Girl Smoking On The Corner, Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona

In the winter, at noon, the sun in Barcelona is not that high and the light can be as good as that you have by the end of any summer afternoon. Watching people from the shadows of less illuminated streets and trying to capture their sunbathed bodies, their backlit silhouettes with the camera is fascinating for photography enthusiasts. Today, an anonymous girl, surrounded by the smoke of her own cigarette on some Passeig de Gracia corner. Maybe you would like to check my Flickr photoset on street photography

Romanians in Barcelona: Finding People Behind Stereotypes

Behind every immigrant there is a story and not precisely that of a successful individual that found a good job, started a family and managed to be a respected citizen with access to all civil rights. There are immigrants that 'integrate' themselves (awful term to refer to 'you should not bite the hand that feeds you' or 'when in Rome do as the Romans do') and there are others who 'choose' not to do so (or better said, they will never be accepted by 'respectful' citizens, either local or ex-immigrant). Of course, this a delicate topic and there is gray in between black and white. Standing on the 'wrong' sidewalk, whether it was your choice (hard to believe), because you lost the last train, entered a bad streak of luck or simply were born on the other side, will entitle you to receive great doses of rejection and a journey to limbo, the realm of absolute oblivion. And being on the dark side means you will stop believing in man's justice, in fairness, in humanity, in the love of others, in rules not because you chose to but because they sent you there. And why do I say all this, well because there are stereotypes in our society for all that looks different and does not 'integrate' and no country is safe except the 'pure respectful citizens' (not quite clear who belongs and who doesn't yet). There are Latin, Black, Chinese, Moorish, Pakistani, Eastern Europe people and they are all very well classified in our rotten minds in a scale of preference. Nobody talks about the person behind the stereotype, they are rarely given the opportunity to 'adapt themselves' and are treated differently, with a biased criteria. The moment we stop categorizing individuals we will be much better people, or should I say, persons. The image today, a Romanian woman and her child. What are you going to do, misjudge them or try to find people behind the sterotype?

Smoking Time, Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona

No, this is not a tobacco commercial. It is just an anonymous citizen enjoying the sacred moment of the lunch break in the quietude of some modernista bench along Passeig de Gracia. He is contemplating the shop windows in that sort of induced hypnotic trance that only cigarette smoke can provoke, specially under the light of the sun. I quit smoking long ago and I advise you to do the same. I am sure you would enjoy a moment of relax much better by taking a deep breath with a pair of sound and clean lungs.

Lonely?

I don't have much to say on this one, to be honest with you. As with many photographs you can always interpret and think of a story of your own according to your experiences, your creativeness and imagination. The way I see it, maybe we are talking about loneliness here although I prefer to look at it as yet another street photograph, a glimpse of Barcelona just as witness and not as judge.

Man, Bike and Wool Knit Hat

First of all, I have to say it was the woolen hat that struck my attention. This was another lucky shot (see also last post). I was right in front of Hotel Arts and Torre Mapfre by the end of this concrete pier facing the entrance to the marina. There's a privileged spot right after you descend the small set of stairs by the end of the road. You can comfortably lay your camera upon a chest-high wall and capture the sailboats on their way towards open water. As I was saying, I couldn't believe my luck since I realized that right from ground level I could see people enjoying the seascape, lost in their own thoughts. So here was my favorite from that day, a man, a bike and a Catalan wool knit hat.

Jota Players: Old Mates

This image I rescued from my archives. Two jota players dressed in traditional costumes from the Spanish region of Aragon. I liked the expression on their faces and really enjoyed their professional performance in Barcelona. I covered this show here in the past: Spanish Traditional Dance: The Jota (three more links in that post)

Catalan Traditional Dress and Pubillas

A Catalan woman wearing the traditional dress. You should know that there are some differences between the traditional garment and a pubilla's dress. But what is a pubilla? 

Long ago, Catalan families with no male descendants considered the first daughter as the heiress in the family. In case there were more sisters, she kept three fourths of the family's patrimony. So an heiress is called pubilla and the male counterpart is called hereu. Pubillas helped preserved the family's last name in case of not having a male descendant. 

At present the pubilla tradition is kept in Catalan towns just for cultural purposes. Some towns elect their pubilla among young ladies (pubilla derives from puberty) who are to act as representatives of Catalonia's culture. Pubillas can only be elected once and during one single year to yield the position to other ladies. Both pubillas and hereus are accompanied by maids of honor and fadrins (brothers that are not heirs) respectively. 

I am not an expert on this matter but I would say this is just a traditional dress, age factors aside. A pubillas's dress is made of a more expensive fabric and shawls are made of a more elaborate lace. They wear shoes and not espadrilles although both the traditional and the pubilla's way of dressing include the elbow length fishnet gloves and the hair net.

I find it fascinating to learn about these old traditions from Catalonia that if it weren't for the perseverance of its people would be lost long time ago.

Musing in Las Ramblas de Barcelona

Before I begin I would like to thank a couple of friends for making me muse on my blog and the daily posting affair. They both did in two very different ways which I won't explain here but made me think that daily doesn't mean having to post each and every day of the year but to do it several times a week perhaps. These are their sites: San Francisco Daily Photo by Manuel Guerzoni and Hyde Daily Photo by Gerald England. I am glad they made me came out of my stubborn obsession and in way released me from this sacrifice. I think this will mean better posts as I will have more energy and less ambiguity as to the date on my posts considering I am one month behind schedule and the blog is talking about January 2009 as of now. So I stood like this man leaning on the railing of some parking lot in Las Ramblas and began musing for a while about the future. In fact it only took me an hour to change my mind. Thanks again my friends.

Old Man With Walking Stick

I always remember these lines: "life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend".

The time will come when we will grow old enough to look back and think of the things we did right or wrong or simply didn't do. Then we will regret many things, that's for sure and we will feel nostalgic about our past and the people we left behind and weren't lucky enough.

Do you know how long will it take to get there?, just a snap of your fingers. Or some milliseconds compared to the history of mankind.

Do you know how many people have faced the same experience, when you get to the end of the line? Many of them are there in our books of history, in our collective mind, just an image in our database, many more not even were worthy of being stored.

They were here and were like you and me and they felt the same and looked into their past just as we do now and their visit to this land was brief too.

How much time did they or will we spend fussing and fighting before it's too late?

Kid Feeding Pigeons at Placa Catalunya, Barcelona

While there's a happy kid on Earth, there will be hope. Nothing is more pure and sacred than a child's innocence. Nothing is more beautiful than a child's detached view of the world around him, free of all evil, ambition, prejudice and hate, wrong teachings and bad influence. The face of this kid reveals many things, things we once lived unknowingly, things we can have no more. We won't bring them back but we can work to guarantee that this happiness, the flame that moves this world, the joy of life forever lasts.

Waiting

A girl waiting at Maremagnum shopping center in Barcelona. I just liked the expression on her face.

Bad Weather, Bad Times

On the most expensive street in Barcelona, Portal de l'Angel, comfort and poverty coexist. In the middle of this crisis beggars take the worse part, economy is going down the drain, consumers are not spending much and there's no money for charity. The weather seems to be rougher, the faces seem to be sadder. People wear last year's clothes, prefer to stay at home, talk less, worries about keeping the job and pray not to fall into disgrace. Yep, a very pessimistic panorama. Reality is tough and fairy tales sometimes don't have a happy ending. They say is going to last about two years. So we'll stick our heads beneath the sand and wait for the storm to pass. The barometer indicates low pressure apparently till further notice.

Man on The Grass - Catalonia Square, Barcelona

The man was sitting on the grass drinking some beer before taking a nap. I would say he was homeless but I can't say that for sure, so my post is just about a man in Plaça Catalunya, in the very center of Barcelona, an anonymous character, one of the many solitary souls that wander in this square.

Human Statue Lady at Las Ramblas de Barcelona

A Moment of Fragile Beauty

This is yet another human statue at Las Ramblas, but she feels different from the rest. While some performers go for shock value or comedy, she projects a sense of beautiful, fragile delicacy. She stood there on this incredibly populated street, completely still, looking almost like a porcelain doll amidst the stampede of tourists.

Painted in Light and Glitter

I was immediately attracted by the details of her face. The makeup is stunning—those swirling green glitter patterns against the purple eyeshadow and the bold teal lips really pop. But it’s not just the paint; it’s the atmosphere.

The background is a soft, blurred wash of cyan and purple light coming from the nearby store signs, and it frames her profile perfectly. She looks "hieratic"—like a sacred statue from an ancient temple—dignified and lost in her own world. Don't forget to check the labels below if you want to see more living statues, and definitely click the image to view the big format so you can appreciate the texture of the glitter.

It's A Letter

You see, any story could arise from this image. But to tell a story inspiration is a must and my well is very dry tonight. If I had the will to write, I imagine I would say this man came to Barcelona, was visiting Sant Jaume square after meandering the "solitary" streets of the old Gothic quarter when suddenly he decided to open the secret letter that someone had left at the hotel desk that morning. "Gosh, I told them I had paid for that and they are charging me twice". No, that's irrelevant and too common!. What can I say?. He was a musician, yes, an orchestra conductor, mentally rehearsing tonight's score. Wait, maybe he's just following some route on a map, a sort of Da Vinci code. Hum, no fountains or secret church entrance in this square. Perhaps he was a lost Manga artist drawing some new character. Well, you know what, why don't you finish the story for me. It's A Letter...

If you need inspiration for more irrelevant things to add to my irrelevant story please check this Monthy Python video first: It's A Tree (specially the introduction!)

Jogging in La Rambla, Barcelona

Jogging in Las Ramblas de Barcelona is so difficult that instead of that we should call it dribbling or slalom. In spite of that, stubborn athletes you can find all year long in any part of the world. I don't know, you are in the middle of a safari in Africa and suddenly you see a jogger waving at you right behind the lions.

Joggers do take it very seriously sometimes. An old man may be mugged in a dark suburban street while a person in a hooded sweater passes by swiftly as a ghost in a Japanese horror movie, unaware of the crime and lost in that podcast on the benefits of sports, so lost that may even end up in the most transited and smoggy street of the city.

In our case here, there was some kind of cosmic impasse and for some milliseconds there was no one near the jogger, probably due to the use of a special force field or protective shield invisible to the human eye. Come to think of it, she was just a lucky tourist on the wrong street.

The Digital Era And The Evolution of Tourists

The digital era has arrived in photography too, and some species like these hunters have evolved into more complex organisms or individuals. Hunting mechanisms have been perfected so shooting is no longer associated with reloading. This photographer is proudly carrying his Sony dslr camera looking for fresh preys to take home as trophies. The woman follows absently, almost frightened by the unknown perils behind every corner of Barri Gotic. Now seriously, I took this picture last month in the Gothic quarter and this kind couple happened to be admiring the streets of Barcelona. They looked passionate and interested in what they were coming across, like children with a new toy, so from here I wish to thank them for their visit. I hope they had a nice stay in the city.

Suggested link: 30 Beautiful Photoshop Illustration Tutorials via Six Revisions.

Do you want to be amazed today, check Dave Hill Photography

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A Wedding Photograph From Barcelona

This is something I never tamper with, brides. There are authentic specialists that do wedding photography like Bambi Cantrell for that. I wish I could learn from them but I will have to accept the inevitable I am not good at wedding photography.

This is just a random picture taken during a walk with my fellow photo bloggers. The place, Via Laietana. Who was getting married?, a lucky couple unknown to me and most of the passersby. Congratulations to the newlyweds! She was truly amazed at the many cameras pointing at her. To tell you the truth, I was there for the vintage car and ran away with more than I expected!

Do check this article about Barcelona as a destination to get married

The Barcelonians: Man Leaning on Wall, La Merce Church, Barcelona

This is my new addition to a set I will call The Barcelonians. Not that I am trying to emulate The Americans by Robert Frank , oh no (ironic). No, seriously, I love the idea of grouping people from all countries, statuses, genders, or age that are considered to be Barcelonians. Understand by that, anyone living in the city no matter what creed, race, nationality or money in the bank. I don't want to get too ambitious nor dare to imitate the masters (God forgive me). Ok let's cut the crap. Here is a man coming out of La Merce church, leaning on the wall as he walks, due to some leg impairment. That's it.

If you want to appreciate good photography then do check The Americans page at artsy.net

Immigration in Barcelona, The New Catalans

Immigration is one of Barcelona's major concerns according to polls. Many times this concern grows parallel to the feeling of insecurity that is increasing lately. This leads to consciously or unconsciously blame immigrants who are an easy pray to racists or bigmouths of all sorts and social statuses. I wonder what such people would think if they were in their shoes.

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