Strange things this week…It all started out so well…but these are my memories …
…in my ordinary Blekinge again. Don’t we all have crazy dreams sometimes…?
For Sylvain Landry – the anniversary! For this grand Birthday, I have put together my own 12 favourite entries to SL-WEEK – in no special order. In the header, Wedding, the photo closest to do with celebration… Hope you will Enjoy the gallery just as much as I enjoy the challenges.
If I were to chose one picture, only, to represent my visit to Marrakesh and the Medina, it would be the one in the header. Colourful, hot and filled with scents. Then, there is of course the multitude of people…here we go!
I loved our little street. Behind the typical pink walls, we had to walk endless tiny streets and alleys to get to our Riad (Moroccan mansion) . But there was no stress, a calm and friendly atmosphere – and no ”special guides” trying to make money out of us.
Just the everyday life going on…young and old, working or relaxing in the shadow.
On our way to the Souks, the principal shopping attraction in the city, I felt a bit worried about how I would cope with it. I do not like haggling, so I had already decided not to buy anything. My husband has visited Marrakesh at least three times before, and had also warned me that we soon would be ”kidnapped” by ”local guides”. (And so we were…)
Marrakesh has the largest traditional Berber market in Morocco, and the souk area has been compared to a micro-medina in itself, where it is absolutely essential to get lost…
But once you’re inside though, the feeling of One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights), or Aladdin, immediately comes to mind…and if you take a closer look at my gallery photos – I’m rather sure I was caught in the middle of …a treasure chest transport!
Historically the souks of Marrakesh were divided into retail areas for particular goods such as leather, carpets, metalwork and pottery. We could roughly see these divisions still, but rather overlaped. Many of the souks sell items like carpets and rugs, clothes, leather bags, and lanterns. Argan oil is popular everywhere.
After a hectic day it is a blessing to come back to our quiet Riad for a delicious Tagine (A specialty of the city and the symbol of its cuisine. We had a local tajine prepared with beef meat, spices and ”smen” and slow-cooked in a traditional oven in hot ashes. )
Then finishing the evening with a slow walk on the roof top. In silence…
…before going to sleep.
A man and his work – both have spectacular faces. Photographed in Figueras, 2011. For more inspiration, click here.
In the header, something of the new Morocco…on its way? The man talking in his cell phone, standing in the house-to-be…if it is not abandoned.
The Moroccan roads are rather straight and dusty. And along them, life continues as it has always done. Or almost.
In the cities, the mix of cars and horse carts, donkeys, bikes and motorbikes radiates that special energy and feeling. Most animals are also very well kept, which adds to the friendly atmosphere.
Either walking or going by van, we saw mostly men, of course, and nobody wanted to have their photo taken. I knew this from the start, so almost all photos of people are taken from the van. Sneakingly…
When you have passed the High Atlas mountain range, there are endless, dusty, desert roads. But no matter how long or dusty the road, there are still people going about their daily chores – along the very same road.
Nomad tents rising or falling, and the women and men tending to their camels.
Most people hardworking…
…but some, standing and waiting – for something or somebody. In the middle of nowhere.
A colourful country.
I wonder how they have managed to preserve their old ways of living? Our Berber guide told us they have so many ”tribes” that they are impossible to unite. They have a country of small units who manage to live together – just the way they are. I think that is just amazing.
I am working on a photo book for my parents, and came across this old photo…Some years ago there was a competition about recycling milk Tetra Paks, and my son and daughter immediately wanted to participate. Here is what they came up with. Sowing together all these by hand…Emma wearing the dress and David photographing and editing.
Not very comfortable…but they almost won the whole competition – second prize in Sweden!
Being creative is always great fun – click here for more!
Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer born in New York City. Maier spent most of her youth in France, but returned to the U.S. in 1951 where she took up work as a nanny. In her leisure however, Maier photographed ordinary street scenes over the course of five decades, and left over 100,000 negatives, most of them shot in Chicago and New York City. She must have had a passionate devotion to documenting the world around her, resulting in one of the most valuable windows into American life in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s.
In 2007, two years before she died, Vivian Maier failed to keep up payments on storage space she had rented on Chicago’s North Side. As a result, her negatives, prints, audio recordings, and 8 mm film were auctioned. Three photo collectors bought parts of her work: John Maloof, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow.
Maloof had bought the largest part of Maier’s work, about 30,000 negatives, because he was working on a book about the history of the Chicago neighborhood. Maloof later bought more of Maier’s photographic work, but was unable to discover anything about the person behind the photos – until he found Maier’s death notice in the Chicago Tribune in April 2009. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier’s photographs on Flickr, and the results were thousands of interested people.
From there, her name and fame flew all over the world. And today – until May 22 there is an exhibition at Dunkers in Helsingborg.
http://www.dunkerskulturhus.se/utstallning/platshallare-utstallning/vivian-maier/
She worked for 40 years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago, but traveled around the world, photographing the ordinary man in the street. Mostly black and white photos, but in the end also colour.
Occationally also uptown people…
A large part of her work consists of ”selfies” – maybe she was one of the first real selfie -obsessed photographers? There is even a book on her containing only self – portraits.
Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits. Brooklyn, NY: powerHouse, 2013. ISBN 978-1-57687-662-6. Edited by John Maloof.
Most of her photos were taken with a Rolleiflex camera of high quality, but she also (among others) used a Leica.
The Rolleiflex can bee seen in many of her selfies.
This particular selfie, is my favourite one of Vivian Maier. I think it shows her dark and light sides, literally, as well as her enigmatic approach.
To focus, she had to look down in the camera from above, and that is also the reason to why many photos show people slightly from below.
In many photos she let her shadow or the shadow of her hat be the ”selfie”.
In the movie Finding Vivian Maier (2013), directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, we only get to know a tiny bit more about her – we never get to know the woman herself. Maloof has done some thorough research indeed, and I do believe that these few, very interesting, facts are all we will ever know about her. The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2013, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.
Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Maier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Vivian_Maier
Time for my pot plants to wake up from their winter sleep…
…and some porcelain birds as well.
So, I shot these with my new ”dog walking” camera – a Panasonic Lumix TZ70. My old Canon suddenly got a white spot inside the lens, (I could see it clearly, and the photos got a big blur in the upper left corner ) and there was nothing to do about it as it is a compact camera.
I never had a Panasonic before, but this one got high grades in photo magazines and was listed number one of neat compacts this year. My criteria were: ability to use one hand only (dog leash in the other), good in low light, long zoom lens and still pocketable. This Lumix feels good, but is not as good in low light as the Canon was. A plus point is that I love the design …
I hope for a green and brighter future, but alas…this is my potential scenario.
Leya 
Du måste vara inloggad för att kunna skicka en kommentar.