Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Other 100th


In the year that saw the opening of Fenway Park
and the sinking of the Titanic,
another event from 1912
now gives us the opportunity
to remember yet another 100th anniversary,
what was and what could have been:




One of the greatest ''spontaneous style'' photographers
of all-time would have been one hundred today -
if he had suffered considerably less
stress during his professional life,
he might have indeed made it to
that venerable old age, yes...
Robert Doisneau most probably became
such a stylist of photography
due to the fact that he saw, first hand,
the worst of times throughout World War II
and that made him seek means to give out
and make unforgettable and
a vision of the world as it should idealistically be.

Although it claimed to be
photojournalism,
reporting reality in images,
the genre Doisneau created,
in many ways,
soon became exposed
as nothing other
a great embellishment
and a fantasy indeed...

Dommage, car...
Through his great work,
Doisneau was making
the ordinary and the populist
so very extraordinary and iconic...!
But it wasn't reality.

He proved that a photographer
is truly a master magician
who can make anyone see
not only what he wants
but also
what one's innermost desire
wants to behold...!

Truly, though, the real world
is nothing like what is depicted
in these fantastic shots
from master magicians
of photography
such as Doisneau:
he would say so himself,
as he did, in fact,
just before passing away.
His most famous picture
was the object of litigation
that led to this revelation:
it had not been a candid
spontaneous romantic snapshot -
it had been indeed
staged, modeled and posed.
The litigation ended in 1993.
One year later,
Doisneau's life ended as well.


Read all about the stress and controversy surrounding
his most famous pic
here.


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Friday, April 6, 2012

Luminous Gastronomy


And imagine that: 
this was only for starters! 

We'll get back into the kitchen sometime, 
sometime soon, 
for it will be a fine starting point indeed 
for the hoopla surrounding the impending launch 
of our Luminous Recipes gem of a book! 
:-)

© LUCIANO A. PIMENTEL