PATRICK ALONSO PHOTOGRAPHE

egaval novas …

© Patrick Alonso

Site de lecture par excellence.

The most powerful picture I know …

dvafoto, in collaboration with Think Tank Photo, have organized a nice little contest. They ask participants to name the image that is most powerful to them and why (the why seems to be optional but it’s less fun without it).

© Peter Brown

I selected a picture from Peter Brown’s “West of Last Chance” project (above) that really stuck with me over time.

As one commentator put it, singling out one photograph is not easy, there are so many, I could of picked any number of images from James Nachtwey or this one from Damon Winter which is layered in meaning, from the camera used to the whole embed (in bed) thing or this one by Christopher Anderson which, to me, reflects a somber vision of the future we seem to be blindly hurtling towards.

One thing I noticed as I mulled over the question of which photo was most powerful to me was that all the ones that came to my mind represented war and oppression, symptoms of the much bigger problem that is the overt and covert control that a select few wield over the masses through Fear & Propaganda.

Church & Oil combine in this photograph to represent two things (Ignorance & Greed) that if humanity could shed itself of would go a long way towards bettering it. I like to boil things down to their most simple elements, it helps my process, and this photograph has that deceptively simple aesthetic that makes it work for me.

solipsism, google it! …

© Patrick Alonso

There is talk of technologies like Street View, Photosynth, Flickr etc. and how in the near the future, when all parts of the world will have been photographed, we will no longer have to leave the comfort of our own little private spaces to be image makers.

This will, of course, bring the end of iconic images as one photographer puts it.

The era following this near future will also be known as an age of increasing solipsism … and we will be one really shitty government removed from 1984.

The future war photographer;

© like a bunch of people

in a box …

© Patrick Alonso

Sometime before christmas, sitting around, having a beer, I asked a friend if he thought it was too late for us, are we to old to go out vagabonding into wars and conflicts.

He said “Yes.”

That killed me a little.

Reading Wim Wenders’ tribute to James Nachtwey this weekend reminded me of that particular conversation.

The ultimate tribute band since Led Zeppelin …

Metal is good for the soul … photographs of a musical concert performed by AlcoholicA with Close2Hell as a first act this past Saturday evening.

Close to Hell © Patrick Alonso

© Patrick Alonso

© Patrick Alonso

AlcoholicA © Patrick Alonso

Once upon a midnight dreary …

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary … over my archives, I stumbled across a long forgotten folder containing two photographs of a raven in flight.

CLICK to enlarge @ Patrick Alonso

For many reasons, obvious or not, I wouldn’t get into bird photography … although a friend constantly pesters me with the notion that I would be incredibly successful if only I invested time and energy in bird and kitten photography … but I digress, as I was saying just as unlikely that bird photography and I will ever make a pair so will these two images remain isolated from anything else I produce. Nevertheless, there’s something about the wings, their shades of gray and the slight blur that make these two photographs attractive to me (and feel compelled to share them).

In a diptych (fancy word for lightroom screen grab) the first thing that comes to my mind is flight (freedom), not the dark imagery sometimes associated with this bird such as is the case in mister Poe’s poem from which I shamelessly lifted the title of this post and put to questionable use in the intro … apologies for that, maybe I shouldn’t amuse myself so much with my own work.

Aldeanueva in winter …

Aldeanueva de Ebro © Patrick Alonso

Aldeanueva de Ebro in La Rioja, a northern province of Spain, origins of my family and where my grand parents still live. I took this particular picture last spring. I will travel there once again next week with a very brief layover in Amsterdam and a few days in Madrid. This will be my first time seeing this region in winter time, I’m very much looking forward to it.

For those interested … I will try to post pictures here on a more or less regular basis during my stay and that will be, if I can help it, the extent of my online presence during those few weeks.

For 27$ you get free cable and free cancer …

About two weeks ago I ended up in a shabby (more like total piece of s…) Motel to assist a colleague in shooting a series of photos. The place had a rate of 27$ for a three hour « nap », in retrospect, the price was a little steep considering I probably caught Cancer for the hour I spent there.

Wall Paper literally tacked onto the walls, seven different shades of fungus, dirty everything, bullet holes and a dank smell of … actually I don’t know what it smelled like, they haven’t invented a word for it yet. My pictures are just a quick documentation of the details (because I know some of you wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t have em), my colleagues shots ended looking like this, pretty swell if you ask me.

© Patrick Alonso

© Patrick Alonso

© Patrick Alonso

The man at work ... © Patrick Alonso

This blog was meant for blogging …

As we approach the New Year I will be taking on a few new projects including using this blog for something else than announcing changes on my website. I will be sharing with you a more personal side of my photography through images I produce on an almost weekly basis and share current inspirations, essentially using this blog as … well a blog.

Hopefully some of my images will please you, some of my comments will make you think about your own work, and overall you will find this blog a good read.

Alleys

© Patrick Alonso

I have this fascination for Montreal’s alleys. Often when walking from one place to another in the city I will end up using the alleys instead of the streets. Some of my favorite pictures where captured while walking down some nowhere beaten up old alley.