Brussels: nothing special...

In Brussels, for meetings. Zero time / inspiration for pictures. At some point in a subway I regretted that the camera could not take picture of smells. The aroma originating by mixing sweety Gaufres and the vinagre of a fast food was really memorable.
I managed to quickly run at the FNAC to look at the photography section. I was a bit disappointed, I had hoped to find more interesting books. Still I came out with a few, including a big one on Bressons and another on contemporary pictures. Something more to carry tonight on the plane back to Roma.

Exercise 1d: Street puppeters in Piazza Navona, Roma

I was not really happy with the exercises so far, I thought some extra practice would not harm. (and I am enjoying the exercises!)!

Back to Roma, I needed a different frame of mind to think of interesting subjects, available on a gray Sunday. The first idea was to approach some woodcarvers, they would have definitely had made some visually interesting shots. They would have worked slowly and without too much unrelated clutter around them. Shame that they were all closed.

So I cycled around the centre, looking for inspiration, and I ended up in Piazza Navona. The usual crown, caricature sellers, street theatre, vendors... Definitely there should be something to portrait there.

My criteria were to look for something that could complement the exercises so far, i.e. people which:

1. Were not too fast (some street performers jump, run move fast and do all sort of different things... no good for exercises: I would not have the time to try a shot over and over),
   
2. were not too static (on the other extreme many people act as statues... but they are really like stone statues, not much action there),
   
3. were interesting but not too crowded (some shows attract too many people, forming large circles which make difficult to move around close up... and on top of this any shot will always have a wall of people somewhere).
   

At the end I found a puppeteer, manoeuvring a live Pinocchio, in a quite corner of the square. Nice. On the pics side, still a lot to do, converting in B&W was again a BAD surprise, light and exposure really never work... but I had fun.

The bonus of the exercise was a slightly surreal conversation with one of the paining sellers of the square, one of these people who have been living in the square all his life. He decided that I was a talented aspiring paparazza and invited me for coffee. He started telling stories of "dolce vita" which he witnessed in the square... his encounters with the famous people transiting in piazza Navona (ranging from Hollywood stars to key politicians in Italy)... his contact and friendship with everyone who counts in the photo world... if I want to become a paparazza, apparently, I have a key contact now! :-)

The Pinocchio people were a nice group. One of the puppeteers was a musician, the Pinocchio and the second puppeteer were professional actors which would usually play in "commedia dell'arte" theatre. Taking more than a distract look at these small shows paid off. I feel that these exercises and all this chatting might even make me a more friendly and outgoing person. And I can feel potential for many discoveries not only in my globetrotting but also in the very place where I am supposed to be based.

Roma: catching up.

Back to Roma. I have a day for myself.

I can look at the books I brought back from Australia (ranging from Salgado pics to contemporary pics of Sydney, from Aboriginal painting to contemporary childbook illustrations). I am not at all the shopaholic type, but I am very bad when it comes to books… The MA will not help on this: I suddenly feel the urge to look at all the pics I did not looks so far and to posses them.

I can also catch up with the class I missed last week, in a very relaxed way (in bed with cups of tea and biscuits: there are positive aspects of an on line courses). Bressons / Evans: the aesthetic of the shutter (the unrepeatable event) vs. aesthetic of the lens (capturing what is more permanent). I am looking back at my notes. I did not capture picture by picture explanation, but rather the comments which stroke me, these that seemed to point at the essence, to the tenets of a style. Many of the comments on the pics of Bressons really resonated, especially these revolving about the capacity of being out there and capturing the extraordinary, the “impossible” coincidences… which instead- a camera reveals - do happen so often in daily life. I really liked the pictures of Bressons, I felt colder about the ones of Evans, I found them less memorable, with the exceptions of some were I could see his capacity to “make inanimate objects live” (like the one of the piano in the hall).

I found interesting the contrast Cartier and Evans. It stroke me that I am naturally more driven to Bressons, to the appreciation of the extraordinary, unrepeatable moments, to the capacity of using a camera as a notebook to capture the quirkiness and at the same time the incredible beauty of moments of everyday life. But I also have a lot to learn from the “Evans approach", from his capacity to experiment with different techniques and kits, around a central idea or theme, and from his capacity of capturing also the dull, the obvious as they are, moment by moment... instead of having to look and wait only for that extraordinary moment in time.

Last but not least I can catch up with the blog and with my "to do" list for the course: links to sort out, many blogs to read and look at, address list to consolidate. I shall put this all together in an internet group and share it with the MAPJ people. I know that a virtual classroom is soon to came, but in its absence I needed to set up one to make the course more real. I also put more time than I had expected in the blogs, in reading others and writing mine. I do not like blogging much. However blogs which do not shame off telling day to day frustrations and achievement re: the course will be key in creating a connection amongst all of us, which I feel is very important.

Exercise 1c: Surfers at Bondi beach

After days of rain and grey sky, finally the sun shines. On my last day! I do he obvious: I go to Bondi beach and take pics of the surfers. Not much time, before hotel checkout, but I should give it a try. The challenge there is that only little can be done with a 50mm, the real action happens far away in the sea. I could only capture the quick stretching of the surfers, or the moment when they tie the board to their feet. Not once I managed I get them when they swiftly jump in the water. I also failed to capture the contrast between a lean and muscolar surfer in black wet suit stretching and an extra large old woman in pink cotton plodding along the beack. Definitely I should be a bit smarter in chosing my subject. And again, I should give it more time (well... I confess. at the end I preferred a quick swim in a wonderful warm water rather than trying a few extra shots..)

I am not happy of any of the 3 sets of pictures, but I have learned a few things:

• I should be smarter in chosing the subjects and really think more ahead about limitations due to the lenses or the restricted movements. I am spoiled by the zoom.
• I should give myself more time to transform these limitations in opportunities to capture less obvious angles of an activity. It is easy (and maybe boring?) to take a pic of a surfer on a wave with a 300. How could I capture the essence of the action with a 50 on the beach?
• I should spend more time with my camera in manual mode. Really get to control it rather than trust its choices. And maybe one step at a time. Maybe I should not to start with quick action but with a teapot on a table...

I should give a try to this exercises again when I get back to Roma this weekend. Shame to go back. Oz was good fun.

Sydney now... and a long time ago.

Great to have the chance to take some time off in Sydney. I came here for work, btw, to meet the colleagues at AustCare... but it is my first time in the land of Oz, so I really had to take some time off!

My exploration of Sydney lead me to an interesting exibition, Sydney Now, New Australian Photojournalism. Some nice pictures, different styles, different angles. There was also an interesting video where photographers explain their approach, and their daily routine and discipline. I came out with the nice feeling that a big part of photojournlism is discipline, dedication, daily practice, until the point that the camera becomes a thin interface, not a barrier. A thin, agile interface for the the photographer which can easily set it up as needed, to respond to her/his vision, a veil that can sharp or blur reality, a frame that embrace it all or dissect it into pieces... as needed. And a thin interface for those who are photographed, if the photographer is warm enough to make them feel that behind the camera, not to worry, there is a human presence, and this is what matters.















A couple of days after I was in the blue mountains and joined an aborigenal walk. A 7 hour march off the beaten path, to discover how the aborigenals lived (before the new settlers changed some forest with lawns and decimated most of its inhabitants). On the way it is possible to see old graffiti, caves, learn about the Dreamtime, practice different techniques to feel the forest by senses and without thinking (strenous walk being one of them). Another of these techniques was about a different way of seeing. A way of seeing without thinking, to get to see the true reality and not one filtered by the subject. An interesting idea, but which forced me to start thinking again: I wonder if a picture can ever be an act of seeing without thinking and capturing reality without filtering.

Exercise 1b: kickboxing in the Domain park, Sydney

Where to find people at work or at leasure in Sydeny? I work out that are probably tons of subjects around: Aussies like to do sport, I should just hang around in the park. But, damn, it always rains. Finally the sun comes out and I find an open air class of kickboxing. They are fine with me taking pictures. Great because it is a nice setting: on a small hill, under a strange monument representing a burned match, with skyskrapers on one side and a train bridge and houses on the other. The class does not last long enough to take all the pics I want, but it is fun. The challenge this time is to reconcile fast movement and action with having to move around and set up the camera. There are also many people in the class and lot of clutter around, difficult to stay focused on a subject. I should have had more time to pick the right one and follow him/her up in the training.

Exercise 1a: on a bus from Canberra to Sydney

I am realising that "attending" the course will be really hectic. But fun. Everytime I will be in a different place. It will be hard to work out the best way to do course assignments, in places where I just landed, totally unknown. But whilst not blessed with depth of knowledge, everythime I will have fresh eyes, and one more reason to look and engage deeper into what surrounds me.




A long ride back from canbrra to Sydney. I should be on a train, but it is not travelling, works in progress on the tracks. All the passengers (10) are easily put on a bus. Well... this could be an opportunity to break the ice and start my first assignment. The bus driver is quite a character: tatoos on his arms, no safety belt, lot of chatting on the radio with the colleagues. For sure he will not mind a passenger taking pictures of him. In fact, he does not. So I can start the first exercise. Not easy. I realised that I have been spoiled by the "P" function of my camera, so going back to fully manual is a nightmare. I cannot zoom in and out, ouch, this is such a pain... am I really supposed to MOVE instead of zooming??? After tons and tons of pictures taken in P mode, occasionaly adjusting the exposure and little more, the camera just felt a little clever interface bentween myself and the world. But this is because I let her to do what she wanted, more or less. Now the Nikon is in my grip but, in M mode, it is also suddently become a dumb black box, that needs my full attention. And I am always too slow, too late, or simply I am putting all my energy on changing - in a clumpsy way - settings on the camera... so there is no chance to make any decent picture! And the light changes all time time, because of the clouds and of the road turns. I am tempted to cheat at least a bit, using A or S mode...

I cannot move much whilst the bus travels, this driver is cool but there is a limit to the extent I can jump around to avoid traumatising other passengers. And as in the fable of the the fox and the grapes, I imagine that all the pictures I cannot take would be the best shots. For example, bottom up, driver in 3/4, close up on the tatoos on his arm, eyes looking down as he talks on the radio, australian sky in the background). But at the end of the day even the one I can take - from above, with some landscape and eucalipts on the top and maybe a car on the road - do not quite look as I figured them.

But it is a healty frustration the one I feel. I understand that at the end of the day it is not so important to make a great picture. What matters is to reconnect with the camera, in a different way, and learning to take some control if it. I do not know if this attempt will be good enough to become part of exercise 1. Probably not, I better think of an additional one to make up for this... But I have a sense of why it matters.