Zonda`s Quest

Last piece I wrote, about Sebastião Salgado`s work was probably one of the best things I ever did. Not because I was right and my arguments were sound, but because I was wrong and had the opportunity to learn by writing it and discussing it with people.

Right the day after I published it, a very dear friend of mine, Rubens, came to me and told me: “Well, I have a theory”. It took me about 4/3 of a second to reply: “here we go!”. According to Rubens what I see as conformism and taking the same picture “over and over” is, in fact, the artistic identity of the author. When I fail to reach obvious conclusions, I take comfort over the fact that I can change my point of view rather quickly when well convinced. Its something like being dumb, but changing quickly when alerted. Yes, Rubens was and is right. I don’t expect to leave the theater crying after a Michael Bay movie. I expect explosions and lasers and giant robots and more explosions and military and DECEPTICONS! Calling Michael Bay an artist worth discussing seems like pushing it but it serves to illustrate my point.

Looking back, to my own preferences, thank god Monet, Rembrandt, Metallica, Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple all had their identity.

That, in the other hand, does not invalidate the passion for the new. Silverchair did it, Linkin Park did it, Metallica did it AND IT SUCKED. Let`s leave Sebastião Salgado with poverty in high contrast B&W.

Rubens is right, end of story.

During the same week, I had another opportunity to learn a Photographic Lesson. This time with my cousin Elisa. She was attending a course on architectural photography, and recorded a part of the class. The guy was talking crap all over the place. From a wrong explanation about dynamic range to a terrible explanation about lenses and crop factor. Latter she sent me the link of an article about art and beauty in photography and I went, as the internet says, full retard on her. I was just so overwhelmed about the quantity of bullshit people have the courage to post online. I mean, Aesthetics is a subject older than Plato. For over 1.500 years we, humans, debate on what is beauty and where does it comes from or why. Then, some ass from the middle of nowhere rises to state his opinions based on, well, his opinions and that`s it. Elisa took a deep breath (yeah, I could hear it over the recorded audio on whatsapp) and said: “well cousin, I think you are overly critical. When people know nothing about something they start discussing it until they can make some sort of knowledge”.

Can you smell it? No? It`s the smell of me being wrong. I should definitely rename the blog to: Zonda`s path through the land of wrongness. She is right about the right to state crappy empty opinions. I think, in the other hand, I`m right about the need to seek for knowledge before rising and lecturing people over the internet. We can ditch knowledge for opinions, but that only help us looking dumb.

That`s why I decided to run a project that`s in standby for too long. I will record audio files, of 10 minutes each, about technical aspects of photography. From the very beginning (aperture, ISO, shutter and other basic skills) to the land of strange words and expressions. I hope that I`ll convince Elisa to help me doing some artistic files as well, so it will not get too boring. I`ll record lessons in Portuguese, and while I appreciate the time and patience of all my friends in reading this blog in English so I can practice my second language, no one deserves to hear me speaking for 10 minutes in rusty English!

And, to wrap it up, some pictures I took today with my friend Rubens and his beautiful fiancée Nicolle!

My city, Brasilia, is a place of extremes

It has a harsh dry season with no color or green

Then, all of the sudden, it looks like spring

As yellow leafs fall and then flow with the wind

It`s a beautiful moment like no other I`ve seen

The city turns into yellow before it becomes green

It’s a magnificent spectacle as the “Ipês” (Tabebuia aurea) blossom. Usually flowers are colorful and vivid to attract bees and other pollinizing agents. In my city, the tree attracts a different kind of creature: the photographers. They pollinize the internet seeding pictures on Instagram, Facebook and god knows where else. Over the years, the “Ipê” turned into a very dull photographic theme, as you could virtually find every angle of every tree, day by day, online. Don’t get me wrong, the only reason for this movement is the inspiring beauty of the tree over our harsh background.

My friends, nonetheless, challenged each other into capturing the tree in a “non-lame” way. I went out with my camera and tried. I know the feeling of photographic defeat. It`s that weight on the shoulders after you look at the camera screen and sees a picture that doesn’t even resembles what you were trying.

So that`s it.

I actually don’t like, but accept defeat

And, as a token of humility present to your screen

My very best effort, into a lame theme. :o)