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March 2nd, 2011
I got curious last night after writing the last post on the Brasilian town of Tiradentes, seemed like i should know why it was thus named, and it seemed like i would have asked at the time. Sometimes my memory is a little unreliable about stuff like that, so its lucky we have Wikipedia!
So, the town of Tiradentes is named after Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, also known as Tiradentes (tooth puller) due to his one time profession as an impromptu dentist. He was also a leading member of the Inconfidência Mineira, a revolutionary group formed in 1788 dedicated to the political independence of Brasil from Portuguese colonial rule.
Typical street in the town of Tiradentes in Minas Gereis, Brasil
The group, including Tiradentes was betrayed by one of their own members, and he was captured and eventually hanged in 1792 for treason, after a trial lasting nearly 3 years. Imagine 3 years in a Brasilian/Portuguese prison in the 18th Century, i think the eventual hanging would have been a relief. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 1st, 2011
Another one from Brasil shot on the Hasselblad XPan. This time from a small town in Inland Brasil called Tiradentes, literally “pulling teeth”… can’t say i know why the town is called that, seems like an odd name for a beautiful place. Perhaps it describes the difficulty in building it, its all built on hills of stone, and of course the whole town is made of stone, including the window lintels and the door frames.
Os Amigos Velhos, Tiradentes, Minas Gereis Brasil
The title of the image is Os Amigos Velhos, the old friends, and thats exactly as they appeared to me. I had seen these two wander across to this spot and sit watching the sunset Read the rest of this entry »
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February 24th, 2011
Today i printed a 2.5m print of one of the Hasselblad XPan images that featured in a previous post, A Garota de Ipanema-The Girl From Ipanema. It was quite a stressful event, as 2.5m of image allows a lot of room for things to go wrong. Nothing went wrong, it looks awesome.
The Epson 9900, a formidable beast
I have an Epson 9900 printer, a formidable beast indeed, it can print 110cm, or 44 inches wide and this 2.5m print is the biggest image i’ve ever printed in one go. The 4m canvas previously mentioned was printed by Paul Parin, from Studio Red Dust on a bigger printer, an Epson 11880, which is 152cm, or 60 inches wide. There will be a blog post about that 4m image once it is installed in its proper place.
As you look through these photos (click to enlarge) you can see the progress of the print. Its difficult to imagine scale from a small photo, but just remember that the canvas this image is being printed on is 1.1m wide… Read the rest of this entry »
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February 22nd, 2011
Another image from Brasil shot on the Hasselblad XPan (which i didn’t sell on the weekend), This is Santos Beach, the same beach as this previous post of the soccer players. I lived in Santos for about 3 months back in 2003, as you can see from the buildings on the waterfront, its quite a big city, certainly by Australian standards. Big and densely populated, with a big wide flat beach that is always packed with people running, playing football (soccer), swimming surfing reading or walking. Brasilians love their beaches.
Sunset Surfers on Santos Beach-Brasil
This shot was taken just after sunset after a long hot day of tropical humidity. Up the other end of the beach is a popular surf break and these guys had probably spent most of the afternoon catching a few waves before walking back along the shore to home. The sky shows the typical colours of the classic tropical sunset with lots of moisture in the air really bring out the colours. Read the rest of this entry »
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February 14th, 2011
Literally the girl from Ipanema, which is of course the title of the famous song by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes of Brasil. It was the song that really created the whole musical genre of Bosa Nova, a mellow mix of Brasilian samba and jazz that embodied the the feel and emotion of the Brasilian culture.
A Garota de Ipanema - the Girl from Ipanema
That song was written about this beach in Rio de Janeiro, or rather about a girl walking along this beach Read the rest of this entry »
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December 8th, 2010
This time last year i was in Southern Chilé for the wedding of a couple of good friends, one of whom is Chiléan, hence the location. I had never been to Chilé before, so it was a new adventure for me, I’ve seen plenty of images from there, so i had a bit of an idea, but they was nothing compared to the reality.
The view down the street... any street... of Pucón.
What an amazingly beautiful place, totally different to anywhere i have been before. The South of Chilé is all mountains forests, fast flowing crystal clear rivers… and volcanoes…
Awe inspiring! Nothing quite like waking up in the morning and looking out the window to find an enormous smoking volcano taking up most of the horizon, especially when the day before – the day of arrival – had been so overcast and rainy there was no horizon and the presence of the volcano was hidden. Something i never really got used to, i think the locals were wondering what i was staring at all the time. Read the rest of this entry »
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October 22nd, 2010
Back in 2003/2004 i spent a year travelling around Brasil, a country of amazing diversity. Why i was there is another story for another day, but i took a vast number of images in that year (the majority of them on the Hasselblad XPan), most of which have never seen the light of day. I put the first one up last week, and gradually i will be putting more and more of them here as i think the Blog is a great place to finally show them and eventually create a category on the website for that and other adventures.
"Caralho!" - The goal keeper was heard to utter...
During my stay in Brasil i lived in a city called Santos for several months, which is on the coast of Sao Paulo state. Santos has the dubious honour of being the largest port in South America, with all the pleasures that brings… Santos also has a very long open beach, and on any given day there are always loads of Soccer games running, of all ages, from 3 or 4 year olds playing with 2 sticks for goals, to semi professional clubs having play offs. Read the rest of this entry »
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October 17th, 2010
I was looking through some folders on my computer the other day (while i was supposed to be working) and i came across my images from Brasil that i shot several years ago and have never done anything with. I have been promising friends over there that these would end up on the website, and so far there has always been too much to do to actually do anything about it. Well, i’m an expert procrastinator, so while i was supposed to be doing other things i sat down and worked up this image a bit.
The old Barman of Parati
I came across the old barman of Parati-Brasil, while walking through some magic coastal bush just out of a 15th century town of Parati (pronounced Para-chi). The trail went out around some headlands covered in South American rainforest that ran right down to the waters edge, the coastline was craggy and beautiful with many inlets and deep, steep sided bays.
It wasn’t a particularly long or difficult hike, the path was pretty flat and the views were stunning, but it was certainly wilderness. Read the rest of this entry »
