The Minolta Years - Heidelberger Messplatz, 1976 & 1977

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Travelling back in time, I bring you all the way up to Heidelberg, Germany.

That's one of the funny things photography let us do: go back and forth in our lives, for free!

On this particular occasion, we are rewinding about three and a half decades back in my existence.

Enjoy the voyage!

All images above: Minolta SRT cameras

Kodachrome 64 film

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1977

The above images just remind me how much I miss that wonderful film made famous by a Paul Simon song: Kodachrome!

In fact, Kodachrome is one of photography's biggest losses!

It is sometimes hard to believe how vivid and natural, almost alive, the colors look on those chromes after so many years (not to be confused with some other exaggerations present in some other films that came to life in more recent years).

They just want to jump on the light table!

If I had done this images with today's digital technology, do you believe that I could still be showing them to you? Now?

Do you really think that the digital images that we are shooting today will be compatible with any technology that we may use in some decades from now?

Sorry, but I do have my serious doubts... Hope time proves me wrong...

Minolta SRT 303b + 2.8/135mm Rokkor

Ektachrome High Speed

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1976

Minolta SRT 303b + 1.8/35mm Rokkor + Pol Filter

Ektachrome High Speed

Heidelberg, Germany, May 1976

"Kodachrome"

When I think back

On all the crap I learned in high school

It's a wonder

I can think at all

And though my lack of education

Hasn't hurt me none

I can read the writing on the wall.

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world is a sunny day

I got a Nikon camera

I love to take a photograph

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

If you took all the girls I knew

When I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they would never match my sweet imagination

Everything looks worse in black and white.

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world is a sunny day

I got a Nikon camera

I love to take a photograph

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

Words and music by Paul Simon

From the album "There Goes Rhymin' Simon", 1973.

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too much blue!

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Kiev 4a + Jupiter 8, Tri-X, D-76 1+1, Ferreira do Alentejo, 2009

too much blue - an overabundance of stars

the moon high above a complete waste

there ain't no summer breeze - can blow away the dark clouds of my hole emptiness

next time your ghost approaches me

riding on top of your high-heeled shoes

whisper gently on my ear who I am

maybe I will better understand who you are

by then I'll be going home to nowhere

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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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Chicago, The Loop - Summer 1999 (Horseman SW612Pro)

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The Loop seen from the South Side, IIT Campus in the foreground

Riding the train from O'Hare International Airport into the Windy City, we soon started to have the funny bitter feeling that maybe we made the wrong decision when, wanting to save some bucks, we left the expensive cabs behind us and rushed to the train station.

As the city got nearer and nearer, numerous strange and peculiar looking people seemed to feel a certain kind of special attraction for all the crazy bags and cases that we transported.

Who knows, maybe it was just simple curiosity?

I bet that all the gangsters in Chicago must have gotten scared of that two little funny creatures coming maybe from the outer space, carrying only-God knows what kind of secret weapons on their metallic cases...

Strange robot cops out of nowhere going to everywhere? Who dares to ask?

In fact, we are loaded with cases of precious photographic equipment: 4x5 inches Gandolfi Variant, Horseman SW612Pro (both of course with the necessary lenses), exposure meters, color meter, filters, roll film holders, tripods, film, and so on and so on.

Did I mention our wallets, credit cards, passport, money, clothes, sleeping bags and the like?

My son Jorge, by then in the beginning of his twenties, looks like asking if we will ever get out of there alive... I try to look calm and reply that he should pretend that we are at home, that we are just doing the most natural thing in the world, we are hardcore Chicagoans and no one can do us no harm, no matter which hellbound train we ride!

Truth is, we are for the first time in our lives walking on american soil...

Chicago Transit Authority was kind enough to offer us the very first cheap emotions!

Chicago, here we come!!!

As possibly some of you know, I was in Chicago on assignment, photographing the works of Mies van der Rohe for Editorial Blau. I have posted some material before, so people familiar with this blog should know what I am talking about.

This time around, the talk won't be about Mies, but about the "few times in between", the few times that I took the chance of photographing something else. Looking back, I understand that in a way it was a lost chance, as I realize that I should have made much more images than I did on my spare time.

Photographing for a book on Mies' architecture obliged us to be focused on our task, also losing countless hours on burocratic stuff like permissions and the like.

Chicago is a fantastic city and Lake Michigan is just unforgettable, you can find millions of motives to photograph and a lot of music to hear! Maybe I will be back one day shooting on my own, without pressures and obligations. I will then maybe find the peace of mind to do my own stuff at my own pace, with my own rhythm.

If chance happens, should I do it in Large Format? Leica? One lens, ten lenses?

Color, black and white? Sheet film, roll film? Square, panoramic?

I guess that I better do it all and then some more...

And I promise that I will try some other pizzas, not only Luigi's world famous (in IIT Common's... He invariably asked if we wanted one - paper - plate or two plates... You understood right, for both of us! Wanna get Luigi fucked up? Ask him for a napkin... And then maybe some salt... You better run soon!).

And I won't forget the world's best chicken wings, and the world's dearest donuts, and the world's funkiest McDonald's, and the world's best blues, and the world's nicest everything...

Yes, that is Chicago too!

All photographs made with Horseman SW612Pro + Rodenstock lenses

(Faraway view with Gandolfi Variant and Schneider lens)

All images shot on 120 film (6x12 and 6x9): Kodak E100S and E100VS

On this trip I had the chance of testing the then new Ektachrome E100VS. I found it a touch too saturated and with a little bit too much contrast.

I know that it is supposed to be saturated...

It just happens that I am an old dog, and old dogs not always like to change their food...

As I said before, my son Jorge was my assistant on this trip. God knows that I would have gone mad for sure without his help. Jorge happens to be a very nice guy, taking it easy... His patience and good nature made me do it with a smile, very often even with a loud laugh.

Once again "thank you, my son. In the end, we did have a really good time, didn't we?"!

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Circus Willy Hagenbeck - Heidelberg, Germany, March 1977 (Mamiya C330f)

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It is rather hot, I've been maybe drinking too much beer and wine, but if memory still serves me any good, the first Medium Format camera that I have ever owned and used, was the Mamiya C330f (6x6), with two distinct lenses. Please, don't ask me about which ones, I could almost declare that the 180mm was one of them...

Beeing a fine camera, with fine lenses, I believe that I was not yet mature for this, somewhat heavy and cumbersome, TLR (Twin Lens Reflex): I sold it again after a short time.

Oddly enough, I would later on fall deeply in love (up until today) with other TLR cameras: the wonderful and elegant Rolleiflex!

Honesty makes me concede, that the Mamiya has some "advantages" over the Rollei: interchangeable lenses, 120 and 220 film capability, focusing bellows for easy close-up photography...

But, like everything else in life, chemistry sometimes doesn't work...

These are the first "serious" square format photographs that I ever took of a circus (another long-lasting photographic love of mine): Circus Wylly Hagenbeck, pictured in Heidelberg, Germany, on the 2nd of March, 1977 (Shit, time flies!).


Can you dig it? The film was still Ilford HP-4! (Yes, FOUR!).
I developed it in Tetenal Emofin, and the negatives are a little thin for my taste...
What should I care, these are "historic" images (well, at least for me...), nice to look at on a hot summer night.
Who cares if they are not so good-looking?

I still had (and have) a loooooong way to go...

Camera: Mamiya C330f (6x6 TLR)

Ilford HP-4, developed in Tetenal Emofin.

Circus Wylly Hagenbeck, Heidelberg, BRD, 1977

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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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Álvaro Siza, Terraços de Bragança, Lisboa, 2005 - Wasted Project (1)

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This could have been a beautiful White & Blue book, about a beautiful architectural project in Lisbon downtown by Álvaro Siza. Mr. Siza was kind enough, as always, to guarantee all his collaboration, but somehow the book never came to life.

Feeling pity that it remains wasted, I don't want it to be a completely lost project, so I let you enjoy the photographs, while it's publication keeps on waiting for a better opportunity.

Film cameras were used exclusively on the documentation shown above:

- Sinar F2, with Rodenstock and Schneider lenses, for 4x5" and 6x12 (Horseman back);
- Horseman SW612 Pro, with Rodenstock lenses, for 6x12.

- Corfield WA67, Schneider Super-Angulon 47mm, for 6x7.

- Hasselblad 500 C/M, with Carl Zeiss lenses, for 6x6.

Light meter and color meter by Gossen.

Film by Kodak.

Tripods by Gitzo and Manfrotto.

Transparencies and b&w negatives scanned with Epson Perfection 4990.

Assistance by Luís Morais de Sousa, my son.

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