Portraying Beggars in Photography

Portraying beggars in our images, shooting at them pointblank, is tough. One should always be aware that our mission is to denounce and not to profit on people's misfortune. No matter how good your intentions are, it will always be hard and there will be a thin line between photo journalism and privacy invasion, between social report and unnecessary overexposure of the weak. Who are we to judge? No one.Will it help grow awareness? Certainly, yes. The camera is just a silent witness, a mere reflection of an instant in our collective reality as captured by one individual. There are so many moments out there that need to be recorded for our collective mind to be more self conscious!

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

Balloon Over Houses, Vic, Catalonia

Everything here is authentic, the houses surrounding a square in Vic, the balloon promoting a travel agency...except for the skies who were in fact quite gray and dull. I had to add some graduated blue effect (nik Color Efex Pro 2.0), some pink near the balloon and still they don't look very convincing. I do like the roofs and the brief appearance of the basket between the walls though.

Casa Mila: Face-Like Roof Figure

Resuming Casa Mila posts, this is another astonishing figure by Gaudi that reminds me of those enigmatic monolithic statues on Easter island (Isla de Pascua) except for the fact that this one is hollow and is one of La Pedrera's roof chimneys. Admiring this beauty will cost you just 11€ (Audio guide takes an extra 4€) with 10% discount in case you arrive on the tourist bus.

Man Coming Out of Subway

And now for something completely different, a man coming out of Diagonal subway station in Barcelona, hands in his pockets, lost in his own thoughts perhaps. This shot shouldn't have seen the light. You know, sometimes you insist on a particular image, you spend a lot of time trying to edit it and then when you are about to post it, something is just not right and there you go again applying some more effects but the picture was wrong from the very beginning and that in photography is not very good practice. But I kind of like that lonely man coming out silently on the subway escalators and voila, this is it.

Medieval Crafts: Spinning Yarn on a Drop Spindle

Watching spinners and weavers at their craft in medieval times must have been quite amusing I guess. Having the opportunity to enjoy such an old trade nowadays, performed with very similar skills handed down from one generation to the other, in the same scenario, is priceless. As I promised, here is picture taken in Vic during the Medieval Fair celebrated last week. It is not the first time Barcelona Photoblog features medieval crafts so I recommend you check the archives. Maybe you want to learn something today, well, here's a How-to Spin Yarn on a Drop Spindle video. In case you are quite interested, check Technology in the Medieval Age

La Pedrera: The Gaudinian Mastery of Geometry

Antoni Gaudi, a genius of architecture and superlative artist dominated geometry like few others.

In modern times he would certainly be working in the video game industry as a designer creating 3D virtual worlds with due respect to the obvious differences of course.

This is the roof of renown Casa Mila, which is, together with Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia, one of the best samples of Gaudinian creative and geometry aware imagination.

In black and white the lines are more evident as in some sort of charcoal sketch.

Kid Portrait: Spontaneity

There was this long bench and the daughter of some friends was running towards my camera every time I pointed at her. It was like some kind of game for her in which she was supposed to shout and improvise some sort of attack. She came running like hell and I had to shoot fast and take the lens away from her. There was no posing, no strategy because we were playing games and we were accomplices. Complicity with the subject generates spontaneity and that is gold in kids photography, specially if it is a portrait.

Rabbit and Pumpkins, Medieval Fair, Vic (Osona), Catalonia

Today I visited the Medieval Fair or Market that is held every year in Vic, capital of Osona. I highly recommend this event to learn about medieval trades or crafts, get in contact with Catalan history and try local food which is an excellent sample of our cuisine. If you are on a diet please refrain from attending this fair. Further ahead I will talk more since this rabbit and pumpkins image is not very illustrative.

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. And this is a link to other Romanians living in Barcelona. What are you going to do, misjudge them or try to find people behind the sterotype?

Christmas Abstraction

Please don't try to figure out what this is. Well, it used to be a floral adornment at the entrance of some Barcelona hotel to welcome this cold month of December, the magic time of the year but judging by the way I caught it, it is hard to tell. And that's precisely what it is, an abstraction, out of focus red fruity balls and glittering golden branches against the blue sky and the hotel marquee. Have a nice December everyone!

Seidel and Naumann Sewing Machine in Barcelona Shop

Who has not seen one of those everlasting sewing machines still working like brand new decorating grandma's house? I still remember a veteran Singer parked somewhere at Mom's bedroom. And what about those marble top tables with sewing machine legs. Anyway, here is an authentic beauty, a vintage Seidel and Naumann model. Judging by the decals it seems to be Serial No. 2107675 sold through the company's London depot although the one in the other site's picture has only one spool pin. Perhaps an expert could help with the exact model. I liked the shop display, the illustration hanging on the wall, the combination of black and white, the shadows from the trees nearby and the whole sober decoration with a vintage sewing machine as the main subject. I thought to myself you would like to see something different today.

Are Photography Composition Rules That Strict?

Composition in photography is not as strict as you think. The so called rule of thirds, the golden section rule, the diagonal rule and others can really make your pictures draw the viewer's attention and gain in quality but, and there is always a 'but', sometimes you can break composition at will simply because the nature of random subjects getting into your viewfinder are really distracting. Who says I was applying any rule here?. In other images, isolated subjects help conveying your idea better as in this one: Tourists looking for directions

Catalonian Parliamentary Elections 2010 in Times of Crisis

November 28th, 2010, Sunday morning, Catalans wake up amidst the fanfare of parliamentary elections time. Global crisis effects and the polemic ridden mandate of the Tripartit a triumvirate of left parties composed by Partit Socialista de Catalunya (Socialist Catalan Party), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia) and Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (Initiative for Catalonia Greens), clearly create a general apathy atmosphere among voters although many are conscious that polls favor perhaps conservative and centrist nationalist party Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Union) according to some sources, something that obviously content their electorate but not opponents who fear abstention will incline the balance even further. One thing is certain, as usual, Partido Popular (the right), may be punished yet another year because of their lack of vision and understanding of the Catalan reality. Today, 135 seats will be disputed amongst 39 candidatures in Catalonia, but only a few (about 8) have real possibilities to get seats. Once the Parliament is created, the new President of the Catalan Government will be elected. This Sunday morning we will certainly say goodbye to the left coalition as even in case of victory, its members are reluctant to unite again, and perhaps we will have to say farewell to PSC and President Montilla (the face on the back of the tourist bus in the image above), the scapegoat in these turbulent times of crisis. From my personal point of view, non of the opponents can offer a credible program and I do not think they will or are able to approve laws that get us out of this mess. Some of them give me the creeps like CIU and some others give me the creeps and make me wanna puke like PP, with due respect to their voters who obviously are free to choose. Being myself on the left side of this equation I sincerely have no idea what to vote but I shall vote anyway for fear of what my abstention would bring. Everybody please vote! By the way, famous soccer match FC Barcelona - Real Madrid that was supposed to be played this Sunday is to take place now on Monday due to the elections and at least a majority of us will agree in one thing, supporting Barça!

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.

Color Circles Detail on Art Nouveau Door, Barcelona

After much thought and realizing my weekend photo walks were practically nil, I've decided to sacrifice lunch time at the office to go downtown (Passeig de Gracia is about 5 blocks away from work) and enjoy doing what I like most, street photography.

So while the archives pile up and run amok, just exaggerating a little bit here, why not starting with a colorful abstraction to draw your attention and stimulate the senses.

This is a detail of an Art Nouveau stained glass door you can admire inside Casa Amatller, that other house next to more popular Casa Batlló. Here is the ceiling at Amatller modernista house and a window detail.

Watch this beautiful modernist lamp at Amatller House or take a glimpse at the indented façade by Puig i Cadafalch

Drilling La Pedrera: Risking Art Treasures in the Name of Technology

If you want to visit Barcelona this month of November and you expected to take wonderful pictures of La Pedrera or Casa Mila standing across the street you will be quite disappointed. As you probably know Barcelona will be connected to France by AVE trains (AVE stands for Alta Velocidad which means High Speed and at the same time ave means bird). The line between Madrid and Barcelona is already operational while the works from the Catalan city on to the French border are underway after years of delay (expected to connect with the European high speed network in 2012). You probably know as well that recently they were very near Sagrada Familia with the tunneling machine and there was a debate on whether this would affect the Cathedral foundations or not. The fact is that the choice was finally made and Adif the company in charge had to built a protective wall to strengthen the area. The same protection was recommended by a group of experts to be implemented right next to La Pedrera. As you can see in the image they are already drilling to make the 32 pillars which will create a smaller protective wall and it is expected that Barcino, the tunneling machine, arrives here in coming months. After watching the drill approach so ominously over the famous façade I can't help thinking somebody somewhere in some dark ministry office must have screwed it up badly when they let the speed train go along Mallorca and Provença streets (UNESCO gave the international approval) risking our cultural patrimony in the name of development and technology.

Diagonal 00 Tower Reflected on Barcelona Forum Mirror

Architectural abstraction showing brand new Diagonal 00 tower reflected on one of the many mirrors hanging from the Forum building in Barcelona. My daughter says people will not tell what is what here but I trust your imagination. Anyway this is about shapes. Have a nice new week everyone!

Alternative Energy: Hybrid Car and Barcelona Solar Panel

It is no secret that the relevance of the word green has grown exponentially in the last years. At the beginning, it was basically a nice label to stick on many products, just another manipulated concept like bio, healthy, all-natural, organic or reduced-fat and companies, by nature reluctant to invest extra money in more expensive technology just to save the planet, grew richer while doing nothing. Lately, the trend slightly changes due to their own clients' pressure, the growing awareness that something must be done to find alternative ways, alternative products, alternative energies and so they started paying attention, just when somebody kicked them in the place that hurts them the most, their pockets. Who would have thought some years ago that the car industry was going to make hybrid cars? Yes, they would play with some concept car, show us very futuristic projects that ended up in the paper shredder. Not that they are greener than Al Gore now but something's cooking in the market. So as you can guess, the moral is that it is our duty to exert more pressure on monopolies so they respect environment, invest in alternative energy sources and make greener products. Of course we could get rid of monopolies, but that's another story. Our picture today, a contrast in appearance between solar panels and cars, is not so, as this happens to be one of those new hybrid cars. In fact, they were filming this spot to promote the brand and I took profit of the situation. With a little luck I've found the car model: Honda Fit Hybrid. I think this video is more illustrative: World Debut of Honda Fit EV. But I am sure that what the industry is making for our planet is still as little as this vehicle looks in comparison with the solar panel in the Barcelona Forum area.

Walking the Dogs in Barcelona

Some posts call for a lot of words, a lot of information and such is the case of yesterday's article and many others are just images of daily life, snapshots, frozen moments that speak for themselves. In a way I prefer these sort of pictures, spontaneous acts of human activity like taking the dogs out for a walk. I was lucky there was this staircase from which you have a nice view over the forum area, right next to the famous big solar panel by the sea. A tiny couple getting lost in the distance along the many paths drawn by the floor tiles towards the sea, accompanied but the silence of the trees and the light.