Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl,” photographed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1984 on Kodachrome film.

So Kodak decided to stop producing the Kodachrome, the landmark film that pretty much turned photography around.
In a last marketing move, they gave the last roll of film to Steve McCurry. Fair enough.
Is Fuji Velvia the next film to go?
I can’t stop wondering how come almost all major film makers are reducing their production lines, pro-labs are extinct, but film cameras are still priced very high on the market. Isn’t a contradiction somewhere?
Oh, well, we’ll live and see…
Until then, I’m looking forward to see Steve McCurry’s images on the last roll of Kodachrome.
Read more of the story here.

I truly enjoyed this film, I think it’s wonderful for anyone with an interest in visual arts, and the inter-relations of the various mediums – painting, photography, movies, etc
It was most interesting for me to realize the “circles” art goes through and its constant re-invention. Some of the earliest films presented are truly amazing.
Go see it if you have the chance.

When I was a kid, I studied piano. Later on, I went to the Conservatory, and had five years of studying various aspects of music. Although I never get to actually practice my profession , I still have a very strong sense of what that was all about – basically skills that you cultivate, develop over the years, and then put to use.
So, in the end, it’s about you.Not about the brand of the piano, the colour of the piano, the type of chair you sit on in order to play the piano. If you know how to play it, just use your skills and play the piano. If you’re not happy with the results, chances are that you have to work harder, not change the piano.

However, all that started to fade away a bit, when I could finally afford buying all sort of (amazing by the way) music toys – synths, workstations, etc. Beautiful. Sounded absolutely brilliant, only a tiny problem with them, I did not have the skills, nor the need for them. At the end, I was just a pianist. My strength was in playing, improvising, actually feeling and using an instrument, not tuning and programming. Different skills.
So every time I wanted to use one of the new shiny toys I ended up re installing Windows or hunting for drivers on the Internet. Not good.
Still today, the greatest joy I get from playing an all simple 76 keys electric Yamaha upright piano. My exquisite Roland V synth GT is still in a case, hasn’t seen any use for almost a year now.

Photography is a new area for me, but the symptoms are still the same.
So what a joy it was in Morocco that, due to force majeure (a 50mm Canon smashed and salt water in my Mamiya system), I ended up photographing with an old venerable Nikon FE2 with a 35 mm. Just that. A 30 years old camera, one lens, and imagination. Use what you have, instead of changing lenses, zoom in, zoom out etc… I don’t even care about the results, the feeling was beautiful. It reminded me of the joy of just playing the piano – not tweaking effects, setting up routes, all that teckie stuff I was never too fond off anyway, but doing what I love – playing.

Many photographers say that one great way of improving your photography is to limit your options, force yourself to be creative with what you’ve got, instead of jumping back and forth between different options.
I’ve tried it, it works.

I’ve had two extremely good readings these past days, thought I’d share them with you.
One is a beautiful album issued by Reporters Sans Frontieres. Called 101 Photos Pour La Liberte de la Presse. Beautiful album, take a look at it if you have the chance.

The other nice surprise is a Canadian art magazine, called Prefix Photo – website here
It was a very good reading, although a bit more towards philosophy rather than pure photography, but was well worth it.

I was browsing the net and ended up on the Leica website, more specifically the M9 page – here
Weird location for the photos – the same boxing arena I’ve photographed in Havana, in a run down neighborhood…