The power of photography

Doesn't matter how many times we've seen these guys in the 8 o'clock news... Through someone's lens we can actually SEE so much more...

Me

How much fun can a person have on her own?


With facial white paint, a strong red lipstick and the natural light in my house I was having fun trying to take low contrast pics for this week assignment.

Baraka

If there is one movie that can change your life, this is the ONE. And no matter how many times I've seen it I always feel like seeing it again... A visual, sensorial, philosophical feast. The world is indeed a very very veryyyyy large place...






Baraka (1992) directed by Ron Fricke


Quoting:

>> Baraka is an ancient Arabic word, which can be translated as "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds."

>> The movie was filmed at 152 locations of 24 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. It contains no dialogue. Instead of a story or plot, the film uses themes to present new perspectives and evoke emotion purely through cinema. The film was the first in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format.

>> Fricke writes about his work: "I feel that my work has evolved through Koyaanisqatsi, Chronos and Baraka. Both technically and philosophically I am ready to delve even deeper into my favorite theme: humanity's relationship to the eternal"

My visual DNA

For 3 weeks we had to look for all kinds of images, from whatever source, gather the ones that moved us, touched us, made us cry or laugh...
As a matter of principle I could not make my photography collection without including some of *my* all time masters, such as Sebastião Salgado and Man Ray. Some people might recognize some of their work as well... ;-)

And what did I learn with this exercise?
1. I like B&W better that color pictures. I just think they are timeless...
2. But I do like strong colors in a photography!
3. I love the human body, faces, eyes, etc...
4. I love when I can relate to the subject and its emotions.
5. I like sense of humor in photography, as well as details that shed a different light (a less obvious one) into a subject.
6. I wished I could have already traveled the world 7 times and lived 7 lives and I could have taken all of those pictures...

I'm dreaming...

I just arrived from one trip... and here I am, dreaming of my "maybe" new "putative" next trip(s)...

... Where will she go this time? Hummmmm......

In the mood for strong groovy female vocals...

Esperanza Spalding, I know that you know.



Céu, Lenda.

Obrigada irmãos Lumiére!!!!

Como sempre, e como já muitos de vocês sabem, não dispenso um (ou mais) bom filme no fim-de-semana! Ainda bem que a fonte é quase inesgotável e que há tantos e tantos filmes qua ainda nos podem surpreender!

Recomendo-vos:


No country for old men.
Não há muito mais a dizer sobre este filme que já não tenha sido dito... Sublinho apenas a genialidade de Javier Bardem e do seu penteado! Ele está demais!!!!



My life without me.
Um filme lindíssimo, ainda que com alguns lugares comuns... mas muito sensivel, muito especial... dá para perceber bem que a realizadora é uma mulher!
Todo o filme é uma pequena caixinha de surpresas deliciosa, embora triste.
"If you don't kiss me right now, I'll scream.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"Tenho medo que a liberdade se torne um vicio"

in Rio das Flores, MIguel Sousa Tavares.



Esta frase contém uma força inexplicável. E traduz talvez da melhor e mais simples maneira aquilo que eu tenho sentido desde que voltei de Cuba. Naquela ilha, longe de todo o contacto com a minha vida comum, de televisão, de noticiários fatídicos anunciando o colapso da nossa sociedade, de emails indesejados, de telefonemas desagradáveis, do meu trabalho, da minha rotina... encontrei-me... incrivelmente livre. E é viciante!
As mudanças que então experimentei foram mais profundas que os simples arranhões causados pelas impressões superficiais de quem viaja por uns dias. O que realmente é estranho é que eu não passei lá mais do que alguns dias... Mas talvez a grande diferença é que eu tenha sempre estado em casa de cubanos, tenha feito questão de interagir com locais e tenha passado os primeiros dias da viagem sozinha. Desde o primeiro instante senti-me envolvida e integrada. Falei com tantas pessoas que perdi conta, inquiri sobre a vida e filosofei sobre sociedade e política com outras tantas. Ali, no seio de uma ditadura senti-me libertada da minha ditadura interior. Não é irónico? Apercebi-me que não posso continuar a levar a minha vida como tenho levado até aqui. Esta conclusão, embora seja provavelmente a melhor tendo em vista a iluminação da minha alma, talvez não seja exactamente a mais conveniente e prática tendo em conta que estou a iniciar a recta final do meu PhD e tenho um montão de papers para escrever...
Senhores e senhoras, esta é a fase em que me encontro agora: com um PhD para acabar, sem um tusto no bolso (que Cuba é carote para os turistas e arruinou as minhas finanças) e com vontade de atirar tudo pela janela! No entanto lá terei que ficar, como boa menina, e acabar o que é suposto acabar... mas fica-me a vontade de pegar na mochila e não olhar para trás e fazer o que o rapaz deste vídeo fez... durante 5 anos da sua vida!
(where did I go wrong?!?)

estoy aburrida...

The reason why I will never be rich...

Baratuchos...
Uma pechincha...
Somente 400 dollars...
Pessoal, o meu NIB e' o 813...

Quando o yoga se mescla com dança

Esta noite fui ver um espectáculo de dança moderna com a Sylvia e a Esther. Entre nós partilhamos o amor pela ciência (já que trabalhamos no mesmo instituto) e pelo Yoga (eu e a Sylvia como alunas desengonçadas e a Esther como professora graciosa). Assim juntámo-nos as três e fomos ver uma mistura audaciosa de dança moderna e posições de yoga certamente dolorosas... O resultado foi muito especial e recomendo-vos a ver este espectáculo se tiverem oportunidade! Só fiquei com pena de não ter levado comigo a minha máquina fotográfica, já que estava sentada mesmo no meio da primeira fila e o espectáculo era visualmente muito interessante...


Australian Dance Theatre, G by choreographer Garry Stewart

"Stewart has converted the dancers from characters into visceral explorations of hysteria, sex, death, loss and metamorphosis with his trademark full tilt choreography and visionary design."

Huey, Dewey and Louie

At times we would look like a walking anecdote with 6 legs... A French, an Italian and a Portuguese got together in Cuba, rented a car and drove around the island...
As you can probably imagine, the answer to the oh so common question "lady, where are you from?" was quite long and always mesmerized people around! "How do you communicate amongst each other?", seemed to be the question on the tip of everybody's tong. Well, the truth is sometimes we were talking in so many different languages at the same time that we would end the day with an headache. Mostly we would talk in English and Spanish, but at times words of Italian, French and Portuguese would also be heard...
... It was a mess, by I miss my plurilingual days... :-(

Bahia de Los Cochinos, where History happened

The defeat of Imperialism: a reason for every Cuban to be proud.
(photo taken by M.L.)

I wouldn't say that Bahia de Los Cochinos and Playa Larga are exactly the most touristic spots in Cuba. And I'm glad it is like this! Here we found the perfect refuge, of rest and peacefulness, and we could have for a few days a privilege contact with Cuba's nature and with locals. Its hard to imagine nowadays that this was once stage of an enormous fight between distinct ways of life, a fight for ideals that still cleaves the World up to this day...

Our literature (and road map) on Cuba... quite extensive, one can say...

In Playa Larga village there are a handful of casas particulares. None of our several guides made any special point in visiting Bahia de Los Cochinos. This is probably the reason why we didn't see that many tourist around... and we were thankful for that! Thanks to this lack of information, here the beaches were practically deserted, with only a few locals swimming. It's true that it doesnt look as fancy as the picture-perfect resort beaches we see on postcards, but the vibe was much more honest and authentic. Here I felt I was in the real Cuba.

The unpretentious beach of Playa Larga

Bahia de los Cochinos, just a few hours before the expected tropical storm Fay... We were a bit nervous, I must say, but the sea was amazingly calm...

My feet in the Caribbean Sea and my head in the clouds. Yes, I have my feet inside the water. It was THAT transparent!

You never forget that this Bay witnessed one of the most important Cuban fights, for their ideology and sovereignty.

My favorite part of the trip to Bahia de Los Cochinos was, with no shred of doubt, my scuba-diving baptism!!!!!!! Lua&Estrela, you would be so proud of me!!!!!!! :-D
I dived with O2 bottle for the first time in my life, in an historical place and in the day after the tropical storm Fay. Certainly, a unique combination! So, while I was trying to learn how to properly breed and control my level in the water, I was struggling to avoid getting smashed against the rocks, as the sea was quite strong. After a lot of attempts and personal drama, I MADE IT!!!!!! I, Menina Azul Reciclada, scuba-dived in the Caribbean Sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To make the whole experience even better, we dived with Félix, a Cuban diving instructor (and our host in Playa Larga as well) that has scuba-dived in the past with no other than Jacques Cousteau!!!!!!!!! How cool is that?????

A ride from Hell! This was our car in Playa Larga, with the most funny driver I've ever met in my life!

Ready to get acquainted with the Caribbean sea, finally.
(photo taken by S.Z.)

Fragments of our adventures in the sea. It was GREAT!!!!!! And I wanna do it again!

Another highlight of our stay in Bahia de Los Cochinos was our visit to Zapata National Park, a wildlife sanctuary. It's particularly nice for all of you birdwatchers out there! I could only think of Maffas and Timme - my dear ornithologist friends - while we were with our binocular, doing the paparazzi-style to the poor birds!

The landscape of Zapata! It was a privilege for to be in such close contact with the beautiful nature of Cuba!

Until very recently, if you would ask me what was the highlight of my trip to Cuba, I would definitely place Zapata amongst the top five! This was mostly due to the our amazing encounter with REAL FLAMINGOS!!!!! We saw real, pink-pink-PINK flamingos! I was over the moon when I saw them and, again, I immediately thought about telling to Maffas and Timme about my flamingo sighting - especially since this was not the flamingo season around these areas, so we were really really lucky to see them!

The flamingos!!!!!!! They are really pink!!!!!! (and they were really far away...)

I was very happy, thinking I witnessed something truly unique. But apparently, according to Maffas there are flamingos in Estuário do Tejo. And with the simple sentence "Nice for you! Once we also saw some near Ponte Vasco da Gama" she broke my heart...

The very rare heron...

Well, nonetheless I enjoyed my flamingo experience and my day as an ornithologist. And in the end of the day I even had a truly rare experience (for sure more rare than the flamingos), as we had a glance of this beautiful heron - according to our guide a very rare specimen... Sorry for my ignorance, but can anybody identify it?

Imperdivel!

Mar Adentro.

Um dos melhores filmes que vi nos últimos tempos e que consagra definitivamente Javier Bardem como um dos meus actores favoritos. Não tenho palavras que possam descrever com justiça a torrente de sentimentos que este filme me provocou. Mas apesar de duro e difícil, e' belíssimo e vale a pena desafiarmos a nós próprios a ver o filme ate' ao fim.
Toca-me também, muito, o sentido estético e humano deste filme e fica para mim claro aquilo que José Saramago já falava na "Jangada de Pedra": de que existe muito mais uma identidade Ibérica ao invés de Portuguesa e Espanhola. As nossas maneiras de ver a vida, de a valorizar e de a apreciar são mais próximas que distintas. Por isso gosto sempre tanto de cinema espanhol. Porque nos compreendemos tão bem...
A serio, vejam este filme! Muito, muito, muito triste e, por isso mesmo, muito, muito, muito, muito, muito, muito, muito bonito...

Some times Cuba seemed to be in a far away dream, that was not mine to live.
I felt very connected to its reality immediately after my return, but now it seems that routine took the best of me and I'm body & mind are back in The Netherlands again...
Nevertheless, in days like today I get a bit of silence - and this is the gift that brings me back to the island of music, generosity and secrets...

Ai minha rica mãezinha

Bom, está visto que esta semana estou numa de videos... e não poderia deixar de aqui vos mostrar mais um. Uma pérola que descobri no YouTube (YouTube! YouTube! YouTube!) e que quero aqui dedicar à minha amiga Mafaldinha que em breve será a bela mamã de um belo menino...
(só espero que o teu filho nunca te cante uma canção assim...)

My friends are stars!

And just when you think that one person already surprised you enough with all his talents, you just discover more hidden ones...
I found that my friend M. makes the coolest videos about his adventures in Japan! Watch it and feel the urge to go IMMEDIATELY to Japan, like I felt...

Musica na Holanda

Dia de festa de recepção ao caloiro da Universidade de Utrecht. *Lucky me* (-not!), a festa esta' a ocorrer mesmo no campo de football em frente 'a janela do meu escritório... E para meu *deleite* (-NOT!) a escolha musical prima por não incluir NENHUM, mas NENHUM êxito das ultimas duas décadas de historia da humanidade. A serio... Caloiros?!? Gente nova e fresquinha, nos seus teens?!? Nao deveriam ser eles os trendsetters da sociedade? Como e' possível que as pessoas ainda vibrem aos sons horripilantes dos anos 80? E com isto quero dizer, anos 80 no seu pior!!!!! Like a Virgin, Madonna? Final Countdown, Europe?!?!? Thriller, Michael Jackson????????? SERIOUSLY? OK, admito que clássicos sao sempre clássicos, mas deveria haver algum espaço para inovação, pessoal! Gente nova, músicos desconhecidos, sons frescos...
Pronto, e se querem ficar presos aos anos 80, que seja - MAS ao menos façam-no com boa musica... Como por exemplo...



Joy Division, finais de anos 70/principios dos anos 80 no seu MELHOR!

Hilariante!!!!!!

Fur Tv. A minha mais recente descoberta... é de rir e chorar por mais!