Eye Contact

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Barbara, 1989

 

 

Carol, 1989

 

 

 

João, 1987

 

 

Jorge, 1989

 

 

Jorge, 1986

 

 

Luís, 1987

 

 

Mariana + Rui, 1988

 

 

Mário, 1997

 

 

Sara, 2000

 

 

Stephen, 1989

 

 

Uschi, 1989

 

Photographed with Hasselblad cameras + Sonnar 150mm

 

 

 

Technical Data:

Cameras - Hasselblad 500 C/M + 500 EL/M

Lens - Carl Zeiss Sonnar f/4 - 150mm

Films - Agfa Pan 400, Agfa APX 400, Ilford HP5, Kodak TMax 100, Kodak TMax-400

Developers - Agfa Rodinal, Kodak D-76, Kodak Microdol-X, Kodak TMax

Location - Aveiro, Carnaxide, Heidelberg, Lisboa

Scanner - Epson 4990

 

 

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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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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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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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Happy birthday Mário! (10th of July)

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My third son, Mário Júlio, will be today, 10th of July, twenty one years old.

Life has not been very easy for him the last years, and maybe I didn't stand by him like I should.

Eventually because life was also not always easy for me... (What, of course, can hardly do as an excuse...).

Anyway, I do love him, as I love all the other kids, and he (they) make me feel a happy / lucky father. I couldn't wish better children!

We, somehow, live different lifes with our different problems and frustrations, but we know that all the others are there and will answer to the call!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SON!!!

"Forever Young"

May God bless and keep you always,

May your wishes all come true.

May you always do for others

And let others do for you.

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung.

May you stay forever young,

Forever young, forever young.

May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,

May you grow up to be true.

May you always know the truth

And see the lights surrounding you.

May you always be courageous,

Stand upright and be strong.

May you stay forever young,

Forever young, forever young.

May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,

May your feet always be swift.

May you have a strong foundation

When the winds of change shift.

May your heart always be joyful

And may your song always be sung.

May you stay forever young,

Forever young, forever young.

May you stay forever young.

Words and Music by Bob Dylan, from the album "Planet Waves", 1974

(Recorded with The Band).

Caption: I made the photograph of Mário with a Hasselblad camera in Dezember 1997, in Lisbon. Taking lens was a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm.

Agfa APX 100, developed in Agfa Rodinal 1+25.

Studio light by Hensel, Würzburg, Germany.

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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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