Tuesday 28 September 2010

Light Once


In the streets of La Boca in Buenos Aires I saw this play of colour, light and shadows. There is a story why all the houses are so colourful. When the first Italian immigrants came to Buenos Aires, they started to work in the harbour and shipyards of the river ‘La Plata’ in the capital. They settled in ‘La Boca” (The Mouth), where they builded wooden houses. To paint their houses, they were allowed to take home the leftovers of paint used in the shipyard. This created a very colourful, now famous quarter of town.
On the left you see these funny electricity boxes, which all houses show on the front wall. Is it important for your neighbours or visitors to see how much electricity you have been using (this could become a great environmental control issue) or is it just easy for the electricity company to read your meter?  No idea. I liked being in between the light and shadow of the trees.
Aug 2010

Shadow and Light

This image pops up every now and then in my photo-archive. I love its simplicity: the little shadowed meadow with the light reflection of the window on it. There was more to it though. I made this picture when I was lying in bed very ill for months, facing big questions like ‘if I still can see the light when I seem to be surrounded by shadow?’ and ‘Can I say ‘yes’ to life, when death is luring?’ I did answer ‘yes’, to the fullest, and recovered. My neighbour, who could see the same meadow from the other side, committed suicide.