Eleanor, Lake Michigan, Chicago, etc

Not Dirty Harry...







Harry Morey Callahan (October 22, 1912 – March 15, 1999) was an American photographer who is considered one of the great innovators of modern American photography. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and started photographing in 1938 as an autodidact. By 1946, he was appointed by László Moholy-Nagy to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. Callahan retired in 1977, at which time he was teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Callahan left almost no written records--no diaries, letters, scrapbooks or teaching notes. His technical photographic method was to go out almost every morning, walk the city he lived in and take numerous pictures. He then spent almost every afternoon making proof prints of that day's best negatives. Yet, for all his photographic activity, Callahan, at his own estimation, produced no more than half a dozen final images a year.

He photographed his wife, Eleanor, and daughter, Barbara, and the streets, scenes and buildings of cities where he lived, showing a strong sense of line and form, and light and darkness. He also worked with multiple exposures. Callahan's work was a deeply personal response to his own life. He was well known to encourage his students to turn their cameras on their lives, and he led by example. Callahan photographed his wife over a period of fifteen years, as his prime subject. Eleanor was essential to his art from 1947 to 1960. He photographed her everywhere - at home, in the city streets, in the landscape; alone, with their daughter, in black and white and in color, nude and clothed, distant and close. He tried several technical experiments - double and triple exposure, blurs, large and small format film.

In 1950 his daughter Barbara, was born. Even prior to her birth she showed up in photographs of Eleanor's pregnancy. From 1948 to 1953 Eleanor, and sometimes Barbara, were shown out in the landscape as a tiny counterpoint to large expanses of park, skyline or water.

Callahan died in Atlanta in 1999. He left behind 100,000 negatives and over 10,000 proof prints. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which actively collects, preserves and makes available individual works by 20th-century North American photographers, maintains his photographic archives. His estate is represented in New York by the Pace/MacGill Gallery.

From the Wikipedia

Hey, Hey

Life as it is

"With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice." - W. Eugene Smith

River

Days slip by, just like grains of sand through our open fingers
Some shine like gold, in a trick of the light,
Others pass, grey, unaccounted, nevertheless adding to the pile.

Time. Time as everybody seems to agree is a river,
A river going into an ocean.
My river is now wide, but not so wide
As for one to lose sight of its margins - that may happen,
But only on foggy days, dense with mist.
Most mornings my river is bright,
Blessed by sunlight, myriads of stars playing on its waters
Happy fish chase them gladly.
I should be glad too, following this river
slipping slowly into the big ocean of forgetfulness.

Presciência

CARAVAGGIO: detail of Judith Beheading Holofernes. Original oil on canvas by Caravaggio (1571-1610) Galleria Nazionale d'art Antica, Rome.

Um homem caminha tropegamente à minha frente, apoiando-se na parede, quando passo por ele reparo que tem os olhos fechados.
Treinar-se-á para a cegueira, ou é um visionário ?...

felt like it...

In praise of :

Nos dias cinzentos, o sol à nossa mesa

On gloomy days, the sun at our table

enough of droids and avatars

Natalya Estemirova

“The most dreadful event of not only the last week but probably the last few years is Natalya Estemirova’s murder in the Caucasus. I think it is no exaggeration to say that Natalya Estemirova was the Memorial human rights centre in Chechnya. She is a person through whose hands passed the entire information about the horrors taking place in Chechnya. Anna Politkovskaya always stayed at her house. I think Anna would have been only glad to quote Estemirova in her publications, but it was too dangerous. And now, post factum, when Natalya is dead, we can say that a great deal of what Anna wrote was what Estemirova had told her."


Maksharip Aushev

Russian opposition leader Maksharip Aushev knew he was taking a risk when he spoke out against corruption in his native Ingushetia, the troubled North Caucasus republic where the body of human-rights worker Natalya Estemirova was discovered in July. But Aushev spoke out anyway--and paid the price for his bravery. On Oct. 25, the 43-year-old businessman, who became a human-rights activist after his son and nephew were reportedly tortured by police in 2007, became the third opposition figure murdered in four months when his car was sprayed with bullets as he traveled to visit relatives. Though the Kremlin had no official response to the killing, the republic's governor said Aushev's murder could have been the work of local police carrying out a personal vendetta. The admission underscored the degree to which the lawless region's moderates are caught in the cross fire between Islamist radicals and a brutal counterinsurgency. Nearly 3,000 people attended Aushev's funeral--a turnout that his father said was proof the slain activist was not merely his son but a son of Ingushetia.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1933196,00.html#ixzz0VsqFSYVK

Sufism

"As an artist, my training as a cultural historian continues to inspire the artwork that I do. Like any historian I read the world as a series of signs to be deciphered, reinterpreted and reinvented."

Huda Lufti, find out about her

Rosa

Para quem está ferido, uma rosa não é conforto.

Olive tree

A man goes to an olive tree, he ties a rope to one of its branches and hangs himself.
Time passes, this a hidden, forgotten corner of the land, nobody goes by there anymore, so nobody notices the dead man hanging from the olive tree.
One day, a stronger wind, makes the branch where the man hangs from, to break and the corpse falls to the floor.
Seasons pass, grass and weeds grow over the body, olives fell to the ground, they all feed the Earth and its little creatures.
The olive tree is going to be like this forever, drinking from rain water, feeding from everything its roots absorb, so the dead man is now part of the tree. This is the way things are, a big forever cycle.
The hanged man is now part of forever.

hear, hear

“ If we believe that we, as Americans, are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America. And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
Robert F. Kennedy
University of Kansas
March 18, 1968

Come across this today - a smaller fragment of this speech, was included in a Time magazine article that I was reading. The article advocates, that we should measure and care about citizen's happiness instead of GDP...that's a current that is gaining strength nowadays, but I do believe that this great piece of rhetoric aims for something higher and deeper.

Avatars

One day avatars will rule the Net : they'll take over social networking sites, allowing their human creators to be engaged in more leisurely pursuits, like video gaming or mini golf. Immortality will be guaranteed while solar and wind power, will keep the huge datacenters that make up the Net running.
Huge corporations will assure that every avatar will spend a considerable amount of cash on virtual stuff and the tidbits that keep their human personas happy and comfortable, robots will take care of things and everything will run smoothly as never before.
Outsiders will live in forgotten areas, where energy will be scarce, life will be very much like it was in most of the 20th century, but that’s where all the adrenalin dependents will be, also new ideas and glorious avatars will come out of this, like beautiful fish from muddy ponds, the Corporations will not let them go to waste and through their net of spies, they will clone them and paste them to the Net, per omnia saecula saeculorum, harmless, juiceless.

… / …

It’s funny how American commercial cinema has an eye for this things, in The Surrogates, humanoid “bots” live life in our place, as us so to say, they take all the risks, they are the projections we want others to see of us, as usual on American commercial movies the plot is thin and wild chases and big explosions take its place for the rest of the movie. But the idea remains, we all know - Iraqis and Afghans in their flesh, that today war is mostly fought by droids, it’s not difficult to anticipate that tomorrow they’ll take more and more functions away from humans.
You can still go to the mall, have your friends over to the weekend barbecue and at the same time be engaged in a war thousands of miles away. Ah, and it’s a videogame that pays your monthly bills…

Feira de Emprego

Parece que Angola, vai levar a cabo uma feira do emprego aqui em Portugal - apelam aos jovens licenciados e aos operários especializados...por mais que isto mude, mais as coisas parecem iguais.

Utah_sandstone

Real

Podemos ir para longe, mas nunca para fora de nós...quando o sentimos é ilusão.

Flume

Inox

'I am waiting. No one has ever said sorry'In 1992 Ed Vulliamy revealed the existence of the Bosnian concentration camps. The remarkable image of Fikret Alic showed for the first time how Muslim prisoners were being brutalised by the Serbs.
A still image from video footage showing emaciated prisoners at the Trnopolje concentration camp in Bosnia in the summer of 1992. Fikret Alic is standing in the centre, at the front. Photograph: Reuters


I'm pretty sure one day I walked by Radovan Karadzic. It was here in Lisbon, I had come out of office and has the weather was good, I was walking all the way to the train station, window shopping or just gazing at people and things, as I usually love to do.
At the door of this fancy Hotel, in Avenida da Liberdade, there were some huge men, all dressed in black, you couldn't fail to notice them, because they were big, some of them were very athletic and good looking, sharp was the word for them. I particularly noticed one of them, with combed back white hair, conferencing with someone on the sidewalk, under the glances of all the others.
I thought that one must have been Radovan Karadzic. He must be in Lisbon at the time to conference with European Union officials.
Why do I remember this vague, quick encounter, I had years ago ? Because when I came across those men a chill come over me, looking at them was like tasting metal, you could sense evil and pain about them, I can't explain it better, but it was palpable, I felt it. Death travelled with them.

Radovan Karadzic is now at the Human Rights Court in the Hague, Netherlands, on trial for crimes against humanity.

Blackbird

Theosophy

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Murnau Street with Women, 1908. Oil on cardboard, 71 x 97 cm. Private collection, Courtesy Neue Galerie New York.

"A Teosofia é um corpo doutrinário que sintetiza Filosofia, Religião e Ciência, que está presente em maior ou menor grau em diversos sistemas de crenças ao longo da história, e foi exposto modernamente primeiro por Helena Blavatsky no final do século XIX, e por outros desde então."

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics. Theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Spiritual Hierarchy" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth. The founding members, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91), Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–96), established the Theosophical Society in 1875.

Kandinsky was a follower and tried to base his art in its principles.

Ceviche

Para os amantes de peixe crú

Like carpaccio, ceviche (seh-VEE-chay) is a raw fish recipe that modern cooks just love to play with. It is essentially fish "cooked" in the acid of citrus juice and served with a cold beer on a hot day. The dish originates in Peru, and is thought to be a development from Spanish escabeche, which is a vinegar-marinated dish. This recipe is for the classic Peruvian ceviche.
Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Ingredients:
•1 pound white saltwater fish (albacore, sole, snapper, halibut -- anything you would see on a sushi menu)
•1 cup lime juice - key limes if you can get them
•1/2 cup lemon juice
•1/2 cup orange juice
•1 T. salt
•1 rocoto chile (chile manzano in Mexican markets) or 2 aji limon (substitute a habanero)
•1 medium onion, sliced very thinly into half-moons
•4 T. chopped cilantro
Preparation:
Cut the fish into small pieces: You can dice it or leave it in pieces up to 1 inch square, but remember that the larger the pieces the longer it will take to marinate.

Salt the fish, then cover with the citrus juice in a non-reactive (glass or plastic) container with a lid. Add the sliced onions and the chiles.

Chill this in the fridge for at least 2 hours, possibly as much as 3 hours -- very large pieces can take longer. If your fish is truly raw-eating quality, it is OK if the centers of the pieces are still raw-looking.

To serve, lay down some of the onions and chiles and top with the fish. Garnish with the cilantro.

Ceviche is so sharp and acidic it cries out for beer and tortilla chips as an accompaniment -- although you won't find tortilla chips in Peru. In Peru, you will most often find this served with potatoes, either sweet or white.

coração de pássaro

No jardim, o verde da relva refulge e reverbera no cinzento do dia. Depois no comboio um rapaz decompõe pacientemente o movimento do malabar e as suas pegas, estudando em movimento lento, o que só vai mostrar em movimento acelarado.
No jornal, vem a história de um menino, atraiçoado pelo seu coração de passarinho e um médico, que as conhece quase todas, diz :
- As doenças são muito traiçoeiras.

un peu de la France

say SUSHI

Déjeuner

Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe

sometimes it's us that sit naked while everybody goes about their chores, we just look and wonder : " - oh, my goodness..."
how efficient and determined everybody is and how oblivious of us, they all are
no sound they make, just moving and stoping, mostly moving, like fish in a bowl, like a dream inside a dream

interchangeable ventriloquists

Andy Warhol Paintings Stolen

Andy Warhol Paintings Stolen

Opposite

Ellsworth Kelly
Red Blue Green, 1963
83 5/8 x 135 7/8 inches (212.4 x 345.1 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jack M. Farris
©Ellsworth Kelly

Analogous

Claude Monet - Water-Lilies -1914 -


Analogous - colors that contain a common hue and are found next to each other on the color wheel, e.g., violet, red-violet, and red create a sense of harmony. Remember adjoining colors on the wheel are similar and tend to blend together. They are effective at showing depth.

Não tenho pressa

Não tenho pressa: não a têm o sol e a lua
por Alberto Caeiro
Escrito em 20-6-1929




Não tenho pressa: não a têm o sol e a lua.
Ninguém anda mais depressa do que as pernas que tem.
Se onde quero estar é longe, não estou lá num momento.

Sim: existo dentro do meu corpo.
Não trago o sol nem a lua na algibeira.
Não quero conquistar mundos porque dormi mal,
Nem almoçar o mundo por causa do estômago.
Indiferente?
Não: filho da terra, que se der um salto, está em falso,
Um momento no ar que não é para nós,
E só contente quando os pés lhe batem outra vez na terra,
Traz! na realidade que não falta!

Não tenho pressa. Pressa de quê?
Não têm pressa o sol e a lua: estão certos.
Ter pressa é crer que a gente passe adiante das pernas,
Ou que, dando um pulo, salte por cima da sombra.
Não; não tenho pressa.
Se estendo o braço, chego exactamente aonde o meu braço chega (
Nem um centímetro mais longe.
Toco só aonde toco, não aonde penso.
Só me posso sentar aonde estou.
E isto faz rir como todas as verdades absolutamente verdadeiras,
Mas o que faz rir a valer é que nós pensamos sempre noutra coisa,
E somos vadios do nosso corpo.
E estamos sempre fora dele porque estamos aqui.


oferecido por uma antiga e boa amiga

Happy ?

When words aren't required, nothing else needs to be said - then, you're at peace. At peace with the world, at peace with thyself.

Is that happy ?

drive alone

Notes on a Loose Piece of Paper

Remember to call home before too long.
To see the long reeds when they are in motion.
Not to punish myself as much as that again.
To miss the last train and wait for the next.

To wash off your injured hands in the creek.
Know there is no happiness without sadness.
Feel the glass caress of morning in the kiss.
Accept what the Devil offers once in a while.

Perhaps everything can in fact change.
Perhaps there's any road at all somewhere.

Remember to tell what blocks you at every turn.
Not to speak while watching the cormorants.
Hold out a hand to the doubts and the fears.
Drive along alone without orientation.

From Meanwhile Take My Hand by Kirmen Uribe, translated by Elizabeth Macklin. Translation copyright 2006 by Elizabeth Macklin.

Fuzzy

Oh I can be lost, just like Dylan
Bob himself, till a Highway Patrolman finds me
speeding in the supermarket lane
Oh I am lost like a Christmas Carol in July.

Coração independente

Algumas pessoas têm a capacidade de romper com os géneros e tocar a todos...esses são os verdadeiramente grandes.

eu vou ser como a toupeira

Sigo os números, estou melhor mas não me apetece saír para a rua e caminhar livremente pelo passeio como costumo fazer, assim vou no meio da multidão pelo interior da estação.
Passamos uns dias longe, em casa, afastados desta vida de insecto e sentimos sempre um arrepio de estranheza quando nos juntamos ao formigueiro, mas passa rápido, ou então, poderemos entrar em zonas perigosas e começar a navegar em baixios cheios de nevoeiro, e quando encalhamos levamos um bom bocado até conseguirmos ganhar água de novo. Eu sei.
Contra a multidão vem uma moça, com um cabelo, tal qual um daqueles tapetes que fizeram furor na era dourada dos tecidos sintéticos - acho que há uma idade própria para fazermos experiências connosco próprios, com o nosso corpo, com o nosso ser...
Desço para o Metro e já esqueci, já não estou em idade para experiências...

Adoração

Adoration of the Kings
FRAY JUAN BAUTISTA MAINO
1612
Oil on canvas, 315 x 174 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid