For the religious people…
or for those who like colours, like me! Some more images of the chapels spread all over the city. It’s so nice when they pop out at night with their X-mas decoration or music!
For the people passing by Desierto de los Leones, you really have to go close and listen to the Christmas music, playing all night long!
WEDSTRIJD De Film van Mijn Leven
These pictures of mine participate in the competition “DE FILM VAN MIJN LEVEN” of the television channel Canvas. You can still send your pictures until midnight 26th of May on the website of Canvas. (I do hate the colour desaturation of WordPress :s )
Red Shoe
At last I managed to try out my polaroid-back on my second-hand Pentax 6×7. I am so happy it works! And Fuji is still providing the necessary instant film FP-100C. So I wanna share the first one I made with you! I will try to scan it on a much higher resolution later on so the structure of the instant film is visible. I can’t wait to shoot more pola’s!
Mexico by Night
Yesterday was my last shooting day, so I took the advantage to take another angle from Periferico. This time without a car crash! The other pictures is from the flower market in Santa Angel. Even at 10pm they were still people hoping to sell their flowers…
On the road III
The next images represent Mexican culture… Curious kids on the street, an improvised market on the street where they sell garbage and 5th-hand goods, some typical stores with a mixed-up architecture and an advertisement painted on the wall…
Sneak preview of the vocho verde
I spend the last week on hunting the green beetle cars with my camera’s… The taxi-hopping goes fine, although it is hard to find decorated ones. And each “taxista” is proud that a European photographer wants to take a picture of their bochito 
Semana Santa in Mexico City
Last Friday I got up early to explore a town and its Semana Santa. At 7.20 it looked very abandoned. Just a few people who started dragging big bags out of the church. I started wondering what they were doing with these bags, so I followed them. They started making a coloured tapestry for the procession of Semana Santa. I was amazed by the speedness they made it. But I was astonished when I found out they made this tapestry the whole way of the procession, untill the hill with the temple. It’s a perfect example of Mexican culture: a mix of their own traditions and the Catholic influence of Spain… Most pictures I took with my Pentax. I shot some digital to check the light, which was horrible during midday… Every day I fall in love again with the format of the Pentax. It seems like the digital makes everything so flat and out of balance… I am not satisfied with these pictures, but I do want to share this tradition for Easter.
Chapels on the road
Mexicans are still very religious. Besides having plenty of Catholic churches, they must have thousands of chapels with the image of Guadelupe, at least one in each street… They also celebrate Semana Santa this weekend as the Spanish do. I hope to catch some pictures in a small town!
Daily life
On the road for my project I hit on some daily life sceneries. Tonight this happened literally right in front of my feet while I was standing on a pedestrian bridge of Periferico…
Back in Mexico… again!
I’m back in Mexico to make a reportage of the bochito’s, the green beetle taxi’s. You fall in love when you see them. No matter how sad you feel, they always put a smile on your face!
More family, in black and white
Here are two more pictures in black and white, taken with my large format camera ( T-max 400 – 4×5 inch). I hope to catch soon more happiness in people’s their eyes…
Black & White
I started taking very simple portraits with my large format camera. I really love the dept of field and the grain of the Tmax 400 film! I don’t know yet what kind of people I will “collect” in these pictures, maybe just the people I meet in my life… This picture is my sister, more pictures will follow.
Moving landscapes
These pictures are the result of another approach: frame, wait and click. I do like to have a wide view of the environment and the people are the extra details. I hoped to have more sharpness, but the light was too weak. Yes, even in Mexico.
Inside a Bochito
I tried out to take pictures inside a beetle taxi. But it is quite tough to fit inside the cab with all the equipment. And the light difference inside and outside… Here is a try-out, but not yet finished in Photoshop.
Chapultepec
The goal for today was trying to capture little princesses walking around in the parc Chapultepec. But a lot of parents were not in the mood. And the police was wondering what I was doing with my big camera. Yeah, like I look so mobile with this beast to kidnap a kid! We managed to register only one girl cramped between the thousands of visitors. At the end of the day I got a bit dizzy… It is always shocking when you realize how many people actually live in Mexico City!
Pueblitos
I spend the whole day in little villages at the boarder of Mexico City. Traffic, polution and crazyness are 100 times worse than the city! On Saturday they have plenty activities in the church: bauptism, presentation (of a 3-year old girl towards the church), 1ra comunion, XV años, etc… The girl was so nice to pose in her flashy dress, but she had no clue how to behave… (Which is a general problem for girls of her age in front of the camera…). The second girl is only 1-year old, once outside the church and the other inside when all the official stuff finished.
Research
Today we went all over the city to buy accessory for the pictures and check out some places. The smogs kills every cell in your body… But we succeeded to find what we needed. And most important our pinata’s! The metro was so crowded that we had to squeeze all four of us in a “bochito” (green beetle cab)…
We also checked out the church and surroundings of a pueblo (village). We will shoot some ceromonies next weekend. Some details are amazing… The rest I will show later!
More girls
The more I work, the less satisfied I am on my pictures. Too many things happen on the scene: edgy Mexicans because I stand in their way, horrible light (think about the greycard!), strangers looking with eager to my camera, the model who has no clue what to do,… I am very happy I have my assistant to help me out! The pictures I took yesterday: a Mexican girl enjoying the flashy soda Boing.
Today we went to a local market Lagunilla where they sell a mass of dresses for girls!
Piñata’s!
Today I spend the whole day outside in Chapultepec Parc. Yes, I have a tanned skin, slightly red. But I also have some more pictures. I am getting into the rythm! The two-year old girl was so nice to pose for me surrounded by her presents. And the party-boy (alias Iron Man) felt a bit tired after his piñata…
Niñas de México
At last, I kicked off the project today! Spending the whole day in church, praying in Spanish (for me just pretending), making quick moves, kissing my thumb, watching people popping up and down… For sure, it’s not the same as in Belgium!
Below you can see the girl I photographed today in her special dress for her baptism. Mexicans love to be on the picture, especially when you tell a story about their culture. So I am lucky! I also took pictures of a “quinceañera”: the introduction of a girl, who turns 15 years, to the society. I love their princess’ look!
I just hope my large format pictures go well… I am getting very stressed when I think about all the things that can go wrong (loading in my portable dark room, scanning in the airport, the lab, etc). So I try to relax myself by taking a digital back-up of every shot… The frames look more or less the same as the large format pictures, which I will have developed in some weeks. Please give feedback, because I am so focused right now on getting all the technical stuff right on location!
The Dirty Look
I am already obsessed for some days with Tim Burton’s latest movie Sweeney Todd. (You should see me singing in the house while checking out the lyrics on youtube!) When I checked out “the making of” I realized that most of the feeling was added afterwards digital. When I found Scott Kelby (THE photoshop goeroe who already wrote so many books about it) his advice for a “dirty look” I tried it out on one of my pictures. I was stunned, It does changes the whole atmosphere… Below you can find the original picture.
