviously a sunny day, I decided to use the Agfachrome RS 1000, probably equipping my lenses with a ND or a polarizing filter.

It is a pity that I can't show the images somewhat bigger, as the grain get's more and more interesting as size increases...

My daughter laughs a little about the clothes on the photographs...

Well, it was twenty years ago today, as the Beatles would say!

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Assorted Moments

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I have been turning the pages of an old book that I bought in Cologne, Germany, in 1982. Every once in a while I like to glance through it.

I am talking about a little volume with photographs by André Kertész, called "Americana", edited by Nicolas Ducrot and published in 1979 by Visual Books Inc., New York City.

I must confess that I am not necessarily a great admirer of Kertész, although I find some of his images absolutely outstanding.
It is such a case with this book, and also with the book "Of New York", for example.

Both show some extraordinary work, and both also display some images that look almost commonplace...

My humble opinion...

But doesn't that happens to all of us? Don't we all have our very special days?

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Without daring to compare myself with this exceptional photographer, I feel that many of my images are rather average, too much trivial, too much "bread and butter"...

To discard our own not-so-much-interesting images is not an easy task for sure, as they are a good part of our own memory, of our own heritage, our legacy for the future.

Having said that, life has shown me that the patina of time suddenly can turn a common photograph into one deserving better attention.

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Bretagne, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Mont-Saint-Michel, France, February 1977

Minolta SRT 101, HP5 in Emofin, Normandie, France, February 1977

These are images from my "Minolta Years", from my beginnings as a photographer.

Amateur photographer, that is...

Amateur in the true sense of the word: I ate and slept photography. I nourished my body and soul with it.

I was obsessed and passionate about it.

I was in love with it!

Leica M4-2, Strasbourg, France, April 1982

In the meantime, I had traded all my Minolta equipment for the Leica rangefinder system (except for the light-meters. I still use a Minolta Spotmeter).

As far as I can recall, I was by then only using Leica / Leitz cameras and lenses. It simply better suited my street-photography style, that I used to practice almost exclusively in those days.

I still miss my Minolta XM and the very fine Minolta Rokkor f1.8 35mm, though.

I should have kept them...

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M3, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M3, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

Leica M2, HP5 in D-76 1+1, Bremen, Germany, March 1984

As far as I remember, I only went once in my life to Bremen. From these short visit, I don't have much memories left, but some photographs...

Hasselblad 500CM + Carl Zeiss 60mm Distagon C, TMY in D-76 1+1,
Lisboa, Portugal, August 1988

Hasselblad 500CM + Carl Zeiss 60mm Distagon C, TMY in D-76 1+1,
Lisboa, Portugal, August 1988

When I took these photographs in Lisbon, I also was already using medium format on a regular basis.

I found it to be a nice complement to my 35mm rangefinders.

There was still a lot to come, though...

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