Cruz y Ortiz - Santa Justa Train Station, Seville, Spain, 1991.

..

In preparation for the Universal Exposition of Seville (Expo'92), Spain, the town decided to create some infrastructures to wellcome the millions of visitors that would wish to enjoy the event.

A new airport, designed by Rafael Moneo, and a new railway station, designed by the sevillian architects Cruz y Ortiz, were built.

I had the opportunity to photograph both sites on assignment for the portuguese architectural magazine "Architecti".

On a former post about Expo'92, I showed you the Pabellon de la Navegación by the architect Guillermo Vásquez Consuegra, also a sevillian.

Today, I will show you some photographs of Estación Santa Justa, by Antonio Cruz Villalón and Antonio Ortiz García.
Besides their office in Seville, they also run an office in Amsterdam.

This enormous facility was not yet completely finished, as you can understand in some images.
If I remember correctly, only about half of the tracks were already on duty.

My work turned out to be very unpleasant, as the station guards decided to bother me and I was plagued by constant interruptions. Sometimes I had just prepared my Sinar camera for a shot and they came to tell me that I couldn't photograph from "here", I could only photograph from "there", and pointed a little abstract point somewhere a little further...
Half an hour later they would come again and say that "you can't photograph from this track, you can only photograph from that track!".

Naturally, I would not only miss the shot, as each time I would have to carry all the stuff around...

And so the game kept going on for a while, until I got so bored that I left everything behind and rushed to the administration complaining. Needless to say that I already had a written permission since the first minute I started working.

Very often, the "small" people in the authority chain like to think that they are very important and try to play the big boss.

It can be rather annoying to play such power games, when you are struggling with thirty or fourty kilograms of photographic equipment...

In fact, the same situation was encountered in Consuegra's Pabellon, and in Expo'98 in Lisbon, to name a few.

As mentioned before, the transparencies were shot with a Sinar f2 camera. Lenses by Schneider Kreuznach. Sheetfilm in 4x5 inches (or 9x12) by Kodak - the photograph depicting the yellow train, was shot with the same camera, but using a Linhof Rapid Rollex 6x7 rollfilm back.
Very heavy tripod from Linhof.
Sekonic and Minolta lightmeters, etc., etc.

Lots of (beer) durst (german word for thirst) by the end of the day...

(Excuse me for my poor scans. I did them some time ago, when my skills were still lesser than they are now).

..

"Sevilhanas", Montemor-o-Novo, 2008

..

I am not different from everybody else: there are things that I like and things that I regard with aversion.
Gladly, most of them I can accept or tolerate.

That's the case with my Canon 30D digital camera.

A kind of fast-food feeling when I use it...

Saying that, I perfectly agree that there are some occasions where the 30D clearly delivers a better image than analogic cameras. That's the case with high ISO images in color.

At ISO 1600, I believe that even my Leicas would have a very hard time to compete and be able to do better. At least in slide film.

I am well aware that I could still get better digital models out there...

It just doesn't feel right to me to spend a whole lot of money in top of the line cameras that have a useful life of maybe one or two years before they are obsolete.

Many years ago, I very much enjoyed to use a fast color slide film from Agfa called Agfachrome 1000 (yes, 1000 ASA), that sadly as long been discontinued.

In 35mm it showed maybe too much grain, but in medium format that grain just turned beautiful, giving the photographs a very nice atmosphere. I miss it!

When I find some pictures I will post them, for you to see.

Montemor-o-Novo is a small, but culturally active, town.
"Sevilhanas" is a dance group from local people that learn Flamenco. I must say that I was very astonished: they perform with a very high level of expertise.

I really enjoyed their show in Curvo Semedo theatre.

I shot most of the pictures with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM lens (the older version without image stabilisation).

Although a somewhat cumbersome lens, I really admire it's optical performance, taking into account that it is a fast zoom with several elements.
I dare to say that it is so good as good prime lenses.

I think that I am glad that it doesn't have IS, as it nerves me a little to feel it working...
My hands still hold steady!

I was more concerned with beeing able to stop movement at the slow shutter speeds.
To do so, I had often to deliberatly underexpose to get somewhere around 1/30.
Of course, PP correction was needed...

If you saw attentively my former posts, you probably have noticed that I often don't crop my images. I like to show the whole negative.

I try to respect myself and my compositions.

If a image fails in camera, I tend to reject it... Not a religion, though...

In the same time, it seems that I don't give much importance to crop a digital image.

Perhaps it is because I don't feel it physicaly... So why should I care?

It's only pixels, it's only numbers...

..

Studio Work (Sheet and roll film)

..

Some people have the rather erroneous idea, that the life of a professional photographer has a lot to do with easy-living and glamour.

While some certainly achieve such a wonderful status, I guess that the vast majority gets to know very little or no bright life at all.

Antonioni's "Blow Up" is a faraway mirage, continuously vanishing a little further away from our dreams and expectations. The girls just don't show up for a private dance, and very few of us drive Rolls-Royce convertibles...

Instead, we have every month to deal with our taxes and our costs, as any other business.

Crisis can take away all our wish to laugh and dance...

Beeing in a dark studio for endless hours, trying to make some ordinary objects turn to gold, can be a very frustrating and boring activity: "A little more light here, a little less light over there, a reflector here, that flash head a little further away, now that bottle just a little bit to the left, that shadow is too dark, the reflection is too strong", and so on and so on...

A shot looking simple and straightforward can take an eternity.
When you finally go back home you suddenly understand that it is long past midnight...

Sinar F2 + Horseman 6x12 back

Sinar F2 or Gandolfi Variant + Horseman 6x12 back

Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches + 5x7 inches reducing back

Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches

Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches + 5x7 inches reducing back

Of course, if the products look good, you can have a lot more fun, even if the shots are relatively straight and simple.

Beeing a hi-fi and music fan myself, I did really enjoy doing these images.
Somebody made a review about the equipment for a magazine article, and I did the shooting. As I usually didn't get a lay out, I had the freedom to do as I pleased.

Nice, although the costs had to be kept to a minimum...

(You seldom can have the whole fun...).

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches + 5x7 inches reducing back

Watches can be something very challenging to photograph in 5x7 inches...

You really need a long bellows draw to be able to fill the frame with an interesting image.

Reflections can get you into serious trouble and you really have to master your lighting.

It is kind of funny to have a little watch facing a really big camera, surrounded by lots of lights...

You got to keep cool, or you quickly mess it up...

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

Now, glass can be rather tricky too.

It reflects your lights, your camera, your whole paraphernalia and yourself.
Maybe worst of all, it also reflects the dark corners of the studio.

In the examples above, and in the case of the "floating" watch, the background was also made with light.

Please keep in mind that all these photographs were shot with analogic gear, and that what you see is what the transparencies show.

All these images are not manipulated (except for some minor corrections like dust spoting, etc).

Basically, you see what I got in camera.

Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches + 5x7 inches reducing back

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

The perfume bottle above and the two cameras below, were not shot on assignment. I just made them for myself. On the photograph above, I was experimenting with colored light to produce a background.

Sinar F2 4x5 inches

No, it is not a Leica, and the lens is not a Leitz Elmar!

It is just a fake Leica made by the russians, probably a FED or a Zorki I.

On the top plate a swastica is also engraved with the word "Bildberichter" (photo reporter).

Looks nice, but the shutter doesn't work...

Gandolf Precision 8x10 inches

My lovely Rolleiflex 3.5 F, that you should already know by now.
It graces my profile, and you also can see her around my neck in the portrait I posted some time ago.

Now you can watch her in all her beauty...

The images on this post were shot in my former studio in Lisbon, using flash equipment from Hensel Studiotechnik, Würzburg, Germany.

My cameras were equiped with Schneider and Rodenstock optics.

Light meters/Flash meters from Sekonic and Gossen.

..

International Worker's Day - (Gandolfi Precision 8x10)

..

I dedicate this post to all the immigrants
 

"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" - Bob Dylan

I pity the poor immigrant
Who wishes he would've stayed home,
Who uses all his power to do evil
But in the end is always left so alone.
That man whom with his fingers cheats
And who lies with ev'ry breath,
Who passionately hates his life
And likewise, fears his death.

I pity the poor immigrant
Whose strength is spent in vain,
Whose heaven is like Ironsides,
Whose tears are like rain,
Who eats but is not satisfied,
Who hears but does not see,
Who falls in love with wealth itself
And turns his back on me.

I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud,
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood,
Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass.
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass.

(From the album “John Wesley Harding” - 1967)

 

 

The above photograph was shot in the studio with a Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches on Fujichrome Velvia film.

.

 

..

Assorted Moments

..

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...

..

I am ashamed

..

On the 25th of April, Portugal will celebrate thirty five years of democracy.

So they say...

On that April morning, young army officers finally put an end to Salazar's dictatorship.

A new era had began...

But the dream of equality, fraternity and mutual respect has long faded away.

We now have to deal with lies, greed and corruption.

We lost our dignity.

For some months now, almost everyone who crosses the door of my studio is struggling for surviving: they beg for something, or try to sell something.

I wish that I could give them a helping hand, but I struggle too.

The clients are long gone, the telephone seldom rings...

I am ashamed of beeing part of this society!

Each day I have a little faith...

Dear Landlord

Please don't put a price on my soul

My burden is heavy

My dreams are beyond control


When that steamboat whistle blows

I'm gonna give you all I got to give

And I do hope you receive it well

Dependin' on the way you feel that you live


Dear Landlord

Please hear these words that I speak

I know you've suffered much

But in this you are not so unique


All of us at times we might work too hard

To have it too fast and too much

And anyone can fill his life up with things

He can see but he just cannot touch


Dear Landlord

Please don't dismiss my case

I'm not about to argue

I'm not about to move to no other place


Now, each of us has his own special gift

And you know this was meant to be true

And if you don't underestimate me

I won't underestimate you.


Bob Dylan, "Dear Landlord"

(from the album "John Wesley Harding", 1967)

Some information about the photographs: the hand was pictured in Mannheim, Germany, September 1986.
I shot with a Rolleiflex 3.5 F equiped with a Carl Zeiss Planar 75mm lens, and loaded with Kodak Plus-X, developed in Kodak Microdol-X, 1+3.

My portrait was shot February 2009, and is courtesy of Helena Roque.

I happen to have on my neck the Rolleiflex that made the image above, and a Leica M5 with 50mm Summicron lens.

..