According to the writer and curator Luisa Duarte (IN: Rio Branco, Miguel – Crosswords, dreamed, stolen, used, bled. São Paulo, SP-Brazil. IMS. 2020) and, according to the Benjaminian concept (Walter Benjamin – essayist, German Jewish literary critic, translator, philosopher and sociologist; 1892-1940) on the temporality of works of art “a work of art does not have to be understood in time, but time in the work” because they contain “an intensive and not extensive temporality”.
According to the writer and curator LUISA DUARTE (Rio Branco, Miguel – Crossword puzzles, dreamed, stolen, used, bled. São Paulo. IMS. 2020) and, according to the benjaminian conception (Walter Benjamin – essayist, literary critic, German Jewish translator, philosopher and sociologist; 1892-1940) on the temporality of works of art “a work of art does not have to be understood in time, but time in the work” because they contain an intensive and not extensive temporality.
“The landscape is not, in essence, made to look at, but the insertion of man in the world, the place of a struggle for life, a manifestation of his being with others, the basis of his social being”. (Dardel, E., 2011. Man and the earth: nature and geographical reality. Translation Werther Holzer. São Paulo, SP. Perspective.)
… however banal, trivial they may seem, I feel that the landscapes raise me to a state of mind that changes my day, that brings me hope that better days are coming … I wonder: it wouldn’t be that one, the main purpose of photography? … make you happy in the first place? … my answer is yes …
As much as industrial development has brought improvements in Humanity’s standard of living worldwide, Man leaves his tracks in the immense and irreversible transformations and environmental damage inflicted on Nature, Urban and Rural Landscapes.
The black and white photograph for me is this: they are pictures with an air of mystery, of tension in the air. Mystery and tension suspended in the air as if in a micro second a posteriori there would be an explosion or another sudden change and everything would become different from this previous instant. For me, nothing like street photography to fill these pre-requisites. Read More
… I like the manifestations of nature’s architecture and men’s architecture … I really think that photography has a good part of its strength in geometries, textures, patterns and then architecture, both in nature and in which men practice, perform a strong role…
…. and the architecture that men practice, the architecture of the industrial revolution, is very impressive to me …
… here are some more examples of photographs I have taken during this pandemic period … I hope you like them ….
Our sister-companions of nature who are trees also always follow the courses of our rivers, lake margins protecting them by supporting their banks with their roots, softening the effects of the high temperatures of their waters with their shadows, offering refuge from predators and a breeding ground for aquatic animals.
For passers-by and photographers, like me, they give them everything they want: a view of the beauty of their trunks, branches and majestic crowns and their breathtaking reflection’s images in their calm waters of rivers and lakes.
In the Amazonian rivers there are many trees that are so prominent in the environment that they are called Notable Trees and are included in the mavegation maps. The featured image tree of this post is one of them.
Film photographs made in the 1990s and 2000s in the Brazilian Amazon Region.
Trees are also good companions for lonely walkers on the arid paths in life. They are always there to make your paths more beautiful and to offer you the taste of their fruits, the scent of their flowers and the friendly freshness of their shadows to restore our strength in a moment of rest.
I have always been passionate about the things of architecture in general. Especially for industrial architecture. I have always taken one or another photograph within this line of thought.
It turns out that a short time ago, I came across for the first time the fantastic world of the German couple, the Bechers, Hilla and Bernd, who revived in me this passion for industrial structures.
The photos shown in this post do not, of course, have the intention of imitating or emulating the fabulous work of the Bechers, but it only reflects – I think – what their work instigates me to seek out, these structures.
As I was born and live in the interior of the state of São Paulo and have roots in the countryside – and as I drive a few thousand kilometers a year on country roads – I have photographed some sugar and alcohol (ethanol) plants that have historically been part of these wonderful vernacular landscapes .
This series of photography that may one day become a project also includes water tanks in cities, and other structures from other types of industries that are usually found on the outskirts of these cities.
It´s important to say that the work I do in this series / project (only) bears some similarity to the great work of the German couple Becher, but in my case I do not seek to portray these small and REPEATING differences between these industrial structures. My records are more melancholy portraits of this industrial architecture, especially those of the sugar and alcohol plants that exist throughout the interior of the State of São Paulo that I keep in my affective memory since my childhood and adolescence.
Arquitetura industrial
Sempre fui um apaixonado pelas coisas da arquitetura em geral. Em especial pela arquitetura industrial. Sempre fiz uma ou outra fotografia dentro desta linha de pensamento.
Ocorre que há pouco tempo, deparei-me pela primeira vez com o mundo fantástico do casal alemão, os Bechers, Hilla e Bernd que reavivou em mim essa paixão por estruturas industriais. As fotos mostradas neste post não tem, evidentemente, a intenção de imitar ou emular o fabuloso trabalho dos Bechers, mas apenas reflete – eu acho – o que o trabalho deles me instiga a buscar, por aí, essas estruturas.
Como nasci e vivo no interior do estado de São Paulo e tenho raízes do campo – e como dirijo alguns milhares de quilômetros por ano por estradas do interior – tenho fotografado algumas usinas de açúcar e álcool (etanol) que historicamente faz parte dessas maravilhosas paisagens vernaculares.
Essa série de fotografia que talvez um dia se transforme em um projeto inclui também caixas d´água das cidades, e outras estruturas de outros tipos de indústrias que geralmente se encontra nas periferias dessas cidades.
É importante dizer que o trabalho que faço nesta série/projeto guarda (apenas) alguma similaridade com o grande trabalho do casal alemão Becher, mas no meu caso não busco retratar essas pequenas e REPETITIVAS diferenças existentes entre essas estruturas industriais. Os meu registros são mais retratos melancólicos dessa arquitetura industrial, especialmente as das usinas de açúcar e álcool que existem por todo o interior do Estado de São Paulo que guardo na memória afetiva desde meus tempos de criança e adolescência.
[to find out what the path is like, if there are many stones that make it difficult for you to walk, if there are crossroads or junctions, you must cover it all the way; one can stop, rest and even momentarily take a branch; but if one wants to know the path initially taken, it is necessary to return to it and travel it along its entire length; only then will the path be revealed; and so it will be able to present you with pleasant surprises; dream your dreams and not someone else’s; never give up on your dreams; they are the paths that must be taken in life]