a news or other entry with various photos.
Road on, started out as one photograph presented at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes – Salão de artistas e sócios, Lisbon, from December 2016 until January 2017. It is a photographic series of work following road wanderings, meanderings, stops and goings, past and future. The Portuguese version of the work is titled estradando.
Books on environment 6 April 2017 · 18h00
Series of talks on environmental issues, invites Luísa Schmidt, author of Portugal: Ambientes de Mudança, for a public session at the Biblioteca Municipal Álvaro de Campos. The author will be talking with João Manuel Alveirinho Dias and Miguel Proença.
Luísa Schmidt is a sociologist and researcher at the University of Lisbon and coordinator of the OBSERVA (Observatory on Environment, Territory and Society). She participates in numerous projects, national and international dealing with Participation, education and sustainability. She has published various books on these issues and has been a regular contributor to the Expresso newspaper, a national reference.
João Manuel Alveirinho Dias is a researcher at the CIMA (Center for Marine and Environmental Research) at the Algarve University. He holds a PhD in Marine and Coastal Geology. Worked as visiting Professor at various universities, including Bordeaux, Cadiz, Duke, Grand Valley, Napoli, São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, and Southampton. Currently works on the issues of man-environment interactions, climate history and environmental history.
Portugal: Ambientes de Mudança
Livros com ambiente ambiente com livros
in Postal do Algarve (newspaper, pt)
Biblioteca Municipal Álvaro de Campos
À PROCURA DE UM OUTRO CORPO (“In search of another body” [free translation]) is a surprising photography exhibition that resulted from the photographer’s contact (in 1992) with a collection of sculptures by two local artists, Rosalina Passos e Joaquim Passos, active during the 20th century.
The photographs capture the artistic impulse of the pieces, a notable combination of contemplation, expression and torment. They are exhibited in two interior locations in São Brás (see below for details), joined by a short walk where an exterior installation with photographs accompanies the viewer though lesser known public town spaces. The opening weekend (Aug.1-3) installation was also walked by a mysterious cloaked female figure. Overall, amazing!
Texts and production by Graça Passos, the exhibition/installation will be on display until October.
Locations:
Antiga Farmácia Passos,
Rua Gago Coutinho, 53
and
Museu do Trajo,
Rua Dr. José Dias Sancho, 61
São Brás de Alportel
António Ferro a vertigem da palavra – word vertigo – , by Margarida Acciaiuoli, is a book about the rhetoric, politics and propaganda of the Estado Novo before and after the 2nd World War. Bizâncio Editora, Lisbon.
Photograph of the Assembly of the Republic, thank you to the Parlamentary Historical Archive. São Bento Palace, Lisbon.
Corrosion by light (t. of Corrosão pela luz) is the working tittle for this process that explores the photographic self portrait genre approaching a cognitive frontier. It was initially presented in postcard format (10x15cm) at the 2007 initiativa-X at Arte Contempo a Lisbon gallery (2004-2012).
The final version of the project can be seen here: Photon Corrosion
During the Milan years (1997-2001) one of the commissioned works was for the newly launched Milano Free magazine (Media UP). This was a city guide based on local goings on in terms of art and culture. Here a few of the covers photographed for the magazine, more will be added as I unpack my Milano boxes (1997-2001). I had the privilege of living about 100m away from Santa Maria delle Grazie, a Dominican monastery with the Cenacolo Vinciano (Leonardo’s Last Supper) on the refectory wall, during the time of its last restoration in preparation for the 2000 Jubilee. These visits later led to the “Sunday afternoon” work, a 3 x 0,4 montage work.
Continue reading “Milano Free magazine · comission work · 2000-01”
UK in the 70s is a group of photographs whilst living as a student in England; first in boarding school and later at an art school to pursue a UK photographer training. Getting sent to an English boarding school in the seventies resulted from parent’s not dealing with their children’s education for a myriad of reasons.
Sunday afternoon was a time of escape, from routine, from uniform, a time of search for leisure, conviviality, experimentation. The window of opportunity was precisely timed, from 2 -6 pm GMT. Part of the work week was used deciding what to do on Sunday afternoons and the logistics involved. We would find unusual places, walk the countryside and relax, enjoy that free time as best as we could. Here are some initial shots from Sunday afternoons. Sunday was a time deepening friendships and accomplice(ment). The colours are in Sunday noon colours ..
Continue reading “Lazing on a Sunday afternoon · escape · boarding school · UK 1970s & 80s · mp”
Looking back at photos can have two sides, on one a rememoration of who was present / what was being done, and the possibility of re-rememorating in an effort to make sense, to build some sort of existential wholeness of ones life experience history, and this latter side, or path, seems so much more constructive and productive. The photograph tells you you where there, in or out of the scene – so at least some sort of complicity exists with what went on.
Continue reading “Existential photography · rememoration · fragments · beware · mp”
One of the wonderful things about boarding school is the informality with which we talked, communicated between peers. This was particularly useful to try out portraits of schoolmates in various settings. I’m sure a lot more are in the negative/slides stored and these will also eventually surface. Here are a few casual portraits made in varied settings.
This was a self-taught approach, with few books on photography in the art department [Family of Man, Bill Brandt and Exploring Photography (BBC series)] alongside many more art books. The contrasts, the reality, the spontaneity, the sharpness are all aspects I remember from that time. Here are the first few such (more or less) cases of what I call casual photographic portrait.
Continue reading “Portraits · casual portraits · UK in the 70s & 80s · boarding school · mp”