Crazy Christmas Portraits
Yay! The Christmas lights are up in Madrid! Not that I usually get so excited by festive lights, but ever since I discovered my camera’s multi-exposure party trick, the seasonal sparkle has seemed that much more fun. Plaza Mayor is decked out in some particularly funky UFO / psychedelic disco light things, which are perfect for all enjoying sorts of photographic amusement, at least until one’s nose gets too cold and it’s time to go somewhere warm.
From the Andes to Africa…
If you’re in the Bristol area over the next few days, please check out the Stokes Croft Arts House, where this photo, along with work by other photographers and artists, is on display and will be auctioned on 2nd July to raise money for the Malawi Education Project.
I took the picture in the village of Cuatro Esquinas, Peru, while I was working on a documentary project with Ayuda en Acción in 2004. Cuatro Esquinas is an isolated mountain community in the arid south of the department of Cusco. Two days on horseback from the nearest road, the village is extremely isolated, and at over 4000m in altitude it is at about the limit at which people can scratch a living from the soil.
The boy in the picture is throwing the ball to me, inviting me to join him in a game of football. With the altitude, I barely had enough energy to take photographs, let alone kick a ball. I was eventually roped into a game, but after 10 minutes or so I made my excuses, between gasps, and retired, unable to keep up with a bunch of 10-year olds.
From Madrid to the Sahel
Last week Mely and I went to see Marina Urbina Yeregui’s exhibition on paintings of the Sahel, on at the Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea (Madrid) until 30th May. Marina’s paintings are the fruit of a month-long journey through Niger and Burkina Faso, and the images form an evocative impression of daily life in the midst of the vast, heat-blasted landscapes of the Sahel. Well worth a visit if you’re in Madrid this week.
La semana pasada, Mely y yo fuimos a ver la exposición de Marina Urbina Yeregui que se expone en el Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea (Madrid) hasta el 30 de mayo. Las obras de Marina son el fruto de un mes de viaje en Níger y Burkina Faso, y las imágenes forman una impresión que evoca la vida cotidiana bajo el sol abrasador y los inmensos paisajes del Sahel. Vale la pena visitarla si estás en Madrid esta semana.
Surreal
“Oddly dreamlike; incongruous juxtapositions; phantasmagoric imagery”. With this definition from the Free Online Dictionary in mind, I went about exploring the latest Wall Project theme: ‘Surreal’.
As I explored, I found a view of the Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s ‘Kilometre Zero’ that appeared to have been cut up into little pieces and haphazardly glued back together again (top).
I looked into puddles and saw the city upside-down (middle),
and I met a tube-guzzling graffiti monster (bottom).
It was a theme that was fun to shoot, and difficult to choose which of this edit of 3 to put on the wall, but in the end, Mely, Mario and I decided that the Puerta del Sol was the most interesting image. Reflected in the kaleidoscopic glass cupola of the new entrance to Sol metro station, Madrid’s principal square is distorted into a chaotic kingdom reigned over by the Tio Pepe sherry bottle and Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter. But is it dreamlike, or nightmarish?
