The rainy season comes and goes.  Listening to the weather report is about as accurate if I was on TV making the weather predictions.  They say it will rain and it doesn’t.  The next forecast is for sunny skies and as I can hear the window being pelted with strong rain and wind.

It was yesterday in a break in the rain with some gray clouds overhead that I spotted this wonder from the insect kingdom.  He had lovely zebra striping with antenna that were as large as it’s entire body.  I had never seen one like this before.  He had no fear as I was able to get my lens so close that the antenna actually brushed my fingers.

I just never know what one day will bring.  I spent so much time in Japan, and still little surprises are there for me.  It was a nice end, to be able to bug out in the afternoon with this guy.

Note:

Thanks to my friend Tomo, I now know the name of this wonder: Citrus long-horned beetle, ゴマダラカミキリ

In the indigenous Shinto faith of Japan sacred natural objects are marked by tying a twisted or braided rope around them.  This signifies that they hold a special place in the faith.  They are natural objects that hold the spirits of the land.  They could be trees, rocks, mountains, and even waterfalls.

I appreciate the reverence of nature in the Shinto faith, but I also have some troubles with it.  Nature is worshiped by some practitioners as a god.  I for one do not subscribe to this belief; because, for me there is one and Only one God.  All nature flows and is possible because of the One God.  I am thankful that I live in a country and grew up in another one that allows people to follow and worship as they see.   I know that all nature is scared, and humans should work to protect the nature we have.  We shouldn’t just preserve a tree here and there as a memory for the wilds that once spread over the land.

For without nature we will not be able to nourish our bodies and souls.  If humans allow our land to be ravaged by industry we are doomed to perish.  In genesis 1:28 we are commanded to have dominion over the earth.  I read this in that we have to be it’s caretakers.  We are not to brutally destroy the earth as some have interpreted.  We are the ones responsible for its care.  We must be the ones to call out for justice because the animals cannot.

We must not forget that we came from the earth.  We might be living in a technological bubble and have contact with the earth, but it is never to late to establish those connections.  We are only capable of being fully human when we are caring for our communal world.

Let us be the caretakers of the earth.  We are here for only a short time; therefore, let us strive to make the world a healthy thriving planet.

Once upon a time there was only monochromatic photography.  The optical-chemical process could only produce a range of tones from white to black.  If color was to be added prints and glass slides needed to be hand tinted.

The photographer’s process of taking the world that surrounded them in full color transformed and removed the reality by stripping away that color and replacing it with tones of gray.

When color film came along in the 1930s photographers could, if they so chose, to photograph the world in color.  However, color photography seemed to be locked into the realm of advertising, and art so called art photography had to be in black and white.

Nowadays photographers have more control over their images than ever before.  Photographers need to be aware that their choices reflect how any image produced is to be perceived.

Why did I shoot this image in color, yet manipulated it into a monochromatic image?  I think in part it added a layer of surrealism to the environment.  The fact of coming across a pond with an island of reeds was just out of place among the asphalt and apartment buildings.  The mood completely changes if I were to present the image in color.

Black and white does not make an image more accessible as art.  It only acts to create a separation from the world we inhabit to the photography we create.

It is a monochromatic synthesized version of reality.

The weather was warmer on Saturday.  The rain fell from the skies making all the asphalt glisten in the muted light.  The sun finally managed to come out to warm the hearts of New York.

I spent just about the whole day inside but I had an errand to do.  I passed by Thompson Square Park in the West Village on my way back.  The sunshine had finally come out and the weather had warmed up.  It had become a beautiful day.

Just to sit on a park bench with my best girl. Watching all the lives pass on by.  All those lives that I could imagine but never will be a part of.  Just to be still, if even for a few minutes, and just be.

Sunshine

Love

Park

Home

well, at least my other home!

There are so many moments that make up our days.  These days quickly become years, and suddenly we look at the life we have lived.  For me, life is not like a movie, it is a series of moments, or frames of moments that create my life.

They are blocks of time.  These blocks are completely adjustable.  They can stretch into years, or be as fleeting as butterflies’ flapping wings.  We must make the choice to savor the moment.  To pause, breathe, take it all in, and become connected to the world that we all inhabit.

I took advantage of some extra time today to take a walk to a little Nepali curry spot for lunch.  I noticed as I was walking to the station that there is a small road on the opposite side of the tracks from where I usually trod.  I knew that I would take that road on the way back.

I had the curry, a nice surprise as to my usual bento lunch on Fridays, and headed back on the street that I had never walked.  The sun was shining, the air was wintery crisp.  I walked past a temple, and then came to a tiny playground.  There was a fence separating the playground from the temple, yet there was this gigantic multiple pronged tree on the playground side.

The shadow cast by the tree effortless connected with my spirit.  I wasn’t trying to make a photograph happen, it just happened.  I felt the hues, the charcoaled hues of the shadow, snaking in front of me and leading my eye back to the trunk of the tree.

A brief moment.  A moment of mediation where I completely melted into my subject.  The shadow, the tree chose me, to photograph them.  A beautiful moment of stillness, and clarity.

A perfect way to welcome the sabbath.

Shabbat Shalom, may you all have a beautiful day of rest.

This is the inaugural blog in my new Lucid Thoughts section on Lucid Communication.  This section will be where I write about artists that inspire me, things that cooler than cool, and other nuggets of Internet archaeology.  I hope that people out there will enjoy, visit, and follow the goings on in Cooler Than Cool Photography.  I look forward to creating more Lucid Communication with artists from around this beautiful globe.

I first met the Spain based artist Fernando Prats back in the wild west days of Myspace.  I was new to the Myspace world back in 2006 and I was quickly becoming frustrated with not being able to link up with any other visual artists.  There were an abundance of musicians of all stripes and sounds, but I kept on thinking to myself, “where are the artists, photographers, and filmakers?”  It was around this time that I came across the Myspace page for Y Sin Embargo Magazine.  I was browsing around the comments and the Magazines page thinking that this is pretty cool, and this is what the Myspace experience should be about for myself and other artists.

I wrote Y Sin Embargo an email on Myspace saying how much I liked the site and that I would love to collaborate on an upcoming issue.  Low and behold I received an email back from Fernando.  Not only did he reply but he also said how much he liked my work and that I should submit some work to the magazine.  This was the beginning of our cross the globe friendship and artistic collaborations with my work being included in Y Sin Embargo #11 issue, Hermosa.   Which was quickly followed up by my work being paired with a writer for inclusion in the Y Sin Embargo #12 issue, Habitat Habitos.

I was so impressed not only Fernando’s work as a photographer but his artistic layout design to create spaces where he and his fellow artists can showcase their work.  Fernando has a brilliant eye for layout design which he explores on Estudi Prats, and through the way in which his simple and elegant designs do not detract from the work that they are presenting but that they add another beautiful layer to the artistic expression.

Another space that Fernando has created for artists to interact with each other is the Flickr group Rhizome Candidum, Rhizome Premium, and Rhizome Summum.  I usually have stayed away from groups that demand the users post awards to other peoples work, but this Flickr group is different.  The level of work submitted to the three tiered group is some of the best work that I have found on the net.  Prats encourages the members of the group to create comments that are constructive and help all improve the overall quality of the group.  This is the essence of the Rhizome groups.  For the artists to work together and create stronger expressive work.   And much inline with my own personal philosophy of Lucid Communication, the artists interact with each other and we all strive to encourage each other to develop ourselves as artists.  I fully enjoy interacting with my fellow astists, including Fernando Prats on Flickr.

Fernando Prats has developed an international network of artists and puts the Internet to good use.  In fact, his presence on the Internet is the most profound that I have yet to find.  He manages to explore all the niches of the Internet where artists gather to exchange views, represent themselves, and further their artistic goals.  As the Internet is ever expanding Fernando will be right there using the latest tools to further his lucid communication with the artistic community.

Fernando Prats’ photographic work often deals with the theme of how humans interact, and build structures in the places that we inhabit.  To call his work simply architectural photography would be to miss the message in the photographs.  The space, and often seemingly empty space, allows the viewer to gaze into the city in a way that they have never seen before.  How the buildings jagged edges cut out sections of the sky as he aims his lens towards the heavens.  The dark shapes shift and comment on how humans try to reach the heavens, but we are still mentally pulled down by the earth’s gravity.  A collection on his studies of the interaction of architecture in Buenos Ares, called “a taste of immadencity.”    Prats says, that there is “a discourse of the shapes as a dialog of power,” about his collection of photographs that were all made in one day of shooting in the Puerto Madero area of Buenos Ares, and, “limited to obeying the histogram’s wishes,” Prats further explains.

I asked Fernando some questions about his online presence and what that means to him as an artist.

You have an amazing online presence. How has this helped your creativity?

To show works to various audiences through its peculiar mechanisms can help producing a new look & feel to those same works.  Although there are secure movements within certain styles -or at least, that’s what one can think…- each audience has its tastes and, surprisingly, they do not match very frequently.

Has it allowed you to make a living as an artist?

Well, certainly not because of online presence at all… the 2.0 audience is very reluctant to pay for contents or artworks even if their price is nominal and ridiculous[ly low].

Do you ever find your online presence to much to keep control of?

Probably I should be but my sincere answer is, I’m not sure why, no. Perhaps the fact of doing different things at the same time most of the time, could be considered a sort of training.

(author’s note: I especially feel Fernando on that one.  I too at times feel overwhelmed by training to keep an online presence fresh and constantly evolving.  I too, as a photographer, feel that the online presence is a form of training.  A way for artist to keep honing their creativity.)

What new artistic works do you have coming out soon?

The last book I published is “Deshielo” (poetry), the next one is the full version of “Immadencity: Buenos Aires Contemporary Architecture according to fernandoprats”.  I’m preparing one about New York and one about Barcelona and will be correcting “Monda Lironda” (poetry, which complets the three-lejía “Al Català’, alongside “Deshielo” and “Corto y afilado”) for next year.  Also, I’ve two or three series of new work in-progress with painter Miguel Ruibal and the idea of presenting a real exhibition of Prats/Ruibal.

-=======-

This is just a taste of all the work that Fernando Prats has accomplished and his amazing presence on the web.  I feel fortunate to be able to count Fernando Prats as one of my dear artistic friends.  His work continues to inspire me and he has helped me to set high goals for myself with regards to my artistic expression.  I always look forward to seeing his work, and I know that someday we will be able to cross paths in the flesh.  I want to send out a heartfelt thank you to Fernando Prats for helping me to create this inaugural blog in the Cooler than Cool Photography section of the Lucid Communication website.

Fernando maintains an amazing Internet presence in the cybersphere.  He interacts, posts and generally uses the Internet to pursue his artistic visions.  This is a list of Fernando’s presence on the Internet.  I invite you all to take a look and browse through the different links.  Some of his works are available for free to download.

lifestream

wikipedia

flickr

facebook

google+

twitter

youtube

vimeo

issuu

scribd

slideshare

saatchi online

500px

fotopunto

goodreads

library thing

librovirtual.org

lulu.com

blurb

red bubble

behance

blogger

wordpress

bubok

myspace

about.me

ysinembargo.com

esargots.com

estudiprats.com

Below is just a small sampling of Fernando Prats photographic works.  Many of the images are from his soon to be releases book titled A taste of immadencity to be released in December this year.  Fernando describes the images in the book as follows: Immadencity: Buenos Aires contemporary architecture according to Fernando Prats.  He is awaiting the creation of some original music to accompany the images by RV

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These images contained in this blog posting are copyrighted by Fernando Prats 2011.

Been confined to my home for the last week or so fighting off a cold.  And now I have been told that I must continue to stay home for another week.  I wish to go out and explore, but there is no energy for that.  I have to be content being home and watching my kitties play, sleep, and eat.

This is Rabi (pronounced RAW BEE) he was adopted by my wife and I about 2 years ago.  He is male and is quite spritely.  Rabi loves to play catch. His favorite toy is a little piece of a Docomo mushroom character that fell off.  It is not much bigger than a lima bean.  He love when you throw it and he will go chase it down and then drop it in front of me.  For Rabi there is no end to this joy until he misplaces the little piece of mushroom.

I hope he makes you all smile too.

and here’s …… Rabi….

There really is quite no other feeling like dropping off a roll of film to be developed.  The only thing better would be to do the processing yourself.

In this digital age we are all living in, analog has been freed from the masses, and the artist can indulge in film however they like.  Don’t get me wrong.  I still love my digital work.  To be able to process the work so quickly is fantastic too.  But that method of popping a roll in the back of a camera, being selective in what you shoot, then to finally walk down the street to the processing store is a great feeling.

The roll I dropped off today, has pictures going back to last August of last summer to a few pics I snapped Monday night this week.  I only selected two images to share today and both are from last summer when Tomo and I went out to Narita Temple in Chiba, for a day of shooting.  Other images include some of my work with the Hip Hop scene in Miami.

as usual more to come…

so go out and shoot a roll or film, you’ll thank yourself for it.

This is just where I want to be.  It would be fresh to chill in my little urban garden and eat my fill of all the little bugs that get in the way of my gardener’s plants.

Today actually started off badly.  I forgot my camera.  I know, I know, it is just about unthinkable.  I hadn’t left my camera behind in more than a year.  I contemplated returning to my home to snatch it up, but that would have put me mad behind schedule on shabbat.  So I decided to just roll with it.

Once I got to where I was going, about 2 hours later, we were all reminded that the earth is a living and breathing organism, with a aftershock that made me jump out of my chair.  It hit rather hard and fast.

On my way home, I kept on pondering on what I was going to hook up for the shabbat dinner, and I settled on a mushroom quiche, and some mustard marinaded new potatoes.

I was a bit exhausted from my travels, so as the clouds rolled in I just sat in my little garden, with my kitties looking up at the sky.  That was when I noticed the ladybug.  I realized that they had all emerged from their cocoons and were crawling all over my grapefruit, pomegranite and lemon tree.  These guys, and gals are great.  They just much up all the aphids in the garden.  So I decided to grab my camera, and get shots of them.

Remember the Father’s little creatures too.  They are as important to our lives as any animal.

Have a beautiful and restful sabbath.

The temperature has dropped over the course of the day.  By the time I made my way back to the station the wind was picking up and little icy droplets of rain had begun to fall.  No problem for me, because the saturation of the colors just soothed my face against the wind.  It made it all worth it, especially finding the Tidy Blue Niche.

As the sun sets this Friday night it is a time to reflect on the previous doing of the year.  It is a time to reason with the self and struggle how to make one’s self a better self.

The stone ages, wears, but the marks, and gouges remain.

Think about time, the ages, the amount of time that it takes a rough hewn stone to smooth like a river pebble.  Maybe, hopefully we can come closer to who we must be.

Love is the greatest gift.

Give and Receive it!

I was fortunate to take a break from Tokyo and head out into the countryside of Chiba to visit Naritasan Temple.  I went walking and exploring with Tomo.  The weather has hot.  The shade was cool.  Walking up and around the various buildings that make up the Naritasan complex, I couldn’t help but think of all the others that had done the same before me.  How many other visitors had been there, and left their footprints on the gravel, or a little wish for happiness.

I forget sometimes that there is another side to this place I live called Tokyo.  There are places still to go.  Other adventures to see.

Thanks Tomo for helping get me out of the big Shitty….I mean City….

I have been to the top of Tokyo Tower and the Mori Building in Roppongi to get some amazing views of this mega-city Tokyo, but both of these will pale to Tokyo Sky Tree when it opens to the public in 2012.  Walking around Oshiage trying to get a view of Tokyo Sky tree I would get dizzy staring up at the structure.

The neighborhood of Oshiage was a quiet little town, not known for very much, but that will all change with the Sky Tree.  The sleepy neighborhood is already filled with a throngs of photo seekers.

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I had never walked much around the eastern side of Ueno until the other day.  It was filled with business hotels, small shops, homes, and a scattering of jewelry shops.  It had all the elements that I enjoy, tight packing of so much visual information into a tight space.  The other side.

Just a few images from a short bicycle ride in the blazing Japanese sunshine.