the carpet has landed

the carpet has landed, the carpet has landed and the carpet has landed. somewhere near the ground and all too close to home, actually not at all. home is not as it was, just like when you wake up in the morning and say "oh fuck, where am I".thats what you could say i flew into. but you know what, it makes for a good time. what is life without change, what is life without things being very far from your expectation. its just the way things happen. you cant control the way your life turns out, i guess you can guide it to some degree but naaaah, its outta your hands. just gotta enjoy the ride. gotta run in that field if you want, swim in the ocean and jump off that edge. thats how i wanna live my life.
a month back in cape town and its as if i never left. how can all these familiarities blind me from the adventure every day. wow. life is fun. that much is true. so i guess im working to travel again.
time flies. i dont like time. this is the year of tiger. i happen to be a tiger so i guess i should do, or be involved with something mind blowing...which is exactly what im gonna make happen. one way or another.
i feel uninspired with all the fumes of this influential garden and feel another change in the winds of the world. smiles and love and happiness is the key. lots of waves will also help a lot.

Stuck in a thunderstorm

So I managed to stumble upon this insane landscape after walking 6kms into nowhere, finding some ancient ruins, climbing onto the roof of a half finished hotel, then kicked out of the area by a policeman because of the political issues surrounding the ruins. Meeting a herd of llamas on the way out(will post the llama next) along with the beginning of the thunderstorm sneaking over the mountain. Just an average night in the north of argentina i thought to myself. All we had was mate (argentinian drink), rollies, 2 empanadas, dulce de leche and nowhere but the dusty floor to sleep. So i did what any other photographer would do in a time like this, wait for the moon and avoid my dreams and then wait for the sunrise. So i set up my film camera for a good few shots without the moon to kill time by catching the stars running through the sky. A few shots from 20mins to 1 hour. i put on some accompanying music, sat down in the pitch black and prepared myself a mate as well as preparing myself for the night ahead.
ISO 100, f.8, 8 minutes and somehow it only managed to pick up one bolt of lightning. i must admit at one point i was worried about snakes but then I forgot.

not far off the jump

so i guess i got bored of lugging a big lens around one of the biggest cities, one which i can hardly fathom, comma, comma, errr, i have almost forgotten everything i learnt in school. this may be a problem. now that i think about it i dont mind that we learnt a whole lot of random stuff at school because it sometimes comes in handy. i couldnt possibly try think of one moment now but take my word for it. in fact i was thinking about clouds and lightning the other day and going, i think i know why there are such things...this is a result of a higher education. some people dont even know their own names. its good to know things in some ways. pink floyd ..... i got distracted. i cant believe people like me are allowed to write these random words on the internet. completely bizarre. none the less i am and need to carry on..... i found the most amazing camera for something like R200 and a little cable release. its something like a holga but shoots 35mm film instead and is made of metal and you have to focus a tiny glass lens. its pretty incredible and i think i have fallen in love. so anyway i had to shoot a test roll which i double exposed and cross processed. do it properly you know. it came out like i assumed, unpredictably surprising. (does that make any sense. it doesnt to me but its fine. ) in all this i managed to find a killer lab, if anyone needs one in BA let me know. another amazing thing happened.. walking through SanTelmo one day i bumped into a gallery and it just so happened to be a cool french dude who ended up choosing a bunch of the night stuff I've done here and in cape town to put up in his gallery. 'studio448' he's also a photographer and does super cool landscapes of the north of argentina in a place called Salta. nuts place and pics. hopefully this will be an ongoing thing so if you ever find it go check it out. so these are the 6 that came out like something. the majority where over-exposed due to the double exposure(so now i have an idea of the aperture and how fast i gotta shoot). the rest of the film ill process in cape town. got no money left.

'the city of cows'

things are getting very wild out here in the jungle...

LLuViA FaLLs\\

thunderstorms and jason mrZ concert. i dont understand life sometimes, how everything is so chaotic but at the same time its all completely under control by some kind of force or energy or flying giraffe. it fascinates me so very often, it does. ok so im getting into this photo uploading thing, it makes me organize pictures better i guess. moving on...
so i like to put images together, here are three pictures: first image is from shoe-box number one, a sleepless night; second image is from shoe-box number 2, another sleepless night and then the sun rose, convenient......, exactly what i said!. the third image is very interesting because it actually happens to be from a spaceship. dont ask me how i got to that spaceship but all i remember is there being no water in the lake and very interesting shapes. manu chao this saturday!

something to think about:: you have four plants and you need to plant them in your garden and they all have to be at exact same distances from each other....how do you do it?

i went to watch the michael jackson movie and wow is it mind blowing. im a huge fan but if you not you would still appreciate the man. increible! im all inspired and what what but i dont have a picture that would do my inspiration justice at this particular moment so i chose one from a shoot just before i left. its a hair stylist client that i do lots of wild stuff for most of the time but this turned out to be super clean and classy. ended up using just two lights, was looking for mood but not too dark. it is what it is!! thought i should put something different up because i like fruit salads, but not that much from a tin.



the days are hot and sticky but not as hot and sticky as you might think. the subte is short and easy but also more hot and sticky, more sticky and hot that sitting in the sun drinking beer, this i know for certain. the other thing i know for certain is that there are far too may people on this tiny little planet. if you ever find yourself floating and you not quite asleep but you really wanna stay awake to do more things like draw leopard giraffes till the sun rises i would lean over and fall over till the page was full. tango class and milonga await a day of light and love and discovery and pictures and space, limited space for a lot of pizza loving, empanada baking, mullet shaping folks with nothing else on theirs minds but their egos! who am i to say i can make a difference. maybe i will try though, somehow.

so these are what will probably be the last of the night shots im gonna upload cause i've decided to do an exhibition of the stuff i've gotten here so far and the rest of the pics from the north when i get another moon. all i can say i that we found some insane things so far and its gonna be a killer exhibit with a whole lot of intrigue. i want to find a space in grahamstown for the festival next year so make a point to try and go, not only to support me but its gonna be twice as long next year and just absolutely insane i reckon with the whole buzz of the world cup and all. prob do around 10-15 A0 prints. we will see. im excited. anyway so these shots are from the same hosteria but the interiors of a new building. there were about 5 of us and i had mentioned that i was gonna wonder the night and take some photos by myself(this was about 1am), the next thing i knew i had everyone putting on their shoes and coming with me. how awesome are these dudes i was thinking! so wide awake we started walking the campos, full moon, dogs, torches, radness. its quite funny having people come along on these night things cause they never realize how much time it actually takes and people tend to get bored and it frustrates me to be honest. i prefer to do them alone, have a spliff and just chill. even better have ric join me. hah. but these dudes are so chilled and the fact that we cant really talk makes it even funnier because i just started putting them in the photos and they didnt really have a choice in the matter. so this first shot is the creator of 'MicHo". this is something i cant describe but its basically a way of life that these guys live by. anyway he is the front guy on the heladera. next is marcos and then pablito, then of course is victorio the gay dog. he is full of ticks and is really gay, i tried not to touch him much. anyway this shot is a whole lot of flashes and torch and one gel flash outside. the next shot is of another fridge we found in the next room. not this but another shot is one of the series for the exhibition which i dont wanna show just yet, its quite literally out of this world. the hammock is where i spend most mornings drinking a mate and talking shit and thought it would need to get involved. so thats that for now. now back in buenos aires exploring the city at last. have the most amazing apartment on the 24th floor, you can imagine the view for yourself, e pec tac u lar. its a stones throw from 'el obelisco' or what i prefer to call the giant winky. right in the centre of one the biggest cities in the world. 'tick' off to a veggie restaurant they say is mainly for lesbians and gays so i will fit right in, not. none the less until i have something worth showing.

ArGeNtiNa

so i finally got together and made this little thing so i can write what i like and show some pictures of my travels.
right now im in argentina and care not for capital letters because i am the boss of this. its really amazing how every part of the world is its own contained world in itself. i've been to a few sides of this world and every time i find things im fascinated with, naturally. i'd been in the city for a week already, beunos aires and cordoba city. i dont mind the city if theres lots to explore but in the big scheme of things i prefer the great outdoors. i was in the farmlands for the last week and totally inspired by the pleasure of space and peace and quiet. horses and birds and dogs, that whole thing you know. anyway the moon was half full 'media luna' which gave me just enough light to shoot some very interesting night stuff. juan, who lives in 'las calles'(the streets) managed to show me an old abandoned hosteria with my dodgy spanish and his dodgy english, which turned out to be perfect for what i was looking for. so here is one of the shots and there will be more to follow each day i guess. i pulled out some my gels to get some colour in this half forgotten hostel. Unfortunately these digital cameras cant handle the long exposures that night photography demands so there is tons of noise. I think i will reshoot these next week with the film camera. this shot i call 'watching the world', and i managed to flash juan sitting just below the sky. 10 minutes and walking around, watching the night and flashing and torching all sorts of things. tooo much fun.
canon5d, 14mm, f8, 10 min






orange moonlight

So this dear friend is Colo, he speaks no english and I can barely hold a conversation so our relationship is very interesting. we rely mainly on signs and beers. the night before we had a proper cumbia party filled with gin, beers, mj, pizza, guitar, sign language and cumbia. cumbia is something like reggaeton. well anyway the night evolved and so did our names, i ended up as vivec and he became culo 'bum' in spanish. an easy mistake for someone who dont speak the taal. along with the word of the night being E Spec tac u LAR. very fun with a car full of drunk argentinians. more to come.