Mother & Child 02 (Hands)

Jan, 23 2010. Tiny fingers but strong enough to grasp his mother's hand. We've discovered (trial & error) he sleeps quite well on our bed. Elders are not happy with our little arrangement, though.

Mother & Child 01 (Eyes)

Diego opens his eyes, still light blue. No focusing yet his mother's smiling face, but barely making up her features. How many wonderful things he's going to discover with them?

Diego (two days old)

No comment!

Diego: LIFE

January 13th, 2010.
Diego, our son, born on January the 11th.
No picture will convey -ever- the feelings we've been through to have this child. Our beloved baby. Our cry, our laugh, our joy.

Nuestro agradecimeinto a todos los médicos y enfermeras del servicio de Ginecología del Hospital Virgen del Camino de Pamplona que han trabajado con tanta pericia durante largos y amargos meses para mantener a Diego con vida en el vientre de su madre. Ellos han hecho posible que Juliana y yo estemos hoy mirando a esta criatura, tan deseada.
Al Dr. Larrañaga, a la Dra. Huarte, a la Dra. Karlsson y a todos los demás, cuyos nombres no conozco pero a cuya dedicación debemos tanto: gracias.

Koldo Chamorro

Koldo, maestro

El laboratorio de Koldo era – el dolor del verbo ya en pasado- apenas un cuartito arrancado al salón del ático de Iturrama: dominándolo la enorme ampliadora, cubetas en precario, las espirales de película lavándose en el rincón e, impregnado la negrura, el punzante olor a químicos, rememorado en esta terrible tarde de octubre. La sorpresa, aquella vez primera, era que de aquel humilde espacio en el que apenas entraban dos personas, hubiesen salido las fantásticas copias –profundas, negras, luminosas también- de las fotografías que me habían dejado asombrado una tarde dorada en Tarazona, el verano del curso de fotografía en que, escuchaba –fascinado- a un hombre menudo, de cabeza poderosa, vestido de faena, energía inagotable, pasión y risas contagiosas, hablar y sentir la Fotografía como nunca, a nadie antes. Y tampoco después.

Koldo me enseñó allí, en los largos meses de la mili, a revelar los rollos de Tri-X que disparaba en el cuartel, y, sentados, casi cada sábado, a la mesa del salón, me explicaba con paciencia, humor y el té -de tres años, decía- a seleccionar las mejores imágenes, a agotar los temas, a buscar en cada tira de negativo algo más –¿la magia, su magia?- que el encuadre perfecto, el momento justo. Si alguna foto hice entonces que mereciese la pena, fue gracias a su firme mirada; si algo aprendí, de su generosidad. Mis mejores fotos han sido siempre suyas y las demás, mediocres, inevitablemente mías.

Al correr de los años y agotado el impulso inicial de devenir fotógrafo –Aquí, Fotógrafo Koldo- tanto él como Rosa siempre tuvieron tiempo para tardes de conversación amplia, a veces críptica; ratos de relatos levemente apócrifos, anécdotas elegantes, cuentos con sorpresa, mundos posibles y fábulas de nombre propio. Koldo, narrador, Koldo creador, Koldo imaginero, Koldo apuntador, actor, tramoyista, escenógrafo, iluminador, espectador, guionista. Koldo fotógrafo. Koldo maestro.

A Koldo Chamorro de Aranzadi. 20 Agosto 1949 - 16 Octubre 2009
A Rosa, a Ohiane.
A también todos los que hemos tenido el privilegio de conocerle.

Publicado en Diario de Navarra, 17/10/2009.
Gracias a Jesús Rubio por darme un espacio en una de las páginas mas tristes que se pueden imaginar.

Distort

Pamplona, July 8, 2009

Photoshop; Select All; Distort, Crop Tool: voilá.

Distorting = faking. Fake = Readable.

Too much

Pamplona, July 7, 2009

Too much "Sanfermin-like attitude", too much "posing", too much ghost-like effect. French would use the word "cliché", coined from a photographic artifact.

Dianas (Girls at Left)

Pamplona, July 7, 2009.

"Dianas" or Reveille: the Council Music Band play music at seven in the morning to cheer the people up. I'm shooting the whole thing and it's a fact that, on the melée, I'm composing all the pictures with girls at left and musicians at right. Damm it!

Look at the camera (Not this one!)

Pamplona, July 6, 2009.

During "Riau-riau", the Major poses for the camera(s)

The First Casualty

Pamplona, cuesta de Labrit.
July 6, 2009

It's only 13:16 on the very first day of Sanfermin and there's someone already lying on the street! Could be a record, no doubt about it.

As for the boy: he has his weapon water-filled ready and he'd be dangerous.

The Usual Thing: "Would you mind to show us a bit more, please, my dear!"

Pamplona, Navarreria Sq. July 6, 2009
"Show them off!" It's the crowd's usual cry every 6th of July. Pamplona should be the best place to undress oneself in front of drunkards, it seems. Aussies forever!

Beaten (So it seems)

Pamplona, Navarreria Sq. July 06, 2009

Vivir

Pamplona, July 6, 2009

21 Years Apart (or "How I stopped learning and love the mannequin")

Madrid, 1988 & Pamplona 2009

July 6, 2009

Back there in the 80's I recall to have used a beloved Yashica, my first reflex camera. Twentyone years after and a Canon that's a far cry from that one I'm not sure I've learning anything at all. Still mannequins lured me, as Ulysses's mermaids off Capri.

Smoke & Alex (I wanna be a grown up!)

July 4, 2009.

Moments before Alex Ubago's concert in Pamplona, teenagers wait anxious to see him and they play to be older and wiser. One of the singer best know songs: "¿Qué pides tú?" (What do you ask for?) would be answered by the dozens of kids with a cry:
I wanna be a grown up! I wanna have the freedom they enjoy (that one I presume they've got)... I wanna be prettier, slimmer, cool, whatever... I wanna be... another one.

One, Two and Three Hemingways

Pamplona, July 04, 2009.

Hemingway lookalikes contest: there are three of them here, but only one beer bottle. If only the good & old Nobel Prize could come over here just for one single here, he wouldn't recognize the place he did visit a few times. We indulge -Pamplona's citizens,- that we're living again same Fiesta than him lived, but simply we are self deceiving ourselves.
In any case, the council might have put at hand several good bourbon bottles, just for trying.

Cross Up

July o3, 2009.

Cross Down

July 3, 2009

Public Relations (On Air)

Yesa, July 02, 2009

Framing The Three

July 02, 2009