produce, consumpt, and die

happy 2009 from claudia's harbour...

my never gonna get it photo

there are some shots that stay in my mind, forever, even though i didn't really shoot. mostly it's because i'm shy. i like to shoot at people - ops, sounds scary this way... i mean, with a camera. my favourite subject are people. sometimes, when i find the perfetc shot, i take too much time so my newly found model realises i'm there and starts getting pissed, or simply leaves because it's his/her own freaking business. this way, most of my never gonna get it photos are born. my perfect london shot. my canada day picture. and many others... simply gone, and forever in my mind.
some other never gonna get it pictures have a more "logistical" nature: they just can't be. like i'm on a bus, and can't possibly ask the driver to stop in the middle of the freaking highway. this means i can't even go back there later and shoot. not really the perfect shot if i get crashed along with my camera... like these days, i've been going back and forth on the highway to naples, and more than once i passed by my perfect shot. if i were good at drawing, i would sketch it, but no way. i'll give it a shot though and try to describe it...
two viaducts from the top corners decline to the bottom, nearly meet in the centre, and peacefully procede on their own. usually these viaducts here around are huge monsters of concrete, uncareful leftovers brought to life by holy mother of destruction - and speculation. but these two are graceful, like if they're some kind of frame, and remind me of a (more) perfect shot from wim wender's paris, texas. in the middle of the shot, behind them, piles and piles of containers, and on the background, centre top, a crane from the harbour not so far away.
ok, i've got a thing for container terminals, everybody knows it. fair enoguh. but still, that was so close to the perfect shot. sooo close. so close i'm never gonna get it.

whatever...

always had it under my eyes...

... and yet had to come in the middle of the freaking continent to be fascinated by harbours. guess what thrills me is the routes of goods around the world, and being in the outskirts, even though stuff passes by all the time, still you don't feel part of the big planet dance...

i've got a thing for ferry boats

haha :)
not true, actually.
but i do have a thing for container terminals!

more cathedrals

a couple of awkward combinations i found once driving through germany...


too bad the "real" photos didn't come out :(

(wor)shipping go(o)ds

if entering any kind of store and browsing amongst the labels of all the products lying on the shelves is still not enough to make a bell ring into our minds, passing through a harbour will do the job. there are no other places on earth where to realise the enormity of global trade.
goods go round our world, goods make our world go round. even when we decide to ignore about that, to ignore about them. as trivial as it may be, they end up being our idols, we end up worshipping them. and harbours are the temples of this new, blind religion we're trapped into.
we can be bad devotees, we may even forget about the religious practice, but no matter how much we deny our gods, they won't cease existing and permeating our lives.
a quick visit to one of the largest cathedrals in the world is enough to remind us about that. like the harbour in hamburg, where i was recently and took these shots.
simply huge. no words.

photo exhibit - closing time

tonight we had a final party for our photo exhibition.
yes, i organised an exhibition of pictures with some friends. i’m just an amateur, very very beginner. my friends are amateur too, but nonetheless we organised this exhibit thing. which turned out to be something exciting, especially because the place we used is really great. the place is an old inner pool from beginning of XX century, been closed for last 25 years or so... very decadent, rough appearance...
we had the exhibition just for fun, but it was nice to play with this awesome place. and to organise some kind of event, i mean something serious but totally not-science-related...
this was great!

one of my pictures is this one with the crane. don’t have the other ones. didn’t scan them yet. yes, i pretend to be a posh old style photographer shooting only on film. actually i’m just learning. i don’t pretend anything. i just like taking pictures at containers in harbours. this one was in mannheim harbour. mannheim is the closest city here, some 15 min drive. it’s a river harbour, obviously. god knows where is the sea in this country. and not even the best harbour ever. nonetheless i like going there. walking around, wondering when all that stuff is leaving and where it’s going and where it’s been before and all that stuff.
also the other pictures show goods and stuff and harbours and trucks and containers. what can i say, i like logistics. pretty weird, i know.

tonight we closed the exhibit. last party. the germans call it finissage. sounds really posh. even vernissage sounds posh to me. but we’re not, really. well actually we pretend to be deep and cultural. i also had the idea - and this is very posh - of having a friend of mine playing live music during the party. played the piano. was very nice, just that to pick up a piano, even though an electric one, and drive it around the city is not that enjoyable. regret stupid idea all yesterday, but still, result was pretty cool.


here are a couple of links about the exhibit

the official website of the exhibition
the exhibition in the aha website
pictures from the Vernissage
pictures from the Finissage