Bird in the Eyes and Hands of Children

These are two images created by my children, Marina and Camilo, in the darkroom. We started out with the idea of making a few photograms with which to explore the human figure. On the way to the lab and whilst looking for shrubs and other organic matter, leaves, roots and long grass to adorn our explorations, I came across the dead body of a blackbird.
The poor animal was wet beyond recognition from the long rain of the night before. I took it into the lab and used it to make some initial experimental photograms. We all got very excited about the possibility of making some good-looking prints and took turns in creating something out of the find.
These two images, full of symbols and beauty are by my two children, aged eight and five, created on a rainy morning as they brought a dead bird back to life through the magic of photography.

Negative and Positive Ornithology

Photogram Fever

These two images were made with the help of my students in photography class at Canterbury College, as a way to wrap-up our first assignment for the year. The assignment has brought a great deal of joy to many students and a new window of opportunity to the teacher for exploration of new and ancient forms.

Danza de Fantasmas

Just When I Thought...

Justo cuando llegué a pensar lo inevitable: que el Photoshop y la fotografía digital habrían de precipitar mi caída me llega un segundo aliento, aquella mitológica tabla a la deriva en el mar de la historia pictórica, para devolverle a mi fatigada visión un tiempo extra de aplazamiento.
He estado mirando mis rollos, los naturales y los mentales, y me encuentro con que todavía hay mucha tela de donde cortar. He ahí que me he llevado a mis dos niños al estudio para que ellos me ayuden a explorar la historia de la fotografía por fuera de los límites trazados por la dictadura digital y me encuentro de buenas a primeras con estas dos imágenes. Ambas logradas un sábado al mediodía cuando la urgencia de hacer algo diferente me llama.
Valga decir que algo diferente, en este caso, es una técnica que lleva cerca de 180 años siendo ignorada por muchos en su paso por esta vida en blanco y negro.
Así las cosas, he producido, junto al entusiasmo de la niñez en busca de estímulo, estas dos piezas que me hacen sentir tremendamente orgulloso de saberme fotógrafo, en una época en la que es con frecuencia más importante y provechoso ser técnico de punta o practicante de ritos digitales.


Just when I had just accepted the inevitable: that Photoshop and digital photography would precipitate my fall I got a second wind, I found the mythological floating board adrift in the sea of visual history, to provide my exhausted vision with a much needed reprieve.
I had been looking at my rolls, the natural and the mental ones, and I found that there is still much cloth to be sliced from it. And so it was that I took my two children to the studio to help me explore the history of photography outside the boundaries imposed by the digital dictatorship and, with their participation I made these two images . They were achieved a Saturday at midday just as the creative urgency required me to do so.
This is an old technique, nearly 180 years-old, ignored by many. And so it was that together with the unbound enthusiasm of the children I managed to create these two pieces which make me feel terribly proud and made me feel that I am still a photographer, in an era in which it is more profitable and important to be a state-of-the-art technician savvy in the digital rituals.

Roma bajo la luz del atardecer