Hawelka Café

I took this picture a long time ago. It's the charismatic Hawelka Café in Vienna. When I went there for the first time both Herr and Frau Hawelka were still attending the place. When I returned in 2,004 I was lucky enough to chat (in German, I knew those two years in Frankfurt would come handy one day) with Frau Hawelka and to have a last slice of those very famous Buchteln wafts of hers. And I even managed to get a picture taken of her and I.

Why do I tell you all this? Maybe because this is one of the very few places in Vienna that I like. I was talking to Celeste about her forthcoming trip around Europe, and the image of this café quickly came to mind.

This picture was part of my 4th exhibition, and I still like it. Like Sergio, I also miss those good old film times.

PD.- Apologies for the quality of this scan. The original it's buried inside a box somewhere and I'm too lazy to photoshop it...

Once upon a time...

I was lost in Budapest, and the night was falling, it was Easter Monday and the city was deserted, everything around was pitch dark... and then the Danube appeared in front of me. Magic.

Alhambra

One rescued from the archive. I can't wait to go back home.

Uncertain

Today I remembered the 1st time that one of my exhibitions was awarded a newspaper review. It was a photography exhibition in Contemporanea (www.contemporanea.org) and the reviewer wrote:

"One leaves the exhibition feeling haunted and with the certainty that there is no hope, no escape, no future left for humanity"

It’s funny because nowadays all my pictures are full with color and light, quite different to what I was producing 10 years ago. I guess this is what living in the Caribbean makes to you... plus I was reading too much Jean-Paul Sartre back then.

I'm not quite sure if I've become a better photographer though.

Das Riesenrad

My 1st camera was a Ricoh, and that's what I got as a birthday present from Kika last weekend. It's in top-notch condition and exactly like the one I had :)

So I have a perfect excuse to post another "vintage" picture that I took using my humble Ricoh. This time is from Vienna's famous Wheel at the Prater. It's cross processing (c41 film developed using e6 chemicals, or was it B&W film? I can't quite remember it...).

Good old film times are coming back.

Wiener Naschmarkt

An old picture rescued from my archive. Today, Kika left behind what was the start of a novel that I started to write a while ago. The story was partly set in Vienna. My mind works with images, so as soon as I started to read it... this one came to my mind.

I love food markets, and this must be one of my favorites.

Billy Joel's "Vienna" song also came to mind. As well as my "1st proper" camera, a Ricoh KR10M that I'd to trade-in to buy a Pentax Super A and a SMC 50mm f1.4. I was a student, living and working in London, and money was in short supply. I try not to be very romantic about those days... but now that I think about it... I really really really do miss my old camera.

London Underground - Victoria Line

For some reason I woke up this morning with this image in my head. I guess I've been missing home lately. I took this one a long time ago, in 1992 when I was starting to play with cameras, and I'd just discovered Kodak Tri-X.

Don't ask me why, but in this blog I'm having a great time showing images that I've captured using totally unglamorous equipment. In this case, a Ricoh KR10M, the 1st camera I bought with my own money when I was 16 years old. BTW the standard Ricoh lens was truly awful when it came to flare.

Once, just for the fun of it, I posted this same picture in a Leica photo contest... only to recieve positive reviews from "fellow" Leica photographers talking about the beautiful grainy/3D effect that "my Leica" lens had rendered.