publié le 07.05.2012
© Patrick Alonso
A man wearing a hat, riding the number 55 bus, on a Sunday, bearing a gift, presumably heading for diner.
A Montreal, a city, moment, I wanted so much to take his picture, I asked, he said yes, we didn’t even talk.
Fifteen minutes later, I ran into him, in some local, slightly run down, karaoke kind-of, bar for retired couples on the Main, apparently, he’s an actor, taking part in the guided tour I myself was about to join in.
Don’t ask me why, it’s these little moments that make me love Montreal.
publié le 17.04.2012
© Patrick Alonso
Placer Charles devant mon appareil photo s’équivaut à mélanger vinaigre et bicarbonate de soude … réaction pétillante garantie. Cette fois-là c’était différent, nous étions des adultes le temps d’une promenade. Au retour, le whiskey nous sortîmes promptement de cette torpeur.
publié le 13.04.2012
© Patrick Alonso
Practice during a cold morning last Sunday.
publié le 06.04.2012
Portraits of Donovan King I made for the latest issue of Maisonneuve. This is their 10th anniversary issue and, as usual, it’s loaded with good reading and beautiful art. So BUY IT!
Maisonneuve went with the wide-angle portrait (last one) on a full page to illustrate the article. I explored different frames and angles, brightly lit and from the shadows but this one, I think, works well for the subject.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
As for Donovan, he is an actor and an activist. He founded the Infringement Festival and Optative Theatrical Laboratories. He wrote an interesting thesis on revolutionary theatre, and just plain revolution, titled “A Critical Theory for Challenging Oppression and Spectacle”.
publié le 21.03.2012
Actuellement au Musée des Beaux-Arts il y a une exposition sur Napoléon. Ce n’est pas exactement la collection du Louvre ou des Invalides, mais pour les amateurs de cette période de l’histoire, c’est à voir.
© Patrick Alonso
Bref, parmi la collection on retrouve un portrait, produit par François Gérard, de Napoléon dans son costume de sacre. La légende indique que l’empereur, tellement épris par ce portrait, en aurait commandé plusieurs répliques pour offrir en cadeau aux dignitaires étrangers.
Moi j’ai trouvé ça très fascinant, offrir un portrait de soi en cadeau à quelqu’un … ça implique tellement de choses sur plusieurs niveaux à propos de la personne. Du coup je me suis demandé si nos chers leaders contemporains donnaient dans la même pratique, George, Stephen, Vladimir, Nicolas, Kim, Mahmoud et David se renvoient-ils des portraits d’eux-mêmes? Ma réflexion s’est rapidement redirigée sur une question plus importante, moi, pourquoi est-ce que je ne fais pas ça moi envoyer des portraits de moi aux gens après une rencontre … et encore plus à ceux que je n’aime pas?
© Patrick Alonso
Alors voilà … si t’en veux une copie, envoie-moi ton adresse par courriel et je te poste un 4×6. Si t’en reçois une copie sans l’avoir demandé … c’est parce que je pense que t’es crétin.
publié le 12.09.2011
These photographs, portraits, were all taken during HeavyMtl, Montreal’s heavy metal festival. Rather than the start of another long project or series, they are just a one timer, a small one day series produced mainly for my own amusement.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
I preferred Black & White images in this case to keep attention on the whole of the subjects rather than on the blood and gore art of the t-shirts, which are a requirement for membership in this community of lovers of hard, brutal, heavy music.
If you’re at all curious about the music, here’s a selection based on the bands represented on the above mentioned t-shirts (all links to myspace) … Winds of Plague (what’s not to love about metal band names), Suicide Silence, Dimmu Borgir and my-all-time-favorite-if-I-was-a-religious-man-James-would-be-my-god, Metallica.
publié le 30.06.2011
Dominique (a good friend) asked me if I would be willing to make a few portraits of her recently, which coincided perfectly with my looking for an excuse to have her pose for me again. She studied photography before moving on to another career, she’s visually savvy and knows what works without needing much direction, perfect since I hardly give out any.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
As usual I went for a more serious look but since Dominique can fool around with the best of them I quickly had her wearing the rock & roll shirt and giving me all the snooty attitude she could muster.
© Patrick Alonso
Quite obviously, these portraits are all about Dominique performing for me (you) and my inciting that performance with little nudges … makes me wonder if it’s possible to produce a portrait without either myself or the subject acting on our perceptions of the moment and trying to convey those to the image, a concept of which I was aware of prior to reading this essay but which as been rattling inside my head since.
publié le 22.03.2011
A few portraits of Rachel.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
Rachel is a musician and composer whom I discovered this winter. You can listen to some of her work here. She is currently putting together an album that should come out late summer early fall, looking forward to that. Until then, get some of her music via bandcamp.
The last picture above is one I had envisioned from the very beginning. Other than the fact that it is a rather wide-angle portrait, which fits into some of what I’ve been exploring lately, I think a more direct influence was the cover of Neil Young’s new album Le Noise, another bit of music you should most definitely check it out if you don’t know it.
Looking forward to summer here in Montreal. It feels like the city is bursting at the seems with culture (music, literature, photography etc.) …
publié le 20.01.2011
My grandfather and his buddies at a local bar, unofficially named El Jubilado, in Aldeanueva De Ebro where they meet at three o’clock every afternoon. Mixed emotions here, which I won’t really go into except to resume them with three words, fear, hope and inspiration.
@ Patrick Alonso
@ Patrick Alonso
@ Patrick Alonso
@ Patrick Alonso
@ Patrick Alonso
The pictures where taken with a little Olympus Pen (no not that crappy plastic crap that was launched with much noise last year) that was lent to me during the holidays. The available light combined with the abilities of the little camera and film I was using made it hard to get anything really clear in that particular setting … but in the end I think it works, works better then what I would of instinctively done with my SLR I think. Shooting with film brings on so many limitations, I wouldn’t want to deal with them all the time (i.e. when doing commercial jobs) but when I’m in a wondering mood I find that they focus my mind.
If I had a million dollars, I’d buy my own little half-frame, a shit load of HP5 and a car. I’d ride until I found myself, hopefully never, and in the end I’d have like 990,000$ left … I’d buy El Jubilado. I don’t now what I would do with the remaining 989,000$.
publié le 29.12.2010
I took the long road to Hendaia, a Basque coastal city in the mountains, to catch a train bringing my sister from Paris.
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
© Patrick Alonso
