Just another Summitar shot, I remember specially liking that mid-morning, when the clouds had vanished and the sun warmed everything while I was waiting for a never arriving bus.
The street you see is (if I recall correctly...) called Nou de La Rambla, quite near the end of the famous Rambla, some meters by the sea and the even more famous Columbus tower.
The zone right of the Rambla, where that street leads you was formerly known as the Barrio Chino (Raval nowadays), where dark streets filled with urin smell opened you the doors to the dark and surreal world which Joan Colom photographed during the late 50s and 60s. Pimps and prostitutes, thieves and beggars and criminals, but also, and mainly, just normal, humble, working people trying to make a living on the best way they could. He said it was the only place in Barcelona where he could really see Mankind.
The Raval is today a strange modern mix of a huge immigrant population from the four corners of the world and of futuristic 'chic' buildings claiming about the cosmopolitan way of life.
So, while the old friends meet and chat while they could be doing back in the 60s Barrio Chino, a fosforecent yellow woman from the city cleaning brigade sprays clean the Raval streets with a high pressure pipe.
This is a sort of essay that has been ongoing for quite some time, or not an essay, but just a short collection of pictures...
Sometimes even in a 2 milion people city we just want to be alone with ourselves...
I am a strong believer in the theory that one should always try to have as much fun as possible when doing something. Having fun is a very wide concept, and all but static.
And sometimes I just want to have plain fun with the humoristic things that surround me. Sometimes they are just there, some others they only need a bit from our part to become a visual joke, in either case, from time to time everybody needs a break! If you're still not sure, ask G'man ;)
Of course things are relative, and what seems funny to somebody would bring up a sour face on others, but oh well, as always it's you, the viewer, who decides. Wasn't it Rome where they put bad comicians down to the lions, or did they chopped off their heads and put them as delicatessen over a Paella ?
You will have to excuse me...
13 Comments Published by taffer on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 at 6:56 PM.
...for taking myself this liberty.
I had decided to keep this blog mainly centered in photography and try to avoid too many references to the gear we all lust after from time to time :)
But this time I think the arrival of what has been a sort of holy grail for me since a couple years ago deserved breaking the rules at least once.
The item in question is a 1965 Leica M2 35mm rangefinder camera. I remember sometimes I made jokes about how the only M2 I would be able to afford would be one that had been run over by a bus previously. Well, the truth is that's not quite the case, but I admit the thing carries quite a lot of scars from its long and probably hard life of loyal service.
And btw, what could be a better way to receive such a fantastic camera in the mail than doing it with the parcel wrapped in real gift paper ! (that's one really nice ebay seller! :) AND receiving together the great shot my partner in the RFF Print Swap IV, David Widom, mailed to me.
Thanks Maryse and David for making my day !
I had decided to keep this blog mainly centered in photography and try to avoid too many references to the gear we all lust after from time to time :)
But this time I think the arrival of what has been a sort of holy grail for me since a couple years ago deserved breaking the rules at least once.
The item in question is a 1965 Leica M2 35mm rangefinder camera. I remember sometimes I made jokes about how the only M2 I would be able to afford would be one that had been run over by a bus previously. Well, the truth is that's not quite the case, but I admit the thing carries quite a lot of scars from its long and probably hard life of loyal service.
And btw, what could be a better way to receive such a fantastic camera in the mail than doing it with the parcel wrapped in real gift paper ! (that's one really nice ebay seller! :) AND receiving together the great shot my partner in the RFF Print Swap IV, David Widom, mailed to me.
Thanks Maryse and David for making my day !
Time to give images a chance, just some more photos from my underground/subway photo project. As all of them so far, they were taken with my Bessa T and a scale focused 35mm, loaded with some bulk Jessops 400 B&W film that came inside my used loader.
Hope you like 'em !
