Just need some time....

®Felipe Russo

Border Film Project

Today i received by email an advertising for a new photography magazine in the Netherlands...the YVI Magazine distributed by the same house as the well none FOAM Magazine and GUP. But these post is not about the magazine it self...in the body of the email i found the Border Film Project. Was a great surprise to see the website...the project gives disposable cameras to Mexican Migrants attempting to cross the border with the USA. When they receive the cameras they also receive a envelope (already with the stamp and address) to send the cameras back to the project if they make it across. But what is unique about the Border Film Project is that the cameras are not only given to the migrants...they are also distributed to the Minutemen...American volunteers that stay along the borders with Mexico to try to stop the migrants in there way...so the project shows both sides in an open impartial point of view..the people them self's are responsible for the images others will see about there story's. The project also made some videos... take a look at: Grand Central Station, Woman Carrying Babies, Night in the Desert and Y'all come.

Hope you enjoy..for sure helps us breaking some of the stereotypes we have about the subject.

A special book.

® Abbas Kiarostami / COSACNAIFY

As i told you in my last post i've being looking my books i had left at home....its funny to see how some have changed to my eyes. Some times you need time and new experiences to appreciate films, books etc... In Paris i had the chance to see a beautiful exhibit at the Centre Pompidou...Víctor Erice/Abbas Kiarostami Correspondances showing a dialogue between there works.I'm a bigger fan of Kiarostami's work, especially his contemplative landscape photography. Seeing his large prints and installations gave me a new glance to his work so when i got home the first book i opened was Abbas Kiarostami published by Cosac Naify after his participation at Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo. The book is very well printed..when you open it fells good in the hands. At the first pages you find his photos from the series (also exhibited at the Pompideu) Roads of Kiarostami...and while you flip the pages you will find a number of great texts discussing photography, reality, cinema and his personal approach to both midias. In the end of the book Abbas writes a beautiful peace on a homeless girl he observes at Avenida Paulista, São Paulo while she pics Aluminium cans in the garbage.

Here is a short paragraph where Abbas talks about his approach to photography....its in Portuguese, sorry. Maybe use google.

"A fotografia satisfaz os sentimentos criadores e torna possível o acesso a serenidade. Há nesse domínio uma pureza estranha..[...] A pureza da fotografia se manifesta quando se está sozinho, face a si mesmo...o silencio não é pertubado pelo clique do disparador, captando o instante. Toda a imensidão do ser está contida aí, reduzida no aparelho, de tal modo que se pode guardá-la no coração e preservá-la serenamente..[...]De uma certa maneira, divina, a fotografia permite que nos apropriemos da natureza e do ser. Não se deve, porém, esquecer que é difícil aceder a esse estado privilegiado. É preciso saber olhar, saber ver. Tudo se resume na maneira de ver. O segredo reside no conhecimento desse modo de visão, de olhar"
Abbas Kiarostami

home sweet home...

View from my window at the ground glass of my old Flexaret Automat

I'm home...after one year and tree month its a great sensation to be back. These last two days i've being just close to my family and friends (people i missed a lot)..looking my old books, listening to my old cds..and looking my archive that i had left back home....feels good!! The air, the water, the smells, the people...everything is familiar. The food...the fruits...and its warm!!! 29 degrees today...

I don't thing it will be long for me to start shooting again..São Paulo is already turning my eyes nuts!! So soon i will post new work..and also there's lots going on..i will visit some exhibits these week and will let you know. Just let me get home.....