Works of Art

Hi to all, on a rare grey wet Monday, after a similar yesterday and a night of torrents, thunder and lightning. Warm, though. The rain will pass.
It was such a pleasure to see you come visit the previous post...and more than just a pleasure. Mimi, you arrived just a couple of hours after I had been thinking of you yesterday morning. Cergie, the same [je suis en train d'exprimer mon plaisir à l'égard des visites chez moi d'hier. Et encore davantage, que tu sois arrivée, comme mauigirl et pequete, très peu de temps après que j'aie pensé à toi! Et c'est vrai, ce que tu dis au sujet des hirondelles]. Then pequete did the same. Auds, you are forever...well, Auds. Pat, I'm afraid I don't know you, or how you found me, but it is a shame that this blog reflects today all that is today, rather than what it was.
You see, I have so little to shoot pics of, mostly the same place and the same subjects, which are too limited to make public endlessly. Aslo, I have become afflicted by some kind of internal 'virus', which is leaving me drifting further & further away from the internet, electronic communications and even the computer, to which I am now at times really averse.
However, my pleasure at receiving your warm thoughts & wishes revived me and I want to take advantage of that firstly, to say nothing more that is negative today & secondly, to show you 4 photos shot last week that are not from that same place by the water, and that please me.
1) I think this is the best photo I've taken in ages. Not great at all, but different. I've had my eye on that door for weeks, and finally, I remembered to whip out the camera. It was lucky because the door is not usually open. You may be able to guess that this is the headquarters of the Portuguese Communist Party of Vila Franca de Xira, but I have never come across an entrance like this, with such wonderfully obvious ideological symbolism, anywhere. The PCP IS the sun!!! The open door, though, brings an added symbolism, leading us into the shadows....

 

Now, a meeting with 2 of my most valued local friends, Alenquer on the left and Ferrer on the right. So often, we just bump into each other like this, before lunch or at the end of the afternoon. Alenquer is 67 years old. Ferrer, astonishingly, is 77! Look at him! How can it be? He has lived such a full life here and in Mozambique, has about 6 children and seems to be eternally in his 40s. Not only does he know how to look after himself well, but his mind is fresh and sharp. I've rarely met anyone anywhere so good at talking, about anything, always wothwhile listening to. Incredible memory and no formal education, you should hear him recite vast chunks of poetry or monologues. Or jokes and anecdotes. Philosophy, cinema, politics - he is engaging, funny and almost always smiling. How I appreciate him! And Alenquer.

 

Over the past 3 or 4 weeks, I have developed an unprecedented interest in studying art. Most days, when I am in the library, & if I'm not busy with my own work, I can spend hours absorbed in books on the great artists or periods, learning, studying the works, writing my own impressions. I had a motivation at first to think about Hieronymus Bosch, but then became very focused on Breughel, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat and Goya. Above all, Rembrandt.
Then, while browsing, I found this English work last week and could hardly believe that it is a painting, so photographic is it. Often, people comment that a certain photo looks like a painting. This is the contrary. Painted in 1768, that makes it 70 years older than the first photograph. Look at those faces, the light! And the clouds lit by the moon, top right-hand corner. I wish my photo was better, but it was really the best I could do. Stunning, to me at least.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts. And may we all be very very well.

 

 

Still Looking to Fly

It has to be.
They are that vital to me.
Today, in the midst of the trench warfare that Monday mornings have become and the struggle to repair the damage, today with little success, I watched this cormorant flying upriver.
Half an hour later, ,my first shots of swallows, closer and better than any for a couple of years.

Of course, that camera with the 18x optical zoom would have catured them all better, but no complaints.

 

 

 

Nightfall These Days

Balmy spring, isn't it?
Or should that be barmy spring?
I saw the first swallows yesterday, earliest I ever remember. Up to 21º/70ºF. There's a stork nesting in the middle of the town. A large white and grey owl has returned, also months early.
So I have some photos of the night falling, looking west - as usual - from the quayside - as usual. My remaining sanctuary.
Sincere thanks to all who expressed support, one way or another, regarding Ana.
This is just to give a belated update on her. She had the test, nothing really serious found. Irritable bowel. A nuisance more than anything. She'll have another test soon. But mostly back to what she would term normal, very thankfully.

Now, Bring on the Night............

 

 

 

 

That Time of the Month

Time it was and what a time it was...
This month of January 2008.
A month of illnesses; a month of desperations.
I sincerely hope you are faring better than me, coping enjoying, staring down whatever life and the elements are chucking at you.
Even when I have felt less able than ever before to do what I think I do best (communicate), wonderful people keep coming to pierce the iron bars and platinum walls to shine shards of brilliant light into the darkness that has grown in this hole.
Our backs are up against this wall. For almost 2 weeks, it has been a totally new scare to Ana's health.
On that Friday morning May 4th last, when the news broke that Maddie McCann had disappeared, my first observation out loud was: "Now they are going to find that they have been on holiday in a land invented by Franz Kafka. Where it is paradise, until you have a problem, above all involving the police or the "health" service".
Nothing that has happened, or not happened, since in the McCann case has made me change my mind. I know too well how it can be here, unless you have a lot of money, or a bunch of well-placed, highly influential friends in the elite. There is an abyss, on the edge of which most of the population lives, passively, hoping for miracles, moaning, but doing nothing.
That's how it is. Government by the elite, for the elite, but never OF the elite.
I will only say that Ana will have a colonoscopy on Thursday morning because, with our friendly next-door neighbour's help, we were finally able to break through Kafka's labyrinth and because we could pay for it to be done privately. Our conception of the word "urgent" does not seem to correspond to most of local society's conception of it.
It is tense. Who knows?
So, that's enough of my bulletin. I have a kind of computer/internet sickness - physical and mental.
I work when I have to. I am trying to write, but it is much more complex than I had expected, besides the sheer difficulty posed by my state of mind. Today, I made progress on it, though.
This last year has eaten into my being, ripped chunks out of me.
If we don't have peace of mind, we have nothing.
As for photography, it has stopped absorbing me, stopped making sense. No new subjects. No new camera. It came close, I got really confused with which camera. Finally I took a reality check, realised that I don't need one as things are, but want one because of the consumerist pressure on myself to buy something "therapeutically". And I have lost my confidence.
Nowe, there are other priorities.
So, here are strange forms, shot between 24 December and 19 January on a few sorties into the city.
24 Dec: Strong midday sunlight/Lamp-post/Its shadow/Diagonal

 

28 Dec: Strong midday sunlight/Staircase at Carcavelos Beach/Après-surf/Diagonal & horizontal.

 

4 Jan: Bright midday sunlight/Iron staircase of Santa Justa Tower/Girl on stairs/minerals and shapes

 

19 Jan: Strong, low, end-of-day sunlight/Almost-full moon rising above Lisboa in the harbour/horizontal

 

I am sorry for not writing, not replying, not visiting you. You understand.

Here's to 2008!

To you, dear reader, and to all yours, I wish you a smooth, safe passage through 2008.
May each day be sweet and kind to you;
May it bring you fulfilment and growth;
May you be blessed by its smiles, its fruits, its joys great and small;
And may you be able to look back down the hill, after the climb and say:
"That was a good journey.
I have given more than I have taken.
I have peace of mind, which is essential to this journey.
I look for no more than to do the same in 2009"

 

Facebook

Geddit?
Face...Book...Face....Book...Face....Am I bovvered?

 

And Margarida wants you to see her face and the book she just got for Christmas. What sublime, consummate taste that cat has got! "Great Photographers". Still almost 2 weeks to go, but she just couldn't wait to dress up & open her present.

 

How Do You Want To Live Tomorrow?

A year ago today, to mark the first anniversary of taking it, I published this photo on Time & A Word.
It generated a wide discussion and expressions of emotions, from sympathy to anger to guilt.
I feel I have to publish it today again, not least because I am wondering if he is still alive, 2 years on.
It makes me react exactly as the first time I saw it.
If you haven't seen it before, can I invite you to go to the "Time & A Word" blog (link from top, left of here)and look in the archive, 10th December 2006 and subsequent days and read about this photo.

Plus ça change, plus c'est même chose, as the French say.
One last piece of info: Remember that the Municipality of Siberia-on-Tejo invited me to do a one-man photo exhibition?
Well, what gives me the greatest satisfaction, if not pride, was that they contacted me after looking at a bunch of my photos, including this one. And it was this one that led them to invite me. They were all so impressed and moved by it that they insist that it appears in the exhibition.
That means that it is an image that communicates, conveys a message. Here in Blogland, we already know that, but that is global. The fact that it is a Lisbon street has a far deeper resonance on a Portuguese audience. That advert in the blank window makes it so much more immediately powerful. And it is precisely that kind of achievement that satisfies me.
Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.

 

I can't leave without a terrible, disgusting, hurtful PS regarding this man & the whole question.
It's Christmas time, as the famous Bandaid song so eloquently begins.
The NGOs and church organisations are far advanced in their preparations to give the homeless a few days of comparative well-being. Thanks to volunteers, private and corporate donors, there are fresh stockpiles of food, blankets, medicines, hygiene products, toys, shampoo, etc. etc. Portugal is no different.
A few days ago, I saw a TV news report on one voluntary organisation, "Paz e Vida" (Peace and Life)at their warehouse in Lisbon. A good report.
Yesterday, I saw another one on the same people. On Saturday morning, they arrived at the warehouse to discover that there had been a break-in. Practically EVERYTHING had been stolen. They are expecting 2,500 homeless and needy from next Saturday.
It just broke my heart. It breaks my heart that I am not in a position to do one thing to help. They are praying for a miracle, or just a huge wave of solidarity.
What sort of people could do that? I have never heard of such a thing. What Christmas spirit? Wickedness incarnate.
Pray for "Paz e Vida".