First Roll São Paulo

My first roll of black and white film shot here in São Paulo Brazil. The city that keeps inspiring me to get back into the art and photography groove. Here's to many more rolls of film to come...

A LUTA YANOMAMI by CLAUDIA ANDUJAR at the IMS PAULISTA

How fortunate I am to be living in a city with an institution that provides a free museum and photographic library for free, free! The IMS Paulista is that place, and I have been visiting it frequently now that I am based in São Paulo Brazil. Located on the famous Paulista stretch in the always something happening part of the city is where this place can be found. And even more fortuitous has been that the current exposition up now is a truly fascinating one full of amazing black and white silver prints along side some classic infrared color images of the Amazon.

The show, A Luta Yanomami (The Yanomami Struggle) by photographer Clauida Andujar, is displayed on two floors showcasing the artists work in the 70's and 80's when she was working on projects documenting the tribe for magazines working with health advocates and missionaries to gain access. The images are some of the only ones I have seen from that time period and today that seem to be taken with the tribe and not of them. Claudia talks about her work throughout the show on panels besides the images, about gaining trust slowly, and being invited to witness hunts and ceremonial dances, and one of the more interesting stories is about the time when she contacted Malaria and had to spend a year back in her São Paulo apartment. However, she took the time to learn more about the Yanomami culture and experiment with low light situations where she could test out exposure and developing techniques before returning to work with the tribe many more times.

Her work is being shown at a time when indigenous peoples all around the world are fighting to preserve their lands and keep their traditions and languages alive. Even here in Brazil with the well known indigenous rights government agency FUNAI set up to protect the tribes, there is new political and populist agricultural interests cutting away at the power of FUNAI and its ability to protect the tribes. The biggest threat to their sovereignty is the approach of armed 'wildcat' loggers looking to lop off the lands inside the reserves to sell to farmers. In this Reuters article you see some powerful images and can read a recent report about a recent standoff inside of a tribal reserve that had armed warriors with their poison tipped arrows pointed at armed intruders. The intruders left, but have vowed to return, and under the ascent of President Bolsanaro and his remarks, rural peoples have become emboldened to strike deeper into the reserves seeking to exploit the natural resources there.

The fight to maintain indigenous lands and the people who have cared for them in a symbiotic way for thousands of years is ongoing, but necessary. As I once heard my favorite film maker Werner Herzog remark, that so many people speak of the loss of whales and species, but what about the languages, and the cultures that everyday we are loosing?

Avian Fauna

Lots of things going on in the Bird World right now and it's nice to be able to capture a glimpse of that magical world.

La Cabane aux Tresors

Photography by Swiss photographer Nicolas Henry.

Paglen's Space

photo by Trevor Paglen

Mark Klett

Mark Klett is one of those super talented Photographers that takes the medium to places most never even attempt to. He uses photography to show how we've seen the West through the years, how we change and manipulate the landscape through images, and how those images, real and imaginary, move through time. He often focuses on 'Time' by shooting long and/or multiple exposures of the Sol y Luna. I believe he also enjoys going back in time through photography by trekking back to certain photographic landmarks made famous by the old masters to re-document their documentation. I really love this Morning Moon shot above with the cracked glass and minimalistic vibe.

He along with Byron Wolfe have an exhibition going on at The Autry Center right now.
In this show the two juxtapose old images with the new giving a timed perspective of one of the West's most iconic places: The Grand Canyon. Klett and Wolfe use their own images next to and intertwined with those of Black and White Landscape pioneers Adams and Weston.
Should be a unique visual experience for us photo junkies and Desert rats.

Ocotillo below is one of my homages to Edward Weston, shot somewhere near the California / Arizona border a few years back.