Impromptu (2)

Carlos M. Fernandes

3×3

Guidelines can be constraints. Dates, location, themes, series: they can help you as well as tie you to your own method. Minor journeys don’t seem to matter anymore, not when you’re on a circumnavigation journey.

Carlos M. Fernandes

Impromptu

Carlos M. Fernandes

John Gutmann in Granada

John Gutmann was born in 1905 in Breslau, Germany (now Poland, since 1945). In 1927 he moved to Berlin, where he lived and worked until 1934. Being a Jewish, he then had to flee from Germany (to San Francisco), also because he soon acknowledged that the national-socialists were not tolerating any artistic expression outside the party’s line. In the United States, Gutmann started a new chapter in his career as a creative photographer and a teacher. He died in San Francisco in 1998.

The Jose Guerrero Center, in Granada (Spain), is presenting, until the April 3, an exhibition of John Gutmann’s photographs, produced by the Center for Creative Photography, in Arizona, where the full archive of his work is located.

Carlos Miguel Fernandes

Collecting (12) – Fotogrammetria

Photogrammetry uses photographic images to determine the geometric properties (forms, dimensions, position,…) of objects. I found this manual, printed in 1926, last week, in Rome, at the bookstore A. Rotondi (Merulana Street, 82).

Carlos Miguel Fernandes

 

Tunisia

I was in Tunisia last November, in Djerba, a quiet and beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea, connected to the mainland by a Romanic stone bridge. Somehow, I was motivated to photograph again in black-and-white, and, whether it was consciously or not, the resulting images are clearly related to some of my previous series, as if a line of work continues to progress, immune to all the doubts and experimentation with colour and larger formats. I am planning to select nine images — I like the number nine, a square number, 3×3, symmetric in its “asymmetry”, the last symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler and Schubert — and make a limited edition portfolio (10+2), with small-medium format prints, maybe 20x30cm, preserved in a hand-made cardboard black box. I know that in contemporary photography one must offer huge colour prints. But for me, photography is still that piece of paper that we keep in discreet boxes.

(Photos: @Carlos M. Fernandes: Djerba, Tunisia, 2010)

Rarely Seen Photographs, at the Hungarian House of Photography

Hungarian House of Photography

The Hungarian Museum of Photography has been welcoming those interested in photography for almost twenty years now. Over these years the original collection of 70 000 items, donated by the Association of Hungarian Photographers, has multiplied ten times over.

Due to the lack of a permanent exhibition space, the photographs stored in the archives can only be presented to the public periodically. There are never-before-shown shots that should have already deserved wall space for their artistic merit.

The exhibition organized in Mai Manó House focuses on photographs that had been either rarely seen by visitors frequenting exhibitions or have never been exhibited before.

Our exhibition is a testament to the fact that not only world-famous artists can leave behind pieces that create lasting impressions. We intend to show that the majority of photographers archived in the photography museum had taken shots that deserve our recognition and appreciation.

At the same time, the exhibition is a portrayal of photo-history. From a chronological viewpoint, we may find shots taken with one of the first technical processes, black and white photos, as well as examples of today’s digital picture taking techniques. Our exhibition encompasses the period of 170 years photography has been playing a role in our everyday lives. The latest item is almos as fresh as the morning dew.

Not all of the photographs showcased are part of our visual culture yet; therefore, the exhibition makes the fate of these shots even more exciting as future will decide which ones will – hopefully – become iconic pieces.

By favor of and in collaboration with Mai Manó House, the Hungarian Museum of Photography gives an opportunity to these pieces, so that by remembering them, they may find their way into our hearts and occupy their place in the Hungarian history of photography.

Artists exhibited include but are not limited to the following:

André Kertész, Pál Almásy, Angelo, Ferenc Aszmann, Ata Kando, Demeter Balla, Rudolf Balogh, András Bánkuti, Nándor Bárány, Katalin Baricz, Andrea Bátorfi, Pál Bence, Imre Benkõ, Zoltán Berekméri, Ferenc Berendi, Ferenc Berkó, Irén Blüh, Sándor Bojár, András Bozsó, Ádám Cuhorka, Tibor Csörgeõ, Károly Divald, Imre Drégely, Mihály Eke, Erdélyi, Károly Escher, László Fejes, János Fenyõ, Enikõ Gábor, Kálmán Gábos, Gábor Gerhes, Goszleth & son, Haller F. G., László Haris, Lucien Hervé, Nándor Homonnai, Iván Ibos, Jacques Faix, Rudolf Járai, Antal Jokesz, Oszkár Kallós, Ervin Kankovszky, István Katona, Éva Keleti, Kepes yörgyG, Gábor Kerekes, Károly Kincses, Imre Kinszki, György Klösz, Péter Korniss, Marcell Kriván, Gábor Arion Kudász, Klára Langer, László Lugosi Lugo, Manó Mai, Károly Minyó Szert, Péter Nádas, Sándor Nagygyörgy, József Németh, József Pécsi, Antal Simonyi, Strelisky, Dezsõ Szabó, Judit Szabó, László Székely A., János Szerencsés, Lenke Szilágyi, Kálmán Szöllõsy, Péter Tímár, György Tóth, Dezsõ Váli, Ferenc Veress, Gyula Zaránd

Collecting (11) – Hungarian Soccer

I found these two photos in Budapest, in an antiquarium shop at Klauzál street.

Péter Barta

Zsolt Péter Barta (b.1962) at the Nessim Gallery in Budapest (Paulay Ede street, 10). 40×50 color prints, with prices around 150.000 forints (~500 euros). The works are represented in a nicely printed catalog, which can be bought at the gallery by 3000 forints (~10 euros). The exhibition will be on view until the October 19.

Collecting (10) – Catalogo Descriptivo de Photographias

Bellos modelos do nu e admiraveis phantasias picantes

This is a funny and bizarre item I found in an antiquarian bookseller in Lisbon: a catalog of erotic (porno?) photographs (photographias galantes), not dated, but probably from the first third of the 20^th century. It comes with no images, just descriptions, in naïf, silly and vulgar rhymes, of sets of photographs supposedly depicting typical erotic fantasies and fetishes — a woman and two men, a man and two women, two cousins, and, believe it or not, a man, a woman and a little girl (menina, in Portuguese)! Those photographs could be ordered and sent by mail, and the catalog provides the prices, according to the number of photos, their size and type of paper (albumen, platinum prints, glass negatives, etc.). There is an introduction by the editor proudly presenting the product, which, he states, could not be found until then in Portugal.

Carlos M. Fernandes