Jardim do Ultramar

There's a park in Lisbon called Jardim do Ultramar. Ultramar means "overseas" and what distinguishes this park from all other parks in Lisbon is that it only has tropical plants.
It was built in 1906 by D.Carlos I, Portugal's last king and was meant to be a centre of research of botanical species brought from the colonies.









This set continues at flickr.com/joanasaramago

shooting a song

I was given the assignment of shooting a song. At first I thought of something by The Kills or The Dead Weather but then I stumbled on Smells Like Teen Spirit sung by Patti Smith.
I fell in love with the song immediately... if before I already thought of it as an anthem for my generation from back in the days when I was growing up and had Kurt Cobain as my top idol and almost as a role model, now that I've discovered this cover I like it even more.













More from this set on flickr.

Childhood memories

When I was growing up, I used to go to Milfontes whenever my family wanted to go, which was often. We would stay there the whole summer break, easter, whatever... Both my grandfathers grew up there...I feel I still have some strings attached. Part of me is from there too and although we don't have a place to stay anymore, I still go back from time to time.

Standing up for our rights!

Last saturday I went to a massive rally in Lisbon. Over two hundred thousand people gathered in central Lisbon to protest against the way government is leading the country into an abyss of debt, unemployment, poverty, etc, etc... A few hundreds of people also gathered in other cities all across the country.
Today a newspaper said that the prime minister is about to resign.
That's good news.
Bad news is that the guy that's standing in line to take his place is another jack-ass, same thing, different party..













More pics from the same set at my flickr gallery.

Scott Kelly @ Santiago Alquimista, Lisboa 2011

more pics at the usual place.

Addler's Appetite and Knock Out Kaine

A couple of weeks ago I went to this gig... Addler's Appetite.
I'm one of those people who doesn't pay much attention to who plays in which band... I couldn't care less sometimes. I was told that this was the band of former drummer from Guns'n'Roses, Stephen Addler and up until that point I had no idea who he was.
His band only played songs from the GnR's Appetite for Destruction album and I learn't later on that he wrote those songs. I don't listen to GnR very often but I enjoyed the gig. Great musicians! Another thing is that these guys LOVE photographers. They are very conscious of their looks and they like to pose a lot.
The supporting band was Knock Out Kaine and I din't like them as much. The singer kept joking about how hairy he was in some parts of his body. I guess these jokes would be more appropriate if the audience was all nasty bikers instead of 16-year-old middle/upper class kids who were more interested in shouting stephen addler's name all the time.

Addler's Appetite:








Knock Out Kaine

my french connection mermaid dress

Last weekend I went to a nearby abandoned quay area to shoot for another school assignment.
The theme was "object out of context" and I decided to use my FCUK mermaid-dress again, this time on a model (herself being a great photographer as well).
These shots were made in the afternoon at around 5 o'clock, hence the hard shadows.
The weather was absolutely perfect, warm (20ºC) and sunny just the way I like it.
I enjoyed this session a lot as I'm just beginning to use models. It's a lot of fun.















More photos on flickr