Street Clichés V
But maybe Apple would be better off releasing some gafas de sol here instead…
Street Clichés IV
Taken next to the Apple Store, in Plaça Catalunya. Everyone is looking very grim this week, perhaps because Apple decided not to release its new watch here in Spain…
Street Clichés III
Street scene, Barcelona. The light at this time of year is great for the narrow streets.
Street Clichés II
This has to be the hardest job – many of the flats the gas is being delivered too lack elevators and have tiny, cramped stairwells. It is astonishing that in 2015 there are still numerous people in Barcelona that rely on these deliveries for cooking and heating, rather than on piped gas.
Street Clichés I
The first of a sequence of street photographs while I wait for the last batch of films to finish processing. They are part of an ongoing project for street photography in Barcelona. Street photography is an odd genre, so wide, ill defined and extensively shot that it often feels like its own cliché. Keeping this in mind, this sequence will do its best to use high contrast black-and-white processing, and hackneyed techniques such as pointing at a poster and waiting for someone to walk past. To reinforce the modernity of the cliché, these are all shot […]
#4YFN and #MWC15
It is phone-week here in Barcelona, with the 4YFN (Four Years from Now) and MWC (Mobile World Congress) annual events for 2015. As with last year, there is a great mix of startup companies and large corporations, and both venues are still growing in size – even if 4YFN sometimes feels as if much of the growth is from consultants pitching sophisticated forms of modern-day snake-oil. Some emerging trends: lots and lots of people selling “big-data” analytic services for mobile and web, but far fewer people selling apps or app development (perhaps […]
Belo Horizonte: Two Markets
Some more holiday snaps street photography, from two markets in Belo Horizonte. The first set are from the Sunday Market, which mainly sells clothing, toys and arty things alongside the Parque Municipal and Palácio das Artes: The second is from the central market, which sells just about anything you can imagine (although I am not sure about the bird-cage hats): All images were shot with the Ricoh GR in TAv mode using auto ISO and fixed focus. The indoor market shots are a bit of a stretch – to get […]
Edificio Niemeyer
Some images of the Edificio Niemeyer, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Quite an elegant design, and one which looks ideal for the hot sunny climate here. All images taken with the Ricoh GR, with the last one framed and cropped to help reduce perspective distortion.
The Streets of Ouro Preto
Some street images from some short walks in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. I hope that these capture some of the diversity of the people here in a town which spans everything from the mining communities to upmarket tourism. These were all taken on a short visit to the town, while wandering around looking at the sights (and sites) rather than actively setting out on a proper project. It would need a much longer visit to do this really well. Also, a couple of almost-but-not-quite street images that I quite […]
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto is a strange place. It was once the wealthy hub of the mining areas around and gained huge wealth from the gold and other minerals. Much of this was spent constructing a town in the image of Portugal, an illusion helped by the steep valley slopes and roads. Although much of the tile-work found in Portugal is absent, the styles area clearly imported from Europe and adapted to the local resources. This architecture has resulted in Ouro Preto being designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, cementing the town’s current renaissance […]
Red Planet: Minas Gerais
A short collection of images illustrating the open-cast mining, just north of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This is historically the primary source of wealth and power in the region, and even today the mines feel more like city states than industry – characterised by their high security and ever present patrols, all neatly badged with the company name and emblem. These images were taken just a few kilometres north of Ouro Preto. This short excerpt from Google maps’ satellite imagery (CNES/Spot) shows some of the scale of the open-cast […]
Rock Textures
Rock textures from a flash-flood prone river bed in Parque Estadual Biribiri, Brazil. Something different from the usual tourist snaps of the waterfalls and colourful houses, these have been processed in to high-contrast black and white to bring out the forms without the distraction of the colour… Click on an image below to show the gallery. All images were taken with the Ricoh GR.
Diamantina
A rather wet arrival in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The hail and rain on arrival was bad enough that the streets became more navigable as rivers than as roads, although fortunately the bad weather vanished as quickly as it had appeared. A short collections of images of tourist snaps from the town. These are not particularly curated – most of the narrative shots were taken on film that is still a long way off being developed.
Market
Some images from the central market in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, where stalls sell various forms of Cachaça (a spirit distilled from sugar cane), fruit and vegetables, and also some handicrafts and rocks and minerals for the tourists.
Serro
Some slightly surreal snapshots from Serro, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Again, these were all taken with the Ricoh GR, which an excellent travel camera if you forgive the few times when you can not see the LCD thanks to the bright sun… hopefully we have some more serious images captured on film – if it survives the 40 degree temperatures and multiple x-ray exposures.
Milho Verde
Some macro images of some very small plants near the Cachoeira Lajeado at Milho Verde (literally “Green Corn”) in Minas Gerais, Brazil. We stopped here briefly while travelling up from Serro to Diamantina, taking a break before tackling the unpaved mining roads. This is quite an unusual environment, with dark rocks, white sand (from the incredible quantities of quartz here) and a peat bog. The bog area is quite sensitive, so we did not venture very far from the seemingly inevitable bathers in the small streams running through the area. […]
Transient Eye 