Thanks to Filmmaker and writer/poet David Martinez Romero, I’m privileged to introduce many of you to another talent from Spain, photographer Juan David Cortes. As with any artist, their words inevitably are echoed best and loudest within their body of work, but attached is a brief Q&A to get to know the man behind the camera. What binds us all, is the element of ‘story’, and as the saying goes “a picture says a thousand words”, mainly because every image communicates a different message to each new set of eyes. A common theme among photographers is that their work is simply a perception and interpretation of life, and within this dynamic we find different meanings to lend more resonance to our existence. One could look at it this deeply, or you could peruse the photos just to find something beautiful and interesting, because what would the world be like without these elements and finer details? I chose to display this first image, because I lived it just last week... Enjoy! Q & A with Juan David - [Darkened text are Juan David's words] 1. What model camera do you use/what would you like to use in future? I use several cameras. A digital slr (5D mark II) for assignments and some specific personal work, for all the rest I use film cameras: 35mm reflex Olympus OM-1 and eos 5, 35mm rangefinder Canon 7, and medium format Bronica. I´ve never thought what camera I would like to use, I think each work needs it´s own tools, so one that I feel comfortable with. 2. It's different with every artist, but if there is one, then what is the most striking/vivid/favourite photo you've ever taken? And partnered with that, what is your favourite subject - some photographers, like landscapes, nature, movement...? I can´t choose a favourite photo, every photo has it´s particular mood, moves some feelings and doesn´t move others. I mean that the pictures among my own that strike me today are not the same that will do tomorrow. I like the fact that there´s always some discreet and subtle photos that eventually become “chosen” and some striking and powerful ones that you get eventually tired of. 3. When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer? One day, when I was 23 or 24, watching the photos that a friend has taken in a travel. I felt as if I was watching photos for the first time. Looking at his pictures (Marcos Bauza great and inspiring photographer) I felt something hard to explain, but that could be said that life will be much more interesting with photography in it. Later on, I realised that while I have photography I will never feel alone or meaningless, It provides me a place in the world. Later on I discovered that It´s like living with a highlighter pen used to express your opinion in an metaphoric way, more instinctive and at the same time more open and more accurate. 4. How has photography changed the way you see the world? I don´t think that it has changed my way of seeing the world, beyond that now I pay attention all the time to light and composition, even when I don’t have a camera with me. I think that photography is used from inside to outside, to express more that to see. 5. If you were not a photographer, then what would you be (also, what was your ambition when you were a little boy, since I believe photography could not always have been your passion)? When I was a little boy I wanted to be a sea biologist, I was a sea life freak. When I was six or seven my dad bought me a five-volume sea world encyclopaedia and practically memorized it. As an adult I think I would like to be a carpenter. I think a good phrase is very similar to a good photo... “God is among pots” “It´s not the mountain ahead that wears you out, It´s the pebble in your shoe.” - A Chinese proverb that I first heard from Muhammad Ali. Regarding the photos… I´m not going to pick any [favourites], just tell you that the most personal works in my web are “rhetoric”, “summer is almost gone”, “przewalskii” and “yerma” which is a work in progress... *** [All images are Juan David's and are used by his permission. The captions refer to the name of the respective series'. The one image without a caption is from Tumblr] Muchos Gracias Juan David!
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The Fall of man - 'Moving in the darkness' - Poem by Steven Benjamin The darkness covers us all the same
Rich and poor Strong and weak Good and evil. All existing in this same place Distant Removed. living and dying, we share it all, until One Or a few of us, reaches out to where we came from Before we walked Before we breathed Before we saw, and heard, and tasted and felt This world. To act here, in this place of darkness and absence exiled We exist and are forever lost. Until a heart reaches for the light. The light to illuminate our life, our path, our flaws. But we are still painted by the same brush, Moving in the darkness The same abandon that many love to bathe in, That some question, Searching the dim depths, for tenor, to whisper faint philosophy Reasoning in anonymity, As this shade, hides our actions, bolstering confidence, Justifying ignorance, for the lesser mind. All of it, echoes in obscurity. Without the gift of light - to shine on us, until then, once ignited, to shine from within – without this light what are we? shadows, playing, pretending on the dark stage, until the absent curtain falls, ... and time swallows the memory of us. It is the light that colors us, illuminating purpose and path. But in the darkness, all meaning is forsaken. Light needs only light to be… for darkness is merely the absence of it. For we only know what darkness is, because of light. We know the light, we recognize it, the form of our shadows, A hint, We recognize it because we came from it, We were made to reflect it. Once, In a distant memory, half forgotten, a remnant in us, of a garden and a past, swept away. We came from it. Before we learned what darkness was. Before we fell, Before we walked, Before we breathed Before we were born… Once there was a time when it breathed in us, there was a time when we were painted with light. ***** Yes, you’ve heard this line from a Maya Angelou poem… I was thinking about time, and how it doesn’t apply to dreams And if you know me, then you know by now that at some point my thoughts will always turn toward God . . . in this instance, the inventor of time. It’s awkward to think of life outside and apart from time, but to think about it, our dreams are like glimpses into this world. I look at my dog who is growling and barking in his sleep, his whole body is moving… so even animals can dream, or maybe just dogs. One time his leg twitched, so maybe he was chasing a cat in his dream. Since man’s infancy we have wondered about this thing, why we have it, or where it comes from, and if it has a deeper purpose and meaning. I could tell you that it’s a remnant of our forsaken spirituality, as we plunged into this moment of time called life. That it’s a fragrance or a hint of something more than the physical, of a place beyond the natural, a place without time. But we’re free to choose or imagine for ourselves, to attach our own meanings. I realise though, that this taste of a timeless place, is an entity often taken for granted, left unexplored or forgotten, relegated to superstition and fantasy… a playground for your subconscious imaginative power, nut nothing more. But contemplating our existence and the concept of an immortal soul and awakened spirit, the dream becomes more relevant, makes more sense if we are actually spiritual beings living in these temporary skins. But just like the dreams themselves, which waft in and out of our lives, so too do these deep thoughts, pushed aside by the natural world, by the reality we make before us. This world of endless distraction. Perhaps this is the duty of those like myself, as we’re given license to tentatively reach out to these realms outside of time, because we’re naturally seeking more than what we see, recognising that there appears to be something behind or above this natural world… We chose to turn from the eternal and embrace the temporal, because the immediacy of the things around us placed a great power within our fleshly hands; ruled by our senses, we mould our future with our own works. We chose to rule our lives, instead of submitting to something spiritual. But in turning to our own devices, forsaking the spiritual, we bowed to time, and with that, we too would become like dreams – the very thing that haunts us now, as we lowered ourselves, our lives, to slip in And eventually out Of time. For without the spiritual eternal, we placed our heads in the jaws of time, of age and decay And in our passing, if we continue to place highest value in the pursuit of things governed and hunted by the clock, then our destiny is tied to the forgotten dream, Forever lost. * We only occupy a space in time. --- Photo: [Václav Chochola: 'Night Walker' - self-portrait standing in the night city. He put his camera on a tripod and left quite a long exposure and he stood near this street lamp. Eventually he went back and closed the shutter.. "Every picture may show more than I want to say.."] [Image credits: Nadya Lukic photography, Vaclav Chochola self portrait, meetville.com]
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[Banner illustration by Joel Kanar]
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