Monday afternoon in Monsaraz with Luís and Sara - February 2011

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Luís and Sara have known each other from childhood, then life separated them... Until now: now they are befriended.

Sara was visiting from Germany, so they took the chance and came to spend a couple of days in Alentejo. 

Sara is daughter of Miguel and Marion, long-time friends from Heidelberg, Germany.

So are the circles and turns of life, sometimes we get lost and sometimes we are found...

Photographed with Leica M2 and Leica R5

Technical Data:

Cameras: Leica M2 + Leica R5

Lenses - Summicron-M 50mm + Elmarit 135mm

Film - Agfa APX 100 + Kodak Tri-x

Developer - Kodak Xtol 1+1

Location - Monsaraz, Portugal

Date - February 28, 2011

Scanner - Epson Perfection 4990 Photo

E aqui deixo um pouco de Miguel Torga. Eu não poderia dizer melhor...


 

Coimbra, 4 de Março de 1989.

"Vigília"

Altas horas da noite.
Acordado,
Rememoro o passado,
Analiso o presente
E advinho o futuro.
Procuro,
Humanamente,
Dar sentido
Ao que fui,
Ao que sou
E ao que serei.
Mas a minha verdade
Não tem a claridade
Da razão.
É esta aflição
Continuada
Que no meu coração
Bate descompassada.

MIGUEL TORGA (DIÁRIO XV – Coimbra 1990)

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Monsaraz, Portugal - Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Sinar F2 (1984, 1988?)

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It is rather evident: when I made the trip to Monsaraz in August 1984, I was using the Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 150mm.
I can see it by the number of images that display that short-tele feeling, that little compression that fits so well some photographs (at least my little me likes it!).
I cannot say for sure, so many films and years have gone by, but it is imaginable that I was eager to try my new spielzeug...

To photograph Monsaraz in August can be a pain. The light is very strong, and the heat can simply knock you off!
I tried to do it last Summer and I couldn't make my feet move! I should maybe clarify that I was striving to produce some 5x7 inches negatives with the Gandolfi...

Shamelessly, I was reminded that my endurance is not bound to eternity!

Twenty six years before, things seemed a little easier though...

You will notice that some pictures are not square. As a matter of fact I found some Large Format (9x12cm/4x5 inches negatives - no location, no date...)that I know were shot with the Sinar camera.
Why I know it was the Sinar? Easy: it was the only one by then...

I believe that they must have been shot in, or around, 1988.
Why I didn't take notes? What the heck do I know? Laziness, sloppiness, second-choice negatives?
Too many questions that I don't remenber the answers, please don't demand so much...

Now you know that I am also far from perfect... You are not alone at that!

Some negatives are far from optimal. So I am glad that I don't need to retouch with brush and Spotone dyes, as I would have to if I was displaying true darkroom prints...

Maybe the film just got cooked by the hot summer heat...

On those days, Monsaraz still had some real life. The times of the "Open Museum" were still to come. The population, even though old, was still alive.

If this topic should deserve your attention, please just click on the tag bellow, I shouldn't repeat myself.

Thanks for watching! I am glad to share!

Technical data:
Cameras - Hasselblad 500 EL/M (square images) + Sinar F2
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Planar-C 80mm f/2.8 + Carl Zeiss Sonnar-C 150 f/4 (for the Hassy)
Schneider Symmar-S 210 f/5.6 + Schneider Super Angulon 90mm f/8 (for the Sinar)
Film - Kodak
Developer - Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1
Location - Monsaraz, Alentejo, Portugal
Date - August 1984 for the square images.
Rectangular ones not dated, probably 1988.
Scanner - Epson Photo 4990



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Rolleiflex 3.5 F - Monsaraz, Alentejo, 7th of July 2009

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I have been travelling to Monsaraz, and photographing there, for many years now.
It is a small village in the south of Portugal, with a castle on top of the hill, overlooking the surrounding valley.
A couple of years ago, the construction of Barragem do Alqueva made a dramatic change in the landscape. Where once was dry land, the waters now reflect the deepness of the blue sky.

Without wishing to dig further into ecological arguing and considerations, I must be tempted to ask myself: "for what so much blue?".

I can foresee the tourist resorts and the golf courses popping up here and there, and I can even envision the big cash flowing in some big scale agricultural projects; but not in the pockets of the few old people remaining in the region, the ones who have been there for ages. They will keep living in poverty, as they always did, forever forgotten and misused.

I hope that I will be proved wrong...

Some twenty or so years ago, you still could watch authentic life in Monsaraz. At the end of the day, the farmers would bring their mules and donkeys to drink by the fountain, the women would sit by the door knitting and chatting.
You still could hear children playing and laughing.

Twenty years ago, you could still feel the pulse of Monsaraz.

Now Monsaraz is an open museum, meaning that besides a couple of souvenir shops and some restaurants, there is very little life to be found there on a day-to-day basis. In the evening, the shop owners go live their lives somewhere else.

I have the consolation of so much beauty...

All photographs shot with a Rolleiflex 3.5F, with Carl Zeiss Planar f/3.5 75mm.
Kodak TX, developed in Agfa Rodinal, dil. 1+50.

And that is how we started the "session", refreshing ourselves with a cool glass of beer, gazing at the marvelous sight of the valley below...

If you got some curiosity about Monsaraz, you can take a look at some more (color) photographs by Helena, posted on her Digitalis Kitsch Blog, under "Kitsch Promenades".
You find the link on the right.

Hope that you enjoy, and have a good weekend.

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