Sunday

After a little more than one year of "work", getting back to taking pictures again, I made my first portfolio: Sunday. There is a first version of it, but I considered it a draft.

This year's "Novos Talentos FNAC" contest (FNAC's New Talents) was about to close submissions and I decided to take a chance.

This year's jury was really appealing. Among them, António Júlio Duarte is a photographer who I really like since I first saw his work at Lisboaphoto 2005.

Inês d'Orey presented a really beautiful work called "Porto Interior" and won. An honorable mention was given to Vera Lúcia Carmo for her "Still Moving Frames" which I didn't saw yet.

My portfolio had no prize but I would like to share it with you and I would be glad to hear your comments. I am aware of some of the weaknesses of this set of images, especially of the printed version of it.

It was also my first experience in Inkjet printing (with Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigments) and many mistakes were made as color is very difficult for me yet, especially when it comes to calibration and proofing.

The whole portfolio can be seen here and this is a translation of the text that accompanied the portfolio.

SUNDAY (Domingo)
26 Inkjet prints (Epson Ultrachrome K3), 30cm x 30cm

Sunday, first day of the week, or the last one in certain cases. Day of the light, day of the sun.

The work presented here is intended to approach a very personal vision of this time. Sunday became the day that photographing ritualized itself for me. It's a day for seeking, where that action religiously assumes a solitary and intimate form.

All these images were taken at Sunday and are sorted on a "random trajectory" sense. Despite this fact, I avoided documental or photojournalistic tone, using a square format and choosing a language that I consider coherent but not necessarily and aesthetically uniform.

I considered the diversity of light and climate conditions an essential component of this journey.

Each image is numbered, suggesting and order. But only the first and last images formally impose their place. The remaining ones are landmarks of my Sunday walks. The viewer should be able to trace another order for his own walk through these marks.

The following paragraphs describe some fragments of this journey. Each one corresponds to a group of images or just a single one.

Time has a different behavior on Sundays. Routines change or nullify themselves. Light invites us to get outside and reveals itself as the main excuse to do so. Machines stop. Some corners in the city become a static scenario. Emptiness and silence hijack many spaces and architecture imposes only to herself, exhibiting a pure state.

The human figure appears rarefied in the landscape, ascetic in its absolute solitude - contemplating its intimacy. "Life is thus made of little solitudes" (1).

And yes, it is now possible to contemplate the line of the horizon, after its absence during the week when interrupted or hidden by the city skyline.

Promontories and cliffs turn themselves for a moment into an amphitheater of solemn adoration of the sun, the horizon, the sea, the infinite.

And time deceives us again, compelling us to return home...

José Carlos Duarte, Lisbon, 14th May 2007.

(1) - "Camera Lucida", Roland Barthes.

Today's score: Ursula Rucker, "Silver or Lead" and "Ma'at Mama".

Twilight

A Sunday without taking a picture, spent with you and with my friends. A lot to see and talk about. A packed afternoon around the Garden of the World.

One word stood out of today's score: twilight.

Also my favorite time of day (night?), there are many lyrics, images, stories about or around it. Science tell us that twilight on Mars is longer than twilight on Earth, lasting for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. There is even a formulae to calculate twilight duration.

Anyway, there will allays be something magical about it. Nostalgic or energic. A moment calling for a change that has not really happened. Yet...



This photo? A twilight twist. The big element that dominates the image: detailed in contour yet too dark to show its texture. Our eyes match this form with that of a rock. Is it? My mind takes me somewhere else. Otherwise, it would be just a deceitful rock.

Today's score: a lot of Perry Blake's songs, from "Perry Blake" to "Canyon Songs".

Twilight was to my life
What the daylight was to yours
And in hindsight it was twilight
That took you from me

Perry Blake, "Native New-Yorker"

Last Sunday I...

So last Sunday I left myself alone and randomly departed from home, towards south Lisbon, out of the city. I crossed the bigger bridge (Vasco da Gama) but I still didn’t know were to head to. It was hot so I took the first exit out of the highway. Between Samouco, Seixalinho and Alcochete I took a couple rolls of Ilford Delta 100 and some Provia 100F. I didn't know these places and it all seemed far-far-far away from Lisbon. I'll post some images soon...

For today, I feel like recycling some images out of my digital box. I found a lot of pictures I had never "saw" before. I'll keep on posting them on Flickr for the next days.



This foto? A footstep or just a big stop of drained out sand? A twilight twist to talk about in some other post...

Today's score: nothing at all.

EMIT

I'm in need of time. Time for taking care of you. Time to spend with myself. Time for composing pictures. Time for understanding the landscape. Time to discover a skyline. Time to search for simple forms and evidence of unseen reality. These images are the only references I'm retaining lately. I've been blurring all the rest.

Today's score: "Music has the right to children" and other albums by the Boards of Canada.

It started sometime ago...