Vasconcelos Library featured in Archdaily

http://www.archdaily.com/98584/vasconcelos-library-alberto-kalach/
http://www.viewpictures.co.uk/Building.aspx?ID=27613

Untitled. L´H. BCN. December, 2010

"The Odd Christmas Card Company"

Emulating Edward Muybridge by Octávio Junqueira Vilela.

Turner Prize. Tate Britain, London November 2010

New Art Cente. Salsbury, Wiltshire 2010

Roche Court houses the New Art Center in Wiltshire, which was originally founded in London by Madeleine Bessborough in back 1958. The house of an early georgian style, it was Admiral Nelson who had it  built in 1804  for his mistress Lady Hamilton. In the fields and gardens of the property there is a selling exhibition of original sculptures by some of the best known contemporary sculptors such Antony Caro, Antony Gormley, Barbara Hepworth, Edmund de Waal, Katire Walker, Barry Flanagan, or Julian Opie.

Though it was a bitterly cold morning by chance we were given a private tour to the exhibition and we had the privilege to see the first ever collection of jewelry designs by Antoni Caro which will soon be exhibited at the Artist´s House in Roche Court.

www.sculpture.uk.com

With Barbara Penner at Muybridge´s Exhibition, Tate Britain, London November 2010.

Trellick Tower. Notting Hill, London 2010

Untitled. London, November 2010

Flush with Inequality: Sanitation in South Africa by Barbara Penner

Flush with Inequality: Sanitation in South Africa: Places: Design Observer

Interiors Photography, México DF

Photography: Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre
Assistant and layout design: Anette Askenazi
Works by Javier Sánchez Arquitectura,  Pola Zaga, Maharishi Arquitectos and Moisés Gamus, Diametro Arquitectos and Joseph Dirand

Centro. México DF, October 2010

How much does your building weigh, Mr Foster?

Yesterday I went to see this documentary film. I had been looking forward to seeing it ever since I read that is was being made.

I have never met Norman Foster in person but I have photographed some of his buildings and I have indeed visited many of them.

But there are so many things, situations, coincidences and people that I can relate to on the film, that was prompted  to write this story.

Beautifully shot and narrated by Deyan Sudjic, I found the film very touching and deeply inspiring. Indeed quite moving.

It was in 1998, precisely as a result of The Observer publishing 10 page spread with my photographs of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia ( with a text by Deyan Sudjic ) few months earlier,  that Jenny Ricketts, the Picture Editor of the magazine, called me to say they had thought of me to photograph Foster´s new airport for them.

I was fortunate enough to be on the very first flight that landed in 1998 on Hong Kong´s Chep Lak Kok directly from London. Guest of Cathay Pacific I was hosted in Kowloon at a 5 Star Luxury hotel over looking Hong Kong island. My room windows were equipped with magnified crystals that allowed in detail view of the the island. One could clearly see the river, the junk boats sailing it and the amazing city scape of Hong Kong at night. Exhausted as I was after the long trip I remember siting in the window looking at Foster landmark building on the island.

I had never been a guest at a 5 star hotel before so fearful of a bill I could not afford, I politely declined when the butler knocked on my door offering my a Jeroboam of Moet Chandon with my name engraved on it. After all I had no one to celebrate the occasion with, so I thought it would be wise to have some rest before the next days work instead of getting drunk on my own.

The night of my arrival the old Kai Tak airport had been closed at 24.00 and from that time all flights would land at the new airport terminal. My flight was the first to land.

Few months later Jenny Ricketts from The Observer Magazine called again. They were producing the Night Issue. This time I would be photographing different sites for the magazine and among them Stanstead Airport. I know Stanstead well not only because I had flown in several times, but it was from there that I was to say good bye to someone who at the time was very dear to me.

The brief for the Night Issue was one of the most daring yet enticing and inspiring I have ever had from a picture editor. " Inigo, we want you to walk in when people have just left , when the doors close behind the last visitor and nothing but the warmth of the people can be felt in an almost tangible way" said Jenny.

I remember waiting into an empty National History Museum in South Kensington and the quietness and almost scary feeling when I was looking at the upside down Tyranosaurus through my Linhof.

The emptiness of Stanstead Airport at 3 am when no flights in or out were in operation. The big hall completely empty, no trolleys, no flight announcements. Nothing but silence.

Few months later I was in Bilbao this time to photograph the new Metro Norman Foster had designed in my hometown. It has to be said that though perhaps I have a fascination for the Tube in London ( after all I spent a year working tirelessly there on a personal project) Bilbao´s metro is without a doubt the most pleasant, elegant and beautiful underground I have ever visited or indeed used. Haven´t been to Moscow yet, but Judging from St Petersburg, I can say that Bilbao´s metro is simply unique.

Of the images I took of it I chose one. Just one to make it my presentation card to send it to clients. Printed it at home of a canvas art paper and sent it to several art directors and picture editors. It was the time when i was learning of the joys of being a freelance. Doing it the hard way of course. Always worried about how to find the money to end´s meet, always thinking of how to reinvent oneself, always thinking whether I am indeed a good professional, a good photographer. Nothing has changed much ever since.

A week later a I had a called from the Director of 20/20 Limited. A corporate identity and design company based in London and Sweeden.

He said to me that he had received the card and that it was a beautiful image, that he loved it and based on it had decided to commission me to photograph a new project they had completed. Therefore I was assigned to photograph all the designs, 3D, and corporate identity intervention and the newly completed Sainbury´s in Greenwich . I could not believe it. This was the biggest commission I had had and it happened because someone adored an abstract image I had taken of a stairway of  Foster´s Metro in Bilbao.

Of course these things can only happen in London and I guess in New York, but I am yet to find out.

To be continued.....

Panorama. Colonia Polanco, México DF

Untitled. México DF

Anette Azkenazi, arquitecta mexicana y estudiante de  fotografía de arquitectura se encargó de organizar todo el viaje a México, seleccionando las obras que fuimos a fotografiar y haciendo todo el trabajo de preproducción desde Barcelona. El éxito que pudieran llegar a tener las fotografías será en parte gracias a su trabajo y buen hacer.

Eduardo, su padre,  me invitó un día a comer con su familia en el restaurante que tiene en la avenida Tamaulipas en la Colinia Condesa. Lleva años dedicado a la hostelería pero antes fue fotógrafo de estudio y publicidad. Mientras charlábamos de fotografía  me ofreció todo tipo de platos típicos mexicanos. Molcajetes, nopales, cebollitas confitadas, sopa de tortilla y pollo, cecina de rés en salazón y pescado marinado en una salsa roja de textura y sabor dulzón. Todo muy rico y afortunadamente nada que ver con lo que se conoce en España como comida mexicana. Los nopales son hojas de cactus parecidos a las chumberas que abundan por el sur peninsular. De textura gelatinosa los hacen a la plancha y son exquisitos.

Eduardo me  dijo que su primo Isaac tenía un proyecto enorme, único en México y  que seguro me encargaría  un trabajo. "Estoy comiendo con uno de los mejores fotógrafos de arquitectura", le dijo sin pudor. A mí  como es natural, se me caía la cara de vergüenza.
10 minutos después el primo Isaac al teléfono, me citaba para una entrevista en su despacho. 

Al día siguiente me presenté en su oficina a la hora acordada. Sita en el barrio de Santa Fe, es una de las tantas torres de oficinas de estilo postmoderno que carecen de encanto alguno. En la recepción frente a un mostrador 5 hombres de enorme estatura, desaliñadas barbas blancas, sombreros y levitones negros esperaban su turno para una entrevista mientras charlaban animadamente en Yiddish. Les pregunté por la recepcionista y me dijeron con acento neoyorkino " We don´t speak Spanish". 

Puntualmente a la 1 se abrió la puerta y una mujer me indicó el camino hasta el despacho de donde se me esperaba. "Este es un negocio familar", me dijo Isaac saludándome y disculpándose mientras atendía a su padre que llamaba desde Nueva York. En poco más de una hora de charla recibí el  encargó fotografíar el parque empresarial  que está al norte junto a una antigua zona industrial.

Dice Jorge Legorreta que la ciudad de México no está preparada para los turistas. "Inmensa, mal señalizada y con mal trasporte público es dificil moverse si no tienes carro.Aquí la gente siempre ha venido para hacer negocios". 

México siempre fue una tierra de oportunidades. O al menos eso he escuchado siempre. El abuelo de Pablo Etxanobe, ingeniero asturiano, emigró a México en los tiempos en que se iba a "hacer las Américas"  y allí se casó con una mexicana de Monterrey. Allí nació Carmen, la madre de Pablo y desde mi adolescencia siempre les he escuchado contar historias de aquel México de los años 40 y 50.

En la casa familiar  que tienen  en Asturias, Pablo y yo solíamos subir al desván y husmeábamos entre los baules que su abuelo se trajo de México cuando vendió sus fábricas y se volvío a vivir España. Zapatos de golf tipo charlestón hechos a medida, raquetas de tenis de madera, y sombreros panamá sobados por el uso y el tiempo.

Recuerdo especialmente una fotografía  en blanco y negro que estaba en la galería del piano (en 1990 pasé con Pablo, Cara y Javier un Octubre como éste. Por la mañana temprano Pablo y yo íbamos a la autoescuela. El resto de los días lo pasábamos bien cortando madera en algún bosque cercano, bien  pintando los baños y haciendo todo tipo de chapuzas en la casa. Por las tardes dábamos grandes paseos por los montes en busca de setas que luego preparábamos para cenar. Cara se encargaba de llevar los asuntos de la casa y preparaba dulce de manzana que tomábamos con queso "afugaelpitu". Fué allí en esa galería cuando por las tardes  de otoño no sentábamos a escuchar a Javier tocar  el piano,  donde  escuché por primera vez las Variaciones Goldberg).
La fotografía era de una ciudad enorme que no tenía fin, una vista aerea  de una avenida de enormes dimensiones que intuyo era del Paseo de la Reforma. 

En unas semanas volveré a Asturias a fotografiar el edificio que Oscar Nyemayer ha terminado en Avilés. Regresaré a La Mouta en Sama y entonces podré escuchar de  Carmen historias de aquél México donde élla nació.

SUMMA + 110 issue is out not

The new Issue of SUMMA + is out now featuring several pages with my photographs of the Shanghai Expo 2010. This is my first contribution to the Argentinean architectural magazine which is one of the finest edited and published in Latin America. More contributions will soon follow.

Jorge Legorreta. Colonia Roma, México DF.

Arquitecto, Urbanista y Sociólogo y uno de los grandes pensadores 

de la ciudad de México. Personaje fascinante de cultura y encanto infinitos es profesor de Urbanismo en la UAM. 

En nuestro primer encuentro me vino a buscar en un Mercedes azul de los años 50 - yo tengo un coche muy viejo me dijo-  y  me  llevó a su estudio-taller-museo (Eugenia Mestres le había dado órdenes explícitas de que cuidara de mí y Jorge me informó que no tenía intención alguna de contradecirle). 

Allí tuve el pivilegio de que me diera una clase maestra  sobre la ciudad de México y su evolución  desde el periodo mesoamericano pasando por el precolombino, la época colonial hasta la actualidad. 

Uno de esos encuentros fascinantes por inesperados. Ya estamos pensando en hacer un proyecto juntos y la idea me apasiona. 

Untitled. Colonia Polanco. México DF

Elvira. Hipódromo Condesa, México DF.

Colette Urbajtel. México DF, Octubre 2010

No me dejo de sorprender por lo azaroso de la vida. Esta mañana tenía previsto hacer un poco de turismo cultural y aprovechar que tenía el día libre para ir a visitar la Casa Museo Barragán. Aún medio aturdido por haber dormido muy pocas horas y con la resaca de la noche anterior, me he montado en un Metrobús dirección a Constituyentes con " la mala" fortuna que me he equivocado de ruta y me he ido hacía Insurgentes Norte.

Percatado de mi error y resignado, he caminando hacia el Paseo de La Reforma y de manera absolutamente fortuita he visto una hermosa galería donde había una exposición de fotografía. 

Desde fuera he visto que eran fotografías en blanco y negro y trás registrarme en la entrada ( el registro en México a veces consiste en el mero trámite de escribir tu nombre en un libro que seguramente nadie mira nunca), he entrado y me he encontrado con una exposición de Colette Urbajtel. Para mi sorpresa y mientras leía la nota introductoria de la muestra, me he dado cuenta de que lo que estaba viendo era un trabajo impresionate de la fotógrafa francesa afincada en México desde 1962, quien fuera alumna de Álvarez Bravo y a la postre se convertiría en su mujer. 

Mi torpeza al montarme en el autobús equivocado me había llevado a descrubir a una gran artista cuya existencia y obra desconocía. No daba crédito por el hallázgo.

Mientras admiraba las fotografías me he percatado que una mujer ya de edad y pelo muy blanco se afanaba en pegar los cartelitos de las fotografías y hacía comentarios sobre algunas de éllas que según su criterio estaban torcidas. 

Instintivamente me he puesto a observarle y me he dado cuenta que era Colette Urbajtel. Alvarez Bravo, el gran genio de la fotografía Mexicana, murió hace ya unos años pero Collete su mujer sigue haciendo fotografías y exposiciones. De hecho es una artista reconocidísima que ha expuesto en algunos de los mejores museos del mundo. 

No he podido evitar acercarme a élla, presentarme y felicitarle por la exposición y su trabajo. Muy amablemente me ha dado las gracias y me ha presentado a su hija que también estaba allí y que como me ha informado, aparecía en una de las fotografías de la muestra.

Colette me ha contado como vino a México en 1959 en un intercambio cultural Franco Méxicano y que éllo le marcó profundamente. Hasta el punto que tres años después dejó su París natal y se vino a vivir a México. "Soy Parisina pero llevo aquí más de 30 años y aunque nunca he perdido mi acento" me ha dicho con tono de disculpa.

Me ha comentado que ya no hace blanco y negro porque se pasó al digital y sorprendida de ver mi Nikon híbrida digital con lentes antiguas hemos charlado brevemente mientras le explicaba el tipo de trabajo que yo hago.Muy interesada me ha dado su email y me ha pedido que le envíe el mío y ver mis fotos.

Naturalmente le he pedido si le podía hacer una fotografía.

A regañadientes ha accedido. " Detesto que me fotografien", me ha dicho no sin dedicarme una sonrisa.

Parques Polanco by TEN Arquitectos. México DF, October 2010

Tenochtitlan

"Nariz de perro". Restaurante Montejo, México DF

En la colonia Condesa, sobre Benjamín Franklin hay un restaurante Yucateca donde solo hay locales, gente de oficina, camareros con pajarita y delantal y mariachis que como si de un lamento se tratara, cantan una canción de Jorge Negrete que escuchaba de pequeño en casa de mi madre.

"Por la lejana montaña va cabalgando un jinete.....la quería más que a su vida y la perdió para siempre ....por eso lleva una herida, por esó.... busca la muerte".

Al restaurante se accede por la cocina que no es más que un estrecho pasillo de azulejo blanco donde la cocinera hace tortas de maiz y  desmiga la cochinilla marinada  en adobo rojo parecido al pimentón que resulta ser exquisito. Sirven cochinilla pibil  con naríz de perro.

¿Qué es eso le pregunté al camarero?- .

-Naríz de perro,  me dijo. Has visto que los perros siempre traen la naríz húmeda....Ahora vas a ver - me dijo con una media sonrisa.-

En realidad no es más que una salsa a base de dos cebollas moradas y un ají tan picante que de solo probarlo se te cae el moquillo.   Genial ! 

Enfrente del restaurante, sobre la mencionada Avenida Benjamín Franklin,  hay una farmacia del médico del ahorro - versión mexicana de las muy porteñas " Farmacias del Doctor Ahorro" - donde venden tabaco. 

¿En España no es así?, me preguntaron.

El restaurante Montejo está pegado a una marisquería que se llama "Ponte almeja"

Museo de la Memoria y Tolerancia by Arditti Arquitectos. México DF, Octubre 2010.

Casa Comtesse. México DF

www.casacomtesse.com

Ring of Steel. An exhibition by Henrietta Williams

Henrietta just bought my beloved Linhof Technikardan so I wish her well with it. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did. 

Have to say that three years ago I bought another one, so I still have a Linhof to work with when the time comes. The one I have at home I bought it of a north american architectural photographer who at the age of 82 had decided to sell it and get  a digital pocket camera to take pictures of his grandchildren. He was so delighted that I bought it of him as he knew I was going to really value it and look after it. Well,  Henrietta I am sure will do the same with her new jewel. Who knows, one day I may end up selling all my cameras and spend my retirement photographing my grandchildren. Time will tell.

Video: Ciudades para el siglo XXI- Bilbao.

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/search.html?q=bilbao#874600

Mexico DF Contact Details

I am  in Mexico DF until October 23rd. If you wish to contact me you can reach me on:

México DF. +52 55 34796906
e-mail: ibujedoaguirre@gmail.com
Skype: inigo06

For urgent picture requests please send me an e-mail. Alternatively you can log on to:
www.viewpictures.co.uk

Peter Saville

La Paz. Bolivia, January 2009

Angel Martinez Requiel. Angel.

http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/v/20101002/region/haberme-relacionado-celebridades-envanecido-20101002.html

Tanja Trentmann. Barcelona, September 2010

Film maker, script writer and friend.

"El Nuevo Arte de Hacer Ruinas"

Direction of photography by Tanja Trentmann

Eve & Marilyn - part 1

Andre Kertesz part1

“Architecture Photography Positions”

ETH Zurich
Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, GTA.  Exhibition by Roger Frei l Hannes Henz
http://www.ausstellungen.gta.arch.ethz.ch/exhibitions/roger-frei-l-hannes-henz/information

Untitled. Plencia, 25 September 2010

Brickbox by Antxon Salvador and Roger Zanni

www.brickbox.es

Untitled. Alexanderplatz, Berlin 2010

Biergarten, Treptow Park. Berlin 2010

Hannelore Whitley, Gropius Stadt, Berlin 2010

Hannelore Whitley is german though she speaks perfect english with an american accent. I met her on Gropius Stadt on a windy morning when I was trying to locate an enormous delirious urban and social housing development by Walter Gropius. I had been wondering the area for two days not knowing exactly how to start, what to look for and where was the site I was looking for. I´d just had a worrying phone call that shocked me so I could not gather my thoughts properly. I kept on wondering and  asking people if they knew of a big crescent shape housing state designed by the famous architect. But very few understood english and those who did  knew nothing of what I was after. So they kept on sending me back to the ugly shopping center which is also known as Gropius Stadt. It turned out that by this name is known an entire area of a disproportionate scale with gardens like forests and very dark pathways that lead to bare open greenland. Luckily a turkish woman pointed out the right direction and finally by the indications of a man that with a great emphasis equal to his sympathy- he spoke no english - explained to me in a very emphatic way that everything was Gropius Stadt and that the crescent I was looking for - I had made a drawing on the soil- it was just 500 meters away from us.

Hannelore appeared before me and I asked her if she spoke english. She nodded and confirmed that this was the building that I was looking for. Kindly she said good bye and left.

About two hours later as I was back on my foot steps towards the U-bahn we crossed again and she stopped to ask me if I had taken photographs. We began to talk and in a very natural way she began to talk to me about her life. She said to me that my english was better than hers because there has been years since she last spoke the language. She had been born in Berlin around 1934 but at the age of 13 just at the end of the war her family left to live in the Unites Sates. There she married her late husband, an army man of irish origin, a Lieutenant Colonel who was killed in the Vietnam War. She never married again and as they didn´t have any children, she decided to return to Berlin. She has been living in Gropius Stadt for 30 years now. She thought Gropius was an american and explained to her that he was German, very famous  architect that had been the founder of the even more famous Bauhaus School in Dessau but  he was exiled in the United Estates when the nazis came to power. She conceded. 

Why are you taking these pictures she asked me. And I tried to explain that I was hoping to gather some images for a project, a personal work that I am trying to do. I explained to her that I was a photographer and that it was also my passion and hobby to travel to places and my interest was to photograph where ordinary people live. I then asked her to take her portrait promising that I would send it to her. 
Do you have an email, have you access to the internet I asked. -No she said, I don´t need that. 
Have you got any family of friends whom I can send the photograph to, I asked. -No se replied calmly. My two brothers died..... -

You are alone I enquired. 
-Yes, she said.

To begin with she was reluctant with the idea of me taking her portrait but finally agreed . As she was posing for me trying to get the West Highland Terrier to sit properly ( he is deaf she informed me )  she said: -Had I known that you would be here today wanting to take my portrait, I would have gone to see my hairdresser. 

I smiled at her with gratitude as I took this picture and I promised that in my next visit to Berlin I will come to have coffee and a chat with her.