A memória

da série "People are just no good" de Paulo S. Carvalho

O mundo é passageiro. Seremos a nossa memória ou deixaremos de ser.

Por muito delineado tenhamos o caminho que julgamos ter para andar, nunca sonharemos o caminho que nos darão.
A vida trar-nos-á surpresas. A morte coisas que jamais imaginaremos.

Luciana Cesari

I.Ya no sé como empezó.Tengo recuerdos, sí. Pero a la luz de los acontecimientos ¿fueron esos hechos los desencadenantes?Guardo imágenes muy potentes desde mi primera infancia.Imágenes que son totalmente diferentes de las que vinieron después. Imágenes de antes de la palabra.Imágenes numinosas que siempre han estado ahí.Pertenecen a un imaginario que vislumbro ancestral y comunitario.Siempre he sentido que mi integridad depende de mirarlas, de establecer un diálogo silencioso, no racional, profundo, con ellas.Son imágenes que pueden atravesarme, atravesarnos. Tienen poder.Tengo la necesidad de esa comunicación visceral.Hay en ellas algo instintivo, animal, superador. Algo irracional e indiscutible.Aquello que somos sin engaños.Ellas circulan cambiantes entre la conciencia y el inconsciente. Se vuelven más poderosas o más suaves, todas indispensables: extrañas y familiares a la vez.II.La visión clara de algo terrible.Algo que sabemos que no debería ser así bajo ninguna circunstancia.Me quedo mirando hasta que esa mirada transforma lo ocurrido, lo coloca, lo libera.III.Soñé con una mujer delgada.Estaba desnuda delante de un espejo ovalado.Parecía una pintura de Modigliani.No la conocía pero me resultaba familiar. En el sueño yo era muy pequeña: 3 o 4 años de edad.A esa mujer le faltaba un pecho y en su lugar había una cicatriz.Yo me acercaba, le acariciaba la cicatriz y le decía: no te preocupes abuela.Me desperté.Llamé a mi madre ( huérfana desde los 12 años) y le pregunté: A la abuela le extirparon el pecho izquierdo?Cómo sabés eso?Porque acabo de soñarlo.IV.¿Cómo había accedido a esa información silenciada?¿Cómo podemos acceder a la gran cantidad de información que está en nosotros como una imagen latente?En nuestros genes está la memoria de todo lo vivido a lo largo de siglos de humanidad y sin embargo actuamos como si no supiéramos nada. Vidas cerradas. Vidas cuadradas.Sin embargo, sabemos. Esos poderosos recuerdos ocultos están activos y se convierten en impulsos subterráneos que guían nuestra existencia.Trozos de un manuscrito ilegible y valioso.Imágenes de poder que son llaves.Recuerdos guturales, inenarrables.( lo que sucede antes de la palabra no se olvida es sólo que no se puede narrar) Un terreno en el que mentir es imposible.No por razones morales sino físicas.No se trata de no querer sino de no poder.El rito de la performance devuelve las cosas a su lugar verdadero, produce un cambio profundo en las imágenes que llevo dentro y que determinan como me relaciono y como miro al otro, a lo que está afuera.Sólo la experiencia tiene el poder de transformarnos.V.If oneIf twoIf threeIf fourIf fiveIf sixIf sevenIf eightIf nineIf tenIf I,If youWill You?

Quebrar o círculo

From the series "There's no an interventionist God"

Julgo andar deprimido. Nicotina a menos ou Nick Cave a mais. Quem sabe? Mas hoje, estou especialmente triste. O debate da SIC foi a evidência de um modelo económico esgotado e de um estereótipo político que necessita ser reinventado.

Pieter Hugo - Rwanda 2004:Vestiges of a genocide


Second life

Da série "There's no an interventionist God"

Nina Berman - Purple Hearts

Marine Wedding Photo: Nina Berman/Jen Bekman Gallery
Aqui está uma imagem que vale muitas palavras. Todas tristes.
A expressão missionária da noiva, o sentimento de culpa de Ty, a quem forçaram a uma mais batalha. Provavelmente, logo perdida.
Há imagens que mudaram o mundo. A outras, o mundo passou-lhes ao lado. Esta foi uma delas.
Todos tentaram fazer desta história uma história feliz, de amor e triunfo. Mas as pessoas não são assim boas, e a vida é muito mais cruel.
Deste trabalho de Nina há mais aqui. A história de Ty Ziegel e Renee Kline é facilmente encontrada na net.

Esta tarde...

Da série "There's no an interventionist God"

Mais Hipocrisia - Bill Henson at Roslyn Oxley9

Controversial Child Photography Show Shut Down by Police

Confesso que fico baralhado.
Tratar-se-á só de hipocrisia e da vulgar estupidez das multidões?


Este senhor é só representado pela Robert Miller Gallery New York e quem quiser comprar um simples livrinho dele, fica a saber que em segunda mão, custa mais de $500. Ah... pois é!

A verdade é que polémicas destas trouxeram Tierney Gearon para a ribalta, fizeram ainda há pouco tempo, Annie Leibovitz corar e a preciosa adolescente Miley Cyrus teve mesmo que pedir desculpa.
Na verdade não há pachorra para tanta parvoíce, ignorância, hipocrisia e marketers.
Não se trata de caso de polícia, porque não pode simplesmente o consumidor decidir?
Um dia destes, pintaremos de branco todos os tectos das igrejas com moçoilos nus e baniremos o menino Jesús dos presépios para sempre!
Mas que merda de moralistas! Tantos à fome e ninguém quer saber!

"The opening night of an exhibition by the photographer Bill Henson featuring images of naked children was dramatically cancelled after police visited the Paddington gallery to investigate child pornography claims.
The future of the exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery, which featured images of a girl and a boy, aged 12 and 13 - some of which also appear on the gallery's website - is now in doubt.
Superintendent Allan Sicard from Rose Bay local area command cancelled the opening after consulting the gallery owners. The future of the show was yet to be decided.
Talkback radio switchboards were swamped with calls after the Herald wrote about the exhibition yesterday.
The gallery's owner, Roslyn Oxley, said she had been showing similar work by Henson since 1990 "and they have never offended people".
Asked by Channel Seven if she would let her daughter pose for Henson, she said: "She's been in some of his shots."
Henson said last night he was determined the exhibition should go ahead.
One artist who attended the exhibition opening, Eugenia Raskopoulos, said the cancellation was "censorship of the worst kind".
"I cannot believe that they have cancelled this opening which features pictures that are honest and beautiful and in no way pornographic," she said."in the Sydney Morning Herald

Aqui a entrevista de 2005 para a EGO MAGAZINE

Suzanne Opton


“I simply wanted to look in the face of someone who’d seen something unforgettable,” the photographer Suzanne Opton says of the extraordinary portraits she made of American soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Opton asked her subjects, all of whom were stationed at New York’s Fort Drum between tours of duty in 2004 and 2005, to rest their heads on a table, and she photographed their horizontal faces up close, so that they nearly fill the frame. The posture is vulnerable and startlingly intimate, as if these young men and women were facing someone in bed or on a stretcher, and the results are riveting. Opton catches soldiers both on guard and off, looking out and looking inward simultaneously, and we can only imagine what they’re thinking, what they’ve done, and what they dread. The group of large color prints that go up at Peter Hay Halpert’s new Chelsea gallery next week give these heads a monumental, sculptural presence, but they never feel bombastic or preachy, only heartbreaking. Dispensing with theatrics, Opton finds genuine drama. If these people have seen something unforgettable, so have we. in The New Yorker by Vicent Aletti
Suzanne Opton's work has been exhibited internationally, and is featured in the permanent collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; the Musée de’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. She has received grants from the Vermont Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Opton’s work has appeared in a variety of publications including Orion, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and Fortune. Opton teaches at the International Center of Photography and the Cooper Union. She participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in September 2005. Her work can be seen at www.suzanneopton.com

Loretta Lux


'I use children as a metaphor for a lost paradise'


Uma pintora que um dia quis ser fotógrafa.

"Loretta Lux (born 1969) was born in Dresden, East Germany and is a German fine art photographer known for her surreal portraits of young children. She currently lives and works in Monaco.


Lux graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Munich in the 1990s, and debuted at the Yossi Milo gallery, New York in 2004. The show put both Yossi Milo and Loretta Lux on the map, selling out and setting prices never before seen from a new gallery.

In 2005, Lux received the Infinity Award for Art from the International Center of Photography. Her work has since been exhibited extensively abroad, including solo exhibitions in 2006 at the Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands, and the Sixth Moscow Photobiennale. Her work is included in numerous collections in Europe and the United States, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Fotomuseum, den Haag; Reina Sofia, Madrid and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland. She has had portfolios featured in numerous fine art magazines.
The artist executes her compositions using a combination of photography, painting and digital manipulation. Lux's work - at once alluring and disturbing - usually features young children and is influenced by a variety of sources. She originally trained as a painter at Munich Academy of Art, and is influenced by painters such as Diego Velázquez, Agnolo di Cosimo and Phillip Otto Runge. Lux also owes a debt to the famous Victorian photographic portraitists of childhood such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll." in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretta_Lux

Mona Kuhn

A Steidl tem destas coisas. Pode-se comprar às cegas. Um dia e não me recordo porquê, comprei dois livros. Photographs de 2004 e Evidence de 2007. Ambos da Steidl.

Mona Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. She earned her degree in the United States from Ohio State University. Since 1998, she has been an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited, and is included in public and private collections, internationally and in the United States. Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debut by Steidl in 2004; her follow up, Evidence, was also published by Steidl and released in Spring 2007. Mona Kuhn has lectured about her work at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Georgia Museum of Art. Mona is a visiting artist at The Pasadena Arts Center.
The images appearing in Evidence were photographed entirely in France, where she resides each summer. Currently, Mona lives and works in Los Angeles.

in Photographs, Mona Kuhn

in Evidence, Mona Kuhn

A entrevista à Chum TV pode ser vista aqui

Walter Schels - Life Before Death

Passou na Mãe d'Água em 2006. Para recordar.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION ON LEAVING THIS WORLD
Vidas preenchidas, avanços na medicina e o undo dos softwares, afastaram de nós a ideia de morte. Este afastamento retirou-nos a reflexão sobre a vida. E sobre a morte. A mim faz-me falta.

Nothing teaches us more about life than death itself

"German photographer Walter Schels was terrified of death, but felt compelled to take these extraordinary series of portraits of people before and on the day they died. His partner Beate Lakotta recorded the poignant and revealing interviews with the subjects in their final days. The couple tell Joanna Moorhead how facing death changed how they felt about dying - and living"

O artigo de Joanna Moorhead para o The Guardian pode ser lido aqui

Para ver todas as imagens e saber muito mais, aqui

Edgar Martins em alta

Edgar Martins foi premiado no New York Photo Festival
Personal Fine Art Series - Edgar Martins
Saiba os restantes premiados aqui
O review do livro "Topologies" pelo Jörg Colberg está aqui.
Para conhecer melhor Edgar Martins, vale a pena esta entrevista de 2004

Martin Parr - Parrworld

Martin Parr Russia. Moscow. The Millionaire Fair
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1 . 80538 Munich Germany
Opening hours: Monday - Sunday 10am-8pm, Thursday 10am - 10pm

The fact that Parr, who is a member of the legendary photography agency Magnum, is a collector himself is not generally known. 'Parrworld' places the artist's photographs in a dialogue with his collections, revealing cross-references and connections between these. Together these collections form a cabinet of media curiosities, which simultaneously express the psyche of its creator

Photography CollectionsParr's interest in social themes is also reflected in his collections of photographs, which are presented in a British and an international section. The first section is comprised of the most extensive private collection in Great Britain today. Here a selection of social-documentary positions with works from the 70s and 80s by artists such as Tony Ray-Jones, Chris Killip and Graham Smith can be seen. Artists such as Keith Arnatt, Mark Neville, Jem Southam and Tom Wood represent contemporary British photography. The international part of this collection is represented by photographs that have influenced Parr or with which he has built up a personal relationship: images by such masters as Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand and William Eggleston are juxtaposed with works by friends including John Gossage and Gilles Peress. Another focus is made up of works by Japanese photographers, who are relatively unknown in Germany, such as Osamu Kanemura, Kohei Yoshiyuki and Rinko Kawauchi.

Mark Neville Port Glasgow Town Hall Xmas Party ( Betty), 2005© Mark Neville

Two books will accompany the show: 'Objects' by Martin Parr (with an introduction by Martin Parr; Chris Boot Ltd; 176 pages, 500 objects illustrated, ISBN 978-1-905712-08-3) and 'Postcards' by Martin Parr (with an essay by Thomas Weski; Chris Boot Ltd; 336 pages, 750 colour postcard reproductions; ISBN 978-1-905712-10-6)

A diferença da indiferença

Da série: There's no an interventionist God de Paulo S. Carvalho

Numa sociedade cada dia mais alheada da ténue linha de separação entre o homem e os restantes animais, "On the Sixth Day" de Alessandra Sanguinetti remete-nos para o valor individual de cada vida começada, para o valor de cada vida tirada.

Quem viveu o meio rural sabe a que Alessandra se refere. A alegria e satisfação do nascimento, o pesar e o sofrimento de cada sacrifício, o desespero e angústia de cada morte, o último suspiro de uma vida que se esvai aos nossos olhos.

As prateleiras dos supermercados trouxeram-nos a indiferença. Consumimos sem questões, sem preconceitos, inconscientes e insensíveis.
O abate é agora massivo. Talvez como as guerras e as catástrofes naturais. Talvez a nossa indiferença se meça em números. Quanto maiores, maior a indiferença.

MAESTRO PHOTO CONTEST 2008 - EISA


A EISA lançou o 1º concurso fotográfico para assinalar o seu 25º aniversário.

A fase nacional terminou e foi vencida por Paulo S. Carvalho.

A disputa internacional será no final de Junho.
Força Paulo!!! ;))

Alessandra Sanguinetti - On the Sixth Day

E disse Deus: Produza a terra seres viventes segundo as suas espécies: animais domésticos, répteis, e animais selvagens segundo as suas espécies. E assim foi. Deus, pois, fez os animais selvagens segundo as suas espécies, e os animais domésticos segundo as suas espécies, e todos os répteis da terra segundo as suas espécies. E viu Deus que isso era bom.
E disse Deus: Façamos o homem à nossa imagem, conforme a nossa semelhança; domine ele sobre os peixes do mar, sobre as aves do céu, sobre os animais domésticos, e sobre toda a terra, e sobre todo réptil que se arrasta sobre a terra. Criou, pois, Deus o homem à sua imagem; à imagem de Deus o criou; homem e mulher os criou. Então Deus os abençoou e lhes disse: Frutificai e multiplicai-vos; enchei a terra e sujeitai-a; dominai sobre os peixes do mar, sobre as aves do céu e sobre todos os animais que se arrastam sobre a terra. Disse-lhes mais: Eis que vos tenho dado todas as ervas que produzem semente, as quais se acham sobre a face de toda a terra, bem como todas as árvores em que há fruto que dê semente; ser-vos-ão para mantimento. E a todos os animais da terra, a todas as aves do céu e a todo ser vivente que se arrasta sobre a terra, tenho dado todas as ervas verdes como mantimento. E assim foi. E viu Deus tudo quanto fizera, e eis que era muito bom. E foi a tarde e a manhã, o dia sexto. in Genesis

"To portray an animal is to name it. Once named it acquires a new life, and then, is spared death. Each sacrifice gives us back a disturbing image of the border we cross when we end a life, and what it entails to have sole dominion over another living creature. It is possible that by exploring the fine line that separates us from what we rule, we may reach a better understanding of our own nature."- Alessandra Sanguinetti


"Buzz surrounds Alessandra Sanguinetti's solo exhibition of photographs at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea, though it is the kind of attention usually reserved for works that confound rather than entice. Ms. Sanguinetti's color photographs were shot on farms in Argentina, and most depict domesticated animals and edible livestock -- sounds kind of snooze-inducing, right? But the artist has lowered her camera to ground level to capture moments of tender and poignant interaction between the animals (including two kids, right). Some of the animals appear in later frames slaughtered, skinned and dangling from poles or ropes, ready for the butcher's chopping block. Everything is depicted with a cold objectivity bordering on the clinical, while the heavy black wood box frames surrounding the prints look like miniature coffins. We even see the bloody instruments used for the carnage, all of which might be tolerable were it not captured in lush C prints that enhance the color and details. This contrast of the slick ravishment of the prints and the frequent gross-out of the subject matter is part of what makes the images so arresting and thought-provoking. You may not like what you see here, but the exhibition is completely unforgettable."
In New York Times By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO Published: October 6, 2006



Alessandra Sanguinetti's best shot
'One kid's head was covered with a sock, so the other could get at the teat'

"Juana lives by the side of the road and keeps animals. She lives in the Argentine countryside, 300km outside Buenos Aires. I arrived there one day in 1996 after four hours of driving. It was really cold, and my car had no heating, but Juana had a little coal stove and gave me some hot cakes before I saw these two baby kids.
They had been born a couple of days before. One was very weak. Juana said that if she didn't tie it to the healthy sibling, the mother would just leave it alone to die, like most animals do. She also covered the healthy one's head with a sock so that the weak one would get a chance at the teat. As a result, the stronger one was just pulling and pulling blindly - desperately searching for its mother, while the other one was keeping it back, even though it just wanted to lie down and fall asleep.
I saw them during the last few minutes of winter light, when it is orange and perfect, so I just knelt and followed them on my belly and elbows until the sun went down. I used a Hasselblad camera, with just natural light and probably an 80mm lens. If I had got there five minutes later I would not have got that picture. It's an image of struggle, quite unsentimental, and it crystallises something for me I can't explain in words. That's why I took a picture.
I took the sick kid to my father's farm and fed it, next to the fire. I named her Rosita, which means little rose, and by the next day she was stronger already. I had to go back to the city, so I left her with Juana, who took care of her, marking her forehead with red paint so that her son would not shoot her. I don't know where Rosita is now, but I know she lived a long time and had a lot of offspring. She was saved partly by having a warm night - but also by being given a name."
in The Guardian Interview by Leo BenedictusThursday December 20, 2007

Bourse du Talent 2008 : un tremplin pour la profession


Frédérique Jouval, lauréate de la Bourse du Talent Portrait 2007


Estão abertas as inscrições. Saiba mais aqui.

O criticismo e a hipocrisia

Hoje esta imagem do Martin Parr não me saía da cabeça e não sabia porquê. No final percebi que foi influência da leitura deste excelente post do Luiz Carvalho.

Miley Cyrus by Annie Leibovitz

Maria


da série "My daughter and I" de Paulo S. Carvalho

Sleeping by the Mississippi - Alec Soth

Para aqueles que falharam a 1ª e 2ª edição, e que não querem pagar 300€, a Steidl está a fazer uma nova. Pode ser comprado por 48€.
Quem preferir esperar e poupar uns trocos, pode aguardar que esteja disponível no bookdepository.co.uk. Os portes são gratuitos e normalmente o preço é mais baixo que na Steidl ou Amazon.
Aqui ficam umas razões para comprar.
"In short, the trip is an encounter with fame, sex and salvation, three of the great American passions, and with landscapes and interiors, equally ruined and haunted. The final image in Mr. Soth's book, of a metal bed frame lying half-submerged in Mississippi River swamp weeds, adorned by a few white flowers, is the perfect coda to the series: a kind of dream-memorial to a strange, sad tale persuasively told." Holland Cotter, The New York Times 2004
"Alec Soth has a wonderful and terrifying eye. We’ve all seen gritty documentary photography, but no one has ever seen anything like his work! It’s gritty for sure, but it’s beautiful–really beautiful. With most documentary photography, you look at it, sigh, and pass on, but Soth’s work keeps pulling you back to look again because he composes with the skill of the greatest of photographic artists." John Wood, Editor 21st: The Journal of Contemporary Photography 2004
"What Soth found along the Mississippi was a full range of fugitive atmospheres and human eccentricities. The mood in his pictures can be drowsy, lonely, lyrical and sometimes just a bit surreal...like a painting, or at least a good one, Soth's photographs have layered meanings."Richard Lacayo, TIME Magazine 2004

Alessandra Sanguinetti by Foam

Houve um dia em que percebi que andava enganado.
Que estava farto de postais. De momentos decisivos e zone systems. O dia não sei qual foi. A imagem penso que foi esta. A revista, foi a FOAM seguramente.