Mark 26 is out

Mark Magazine issue 26 is out now featuring a 10 page display of my photographs of La Llotja in Leida by Mecanoo Architecten. Again with a text by Rafael Gomez-Moriana. A double page sample can be seen in the on line preview.

http://www.viewpictures.co.uk/Building.aspx?ID=24478

http://www.mark-magazine.com/magazine/26#

Joy of Love.The Bund, Shanghai 2010

Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967

Sex Shop, Shanghai 2010

I know its hard to believe but this is a picture of a Sex Shop, a health shop rather.

I decided to take the day off and as I was walking around the city, looking for an antiques market, I found this very odd place. Needless to say that it caught my attention and I could not resist entering to investigate.

"Sexual health shop" read the sign above the entrance of this small cubicle where a variety of condoms, creams, toys and lubricants and some other strange artifacts (and a Siberian Husky for that matter) were on display. I thought it was hilarious so I tried to engage in some conversation with the woman while pretending I was interested in acquiring some of the things she had for sale. Soon I realized that she spoke no english and since my chinese is none existent I desisted. But I did produce my camera and she stood there for few seconds for me to take this photograph. Then she hid and continued making the tea she was preparing when I entered the shop.

Once Upon a Time in America — Best ending

SUA en Madrid

El restaurante sucumbió hace unos meses a los rigores de la crisis y acabó cerrando. Pero Gonzalo Muñoz me envió hace ya un tiempo un fotografía de un rincón donde colgaba una de mis fotografías que más valoro.

Gonzalo siempre ha decorado sus bares y restaurantes con mis fotografías y guarda en su casa más de 20 copias originales que ha ido adquiriendo a lo largo de los años. Como Oscar y Gotzone o Bárbara y Paul que tambien tienen en sus casas sendas colecciones de mis fotografías. Ellos tienen también una copia de esta fotografía aunque en tamaño más pequeño.

Aunque no lo parece, para SUA Madrid encargamos una copia de más de un metro de alto por metro y medio de largo.

Hay otra tres copias de esta fotografía. La que tiene Arola, que Sara le regaló hace años por su cumpleaños, una en formato muy pequeño que regalé por su cumpleaños a Mercedes Canales y las dos únicas copias orginales que yo mismo hice y que guardo en mi casa.

Por cierto el SUA original, el primero sigue estando abierto en Bilbao.

DeNiro Talks about Once Upon A Time In America

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light (1/9)

Roman Polanski

Rena Krasno, Part I of III

Old China Hand Reading Room, Shanghai 2010

We met in a charming bookshop and coffee house located in the French Concession known as the "Old China Hand Reading Room". Though it was opened some time in the early 90s, it retains all the colonial flavor and its probably one of the finest places in Shanghai to find architectural an photography books.The idea is fantastic, a place where one can go to have a very quiet time looking at art books while having coffee or fine tea. It offers the possibility of reading novels and looking at books without having to buy them, as well as purchasing them if you happen to be captivated by any of them. I got there early and order a pot of Oloong tea and as I was looking for some interesting books, randomly, seduced by its cover, I found what it turned out to be an incredible novel by an amazing woman called Rena Krasno. " The last glorious summer. 1939 Shanghai-Japan". Born in Shanghai to a Russian Jewish Family. Rena, her mother and her sister went to a holiday in Japan during the summer of 1939 just before the war broke out. With exquisite taste for detail and based on her notes taken when she was just 14, many years later she would write an amazing account of her experiences in Japan. With an impeccable narrative she describes the nature of japanese society at the time,the beauty of the landscape and places like Hiroshima ( many of the people she met there would be all murdered when the atomic bomb was dropped), her encounter with nazi germans, the rise of fascism among japanese society and the plight of european Jews that flew to Shanghai as the only remaining save heaven that was left for people without passport or nationality.

Anyway I think I lost track of what I was trying to write about as it was not my discovery of an amazing author and woman, but of another woman, a dear friend of mine who surprisingly turned up in Shanghai when I was there.So the reason I went to the Old China Hand Reading Room and discovered Rena Krasno, was because Arola Tous had sent me a text message two days earlier saying that she was coming to the opening of the Spanish Pavilion.

As I was waiting, reading with fascination the first few lines of the book I had just encountered, Arola turned up. Followed of course by her mother Beth Galí, who in time was followed by Paco Sert´s mother Maria and her aunt Totona. The four of them decided to get a last minute flight to Shanghai to spend the weekend and to be present at the official inauguration of the Spanish pavilion.

We had tea while taking a break and after a long day, and later we all went to a very nice restaurant where we had the best selection of finest dumplings near Jingan Temple.