Momentos de Guatemala

Posted on Tuesday 21 May 2013

Guatemala, February 2013. I walk the streets, haunt the markets, meet people, I stalk the processions, fall over cobblestones, drink copious amount of the world’s best coffee, wolf down Guatemalan food and I try and make a picture here and there. I love this place during the day and I wander relentlessly for hours. After dark this is a different very cold beast altogether as I struggle to stay warm and cheery, anxiously awaiting the return of the sun. My work is done in the sun or dusk light. Doing what I am here for, doing the work, making pictures every day.

Hunting for images, the voices in my head keeps me constant company and nags me on.
Make some pictures you looser you suck.
I daydream of time-traveling the universe and trip over the cobblestones.
What the hell is wrong with my brain.
The warm sun burns me pleasantly from a hazy sky.
Man I forgot sunscreen again, at least my hair looks ok.
My old battered and worn shoes struggle with the cobblestones.
You know there is really more hole than shoe left in that right shoe.
Every street is a loud melting pot of chaotic activity and life.
Shut up, light is awesome, go make some work jedi, need pictures!
I buy an ice-cream and instantly spill on my t-shirt
Again, what the hell is wrong with my brain!
The wonderful Guatemaltecos smile at the towering alien, chat with me and rarely minds the camera.
Or they are too freaked out to protest.
I stare through the viewfinder, must make something, click, move, click.
Ok. It’s probably crap but it’s a picture, now, again, more.
But I really want a coffee?
No, move amigo, pictures!.
Food?
Vamos amigo!

These pictures do not pretend to be any sort of coherent work on Guatemala or a traditional photo essay. I was not really interested in that. What I wanted was to make photos, and most importantly make my kind of photos for my long-term project, my journey. What I wanted was to capture some single stand-alone moments of life in Guatemala. And to stop tripping over the cobblestones.

Categories: Camera, Central America, Fuji X-Pro1, Guatemala, Landscape, Panorama, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel

Tagged: antigua, atilan, documentary, flemming bo jensen, guatemala, lago, procession

Do the Work in Guatemala

Posted on Friday 17 May 2013

Many days in Antigua went somewhat like this: Our maid – with the great name Lucky – cooked breakfast and shouted “Raymundo, Flemming, desayunooooo!” at me and fellow house-mate Raymond, in our small B&B. We’d stumble out to coffee and a freshly cooked great breakfast. We would wolf down coffee and food trying to warm up in the cold mornings of otherwise warm Antigua. Then I would have Spanish one-on-one lessons with my great teacher Aracely and I would do Spanish homework for hours after that. In the afternoon, the wandering begins. 4-5 hours of restless and relentless walking in the backstreets and markets of Antigua with my camera, always looking, searching, sometimes seeing and occasionally making a picture.

Random street photography is not something I do with ease, I perform much better when there is an actual event or something I can focus on and dig into. Random street shooting in Guatemala also quite comically means I have to kneel for every shot as I’m two feet taller than the average Guatemalteco. But it did not matter. The point was making images every day. Do The Work. Have fun and just shoot, never worry about any outcome or any use of the images.

Every day was dedicated to 12-14 hours of Do the Work. Work on mastering Spanish. Work on Photography. Make stuff, make images everyday and do it relentlessly and only concentrate on the work. No social media, no blogging, no developing images, solely shooting and working. I was going through a very dark period of depression and self-loathing, so I disconnected from almost everything, buried myself in doing the work. Darkness for me lends itself to more intimate work beeing very much in need of an outlet. Burdened with an overload of self-discipline I did at some point wear myself out completely and became ill, not helped by very cold nights. Lesson learned and then instantly mostly forgotten, which is my way of life it seems. But recharging is quite possibly necessary to Do The Work. And breaking some eggs, making lots of mistakes.

Viewed as a small body of work I am reasonably happy with the outcome. 15-20 images that are good keepers to add to my nomad long-term project. The process itself, do the work, is the most important part, not the end result. If I view the images of the unfinished project every day as I shoot I cannot see the whole and I have found it stops me from working.

So I just do the work.

Shoot and dance and perform magic like no one is watching.

Categories: Central America, Guatemala, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel

Tagged: antigua, creative, flemming bo jensen, life, procession, work

Wanderer

Posted on Monday 13 May 2013

“Mad and Magic Raving is a little bit different. It takes an otherwise impossible set of parameters, the space-time continuum and all the universe to warp in a certain way, and a bloody great friend who allows you to be fierce and true without holding back, trusting that someone has your back, utterly and without caveat.”
- Charlene Winfred, Invoking the Magic of the Open Road

I made this photo on The Mad and Magic Raving Tour Part II in April with Charlene — she is starring in this image from the rather magic Monument Valley. And she wrote an absolute beautiful must-read story about our trip, titled Invoking the Magic of the Open Road. Making the impossible possible seems to be what we do. Chasing and finding magic.

There is so so much to see out there. Nowhere to go but everywhere. All of time and space and we have the freedom to chase magic. And the restless urge. Already I feel restless. Must keep moving. To chase magic. To live without filters, letting everything in, be amazed in wide-eyed childlike wonder of the world and all it’s wonderful and terrible things and people. Mad and Magic. May it never end. May this road, this wandering, our mad and magic raving go on till the end of time. Onwards and forwards.

Categories: Arizona, Landscape, Panorama, Photo, Photography, Travel, USA, Utah

Tagged: charlene winfred, mad and magic raving, monument valley, road, road trip, wanderer, wanderlust

The Story of a Boy

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013

Story of a Boy who Stares at the Stars Wishing for the Universe.
Story of a boy who wanders the world in a pretend time-machine.
Story of a boy who re-invented himself and became what he always was.
Story of a boy who never wants to grew up.
Story of a boy who wanted to be Luke Skywalker.
Story of a boy who exists in both light and shadows.
Story of a boy who could never quite be healed.
Story of a boy, very old, very alone, very kind, and the very last of his kind.
Story of a boy who never stops dreaming.
Story of a boy who always stares at sunsets.
Story of a boy who can fly as long as he never looks down.
Story of a boy who always was a boy.
Story of a boy who now has no strings, Gepetto.
Story of a boy who stole a time-machine and ran away.
Story of a boy who runs when the shadows catch up.
Story of a boy who lives a sad, strange, dark, mad and occasionally very magic life.
Story of a boy who still has a lot of running to do.
Story of a boy who found magic. Mad and Magic Raving. Yes, found magic.
…This is the story of that boy.

Presently I’m living the story. Documenting the story. Some day in some universe I may even attempt to write the whole story, right from the beginning of the time-traveling days. Some day when I learn to write. Until then, the above are just scattered sentences from my Journal of Impossible Things.
The wonderful time-traveler portrait by fellow time-traveler and Mad and Magic Charlene Winfred.

It is a mad, dark, weird, scary, strange – and wonderful and magic world out there. Onwards and forwards. So much to see.

Categories: Landscape, New Mexico, Panorama, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel, USA

Tagged: boy, charlene winfred, doctor who, dreamer, flemming bo jensen, life, new mexico, nomad, personal, road, spaceport, story, timetraveler, traveler, truth or consequences, writer

Notes from my Journal of Impossible Things – April 2013

Posted on Friday 26 April 2013

Journal of Impossible Things

journal copy
From New Mexico, a random collection of notes and news from the past 6 weeks – from my Journal of Impossible Things. Many things good and bad have happened, not many dull moments in the life of a time-traveler. I cannot seem to get my head around writing anything at the moment. Whenever I try to put letters together they fight me and sentences end distorted not saying what I intend. There is an electrical current running through me blocking the signal. So here are some random sentences and images, hopefully allowing friends and followers to catch up.

FUJI X-Photographer

Fuji Japan asked me to be one of their official FUJI X-photographers and I am happy and proud to be part of the team. My portfolio features some of my favourite images captured with my two Fuji X-cameras. Also by mistake – mine – it features the same image twice as my brain is scattered – all over the world. I am doing some interesting projects working with Fuji Denmark in Copenhagen soon, this is shaping up to be a great partnership, stay tuned for updates.

Una Pura Verdad II

Daniel Milnor and I were planning to make a followup to our movie Una Pura Verdad in March. Unfortunately the sewer line and plumbing system at Dan’s house decided to implode, taking 13 days to fix, leaving no time at all for us for any filming. It was a great window of opportunity missed, but nothing could be done, es lo que es, Una Pura Verdad II will be made one day, soon or not so soon maybe. Must admit to being terribly disappointed, just bad luck, a broken sewer line does not care about our movie – but I invested time and money and hope in this and it just piled on top of months of badness happening. Some day Una Pura Verdad II will happen. All good things to those who wait. Did I mention I have no patience?

Mad and Magic Raving in New Mexico Part 2

Charlene Winfred and I just finished a 3 week whirlwind magical Mad And Magic Raving road trip around New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Living life free with no filters, burning brightly, chasing magic and stories at full speed, staring at sunsets, blasted by sandstorms, chilled by snowstorms, fueled by music, magic, madness, laughter and the many incredible people we met along the way. It was truly magical. Kinda hard to stop, want to take off again as I am typing this. A mix of emotions, immense joy and hope, sadness and withdrawal after so much epic magic. Thanks so much C. Words do not really come to me right now, perhaps at a later time. This was just the beginning of the Mad and Magic Raving around the universe. It is amazing to feel the light shining in my mind again after too much darkness. Light, magic, and looking forward to the future.

There will be some forthcoming great content, still and moving, coming at some point from this trip. Oh and I turned 901 years old. Still a young time-traveler, so so much to see, you watch us run and chase magic!

The epic image is my capture of Charlene at Arches National Park in Utah.

Four Times Around the Sun

One year ago I wrote the story Three Times Around the Sun. In normal Earth human time I am somehow now on year four of time-traveling. How did that ever happen, it seems surreal. Feels like I took off yesterday, feels like I took off four hundred years ago. Experiences, emotions, so many amazing things to saviour, so many terrible things to run from. When I regain some writing mojo look for my upcoming story quite possibly titled … Four Times Around the Sun.

Epic image of me at Monument Valley captured by Charlene.

Categories: Camera, Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji X100, Landscape, New Mexico, Panorama, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel, USA

Tagged: charlene winfred, daniel milnor, fuji, new mexico, nomad, road trip, santa fe, truth or consequences, x-photographer

Things that happened to me on my 901st birthday

Posted on Monday 8 April 2013

Nine hundred and one years old time-traveling jedi. I am still a young time-lord although at times I do feel my 900 years of mileage. I had a birthday. A splendid one actually, thanks to my friend Charlene Winfred, who made my day and made these images of incredible stories I added to my Journal of Impossible Things on my 901st birthday. Muchas gracias mi amiga por un día fantástico.

Life seems to happen to me in cycles and waves. This 901st birthday was a much needed change. It appears the tide is finally going slowly out and I am drowning less. The past 3-4 months have been primarily plagued by long stretches of bad luck, bad karma, bad decisions – or decisions that seemed ok but turned out to be really bad. I have learned that there is just one thing to do, keep moving onwards and forwards and wait for a new cycle. Hopefully the tide is now changing. At some point it will be possible for me to fly to the stars again.

“I think I am way past strange. I think I am probably incredible.”

- Doctor Who

Categories: Landscape, New Mexico, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel, USA

Tagged: birthday, charlene winfred, doctor who, life, new mexico, nomad, socorro, tardis, timetravel, trinity. truth or consequences, vla

The Blue Box and The Red Sofa at the End of the Universe

Posted on Tuesday 12 March 2013

Been knocking about for a bit already this year. Things to do, people to see, places to be – as always. Different projects, different places, different moods, different versions of me. This is but a few fragmented tales and images of the past few months. Began the year in cold winterstruck Copenhagen. My first Copenhagen winter in 4 years, and yes suffice to say, not really my favourite time of the year in Copenhagen. Was just about as horrible, no maybe a bit worse, than I remember it. Being with friends and family was always, very nice. The neverending paradox of having a life in a place where I do not wish to live, outside of Summer. So I pretend I have a blue box, a TARDIS and I time-travel.

Then I briefly spent a few days defrosting in the Florida sun; attempting and failing to connect with Miami. The sun was warm, my mind was cold and dark. Apparently I had forgotten that I hate big cities, especially when feeling exhausted and down. A longer Miami story with more images to come. Not the best of times for me, so I time-traveled.

Went to amazing Guatemala for a spell. Learned a language, made many pictures, worked with an NGO, hung out at the local market where you can buy everything from fruit to goldfish in a bag to latest Hollywood movies. Donated a few liters of blood to Guatemalteco mosquitoes, inhaled incense all day long photographing the rather spectacular processions – and drank many a cup of the worlds best coffee. Much more to come, a return to Guatemala must happen as this country touched my soul in some ways.

PPresently I arrived in New Mexico. Several projects to do here, first of all, recharge internal power supply. Fortunately I am staying with my great friend Laura Gerwin in her wonderful house, which like a TARDIS is bigger on the inside and a happy place, featuring presently two dogs and a cat and a fish and a time-traveler. I am doing promotional videos for Renaissance Art. Am shooting stuff with Daniel Milnor, some kind of followup to Una Pura Verdad. And, the long awaited followup to Cowboys & Aliens – Mad And Magic Raving II tour with Charlene. New Mexico is wild and crazy and enchanted and quirky. We had epic clouds on my first day here, proper end of the universe clouds.

Finally, it somehow feels completely natural to find a red sofa in the middle of nowhere of the enchanted state of Nuevo Mexico. Well, it was just outside of Santa Fe on a rather gorgeous and stormy day. Red Sofa at the end of the universe, in wild and crazy New Mexico. A very fitting place for a time-traveler to hang out. Goes well with my time-machine, the blue box.

Still a lot of running and time-traveling to do. And more stories to come from all of these places as I get a look at the images and write some tales. Later. Much later. I struggle mightily at the moment with posting any words or images online, struggle with the whole idea of being online at all, struggle with my writing and photography, struggle with reality not feeling real. Disliking having any online version of myself. Paraphrasing Bilbo Baggins, I need a very long holiday…from? well I do not know. Stuff to figure out, deamons to pacify, reset buttons to push, hence the fragmentation. Oh well. Onwards and forwards! Vamos. Hasta luego amigos.

Categories: Central America, Florida, Guatemala, Landscape, New Mexico, Panorama, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel, USA

Tagged: antigua, Copenhagen, denmark, depression, doctor who, florida, guatemala, københavn, market, miami, mood, nomad, procession, red, santa fe, sofa, timetravel, winter

To Be a Kid Again: Luke and Chewie

Posted on Thursday 7 March 2013

Following up To Be a Kid Again I must post this. My favourite portrait of me. Ever. Luke Skywalker as a kid on our farm, with “Chewbacca”. Granted, I am far too young in this image to know about Star Wars, but still, I believe the force was strong with me even at this age. I mean, just look at that Skywalker haircut. Our awesome dog was actually not named Chewbacca, but Daisy. Daisy never left my side. We took long, long walks into the fields surrounding our farm. Scared of lightning and thunder, she would bite the doorhandles and manage to open every door in our house and find her way to my room and bed at night during storms. She was my best friend for years, until I was about 8 or 9 when Daisy became sick and had to go live at that farm where all old dogs must retire (that place is real right?). I think these are my favourite memories ever.

I presume my mother or father made this picture but I do not know, must ask. I do remember the camera, wish we still had it. It is interesting to study our many family photo albums. The early years, young Skywalker was captured in square black and white on what I remember as being an old medium format box camera. These images have a photographic quality the later images lack. At some point, a 35mm or 16mm automatic color compact camera enters and takes over as the tool of choice for my parents. This camera was no doubt a lot easier to use, but ease of use does not necessarily lead to better images. On the contrary. The slowness of the old box camera, the concentration needed to focus, do a composition, expose a frame, means you are forced to be much more careful, focused and concentrated and that potentially lends itself to better images. I am contemplating a somewhat Larry Towell inspired project at some point. We have some amazing family images in our photo albums, some more than 100 years old, glass plate stuff of our farm and my grandfather as a kid, amazing prints in these album from those plates, very detailed and gorgeous. More to come on this.

Walking in the fields with my dog as a kid. That is my happy place in my mind, my home, refuge when the shadows catch up and it is time to run again, when, like now, I am homesick for a home that no longer exists, when I have time-traveled too much alone for too many years on too many planets, when the world spins too fast, when I am lost in a great sea of darkness. Then I walk into the field. With Daisy. This is a special powerful photo.

Categories: Denmark, New Mexico, Photo, Photography, Portrait, USA

Tagged: black, child, childhood, format, kid, luke, medium, memories, portrait, skywalker, white

To Be a Kid Again

Posted on Tuesday 26 February 2013

To Be a Kid Again. Cusco, Peru, a nice afternoon in December. I lean over the bridge. Observe life in this part of Cusco, outside of the touristy center, this is unfiltered Cusco life. I am quite close to where I am staying, the home of me amigo Adam of PhotoExperience.Net tours. Three boys are playing, throwing rocks at each other. Throw rock, dodge rock, run, pickup a new rock, repeat. Simple, fun. I make a few pictures. My mind wanders. To be a kid again. Don’t ever grow up. Well I never did, but to actually be a kid again. Not that it was always good, nostalgia colours the mind, but still. Fun. Innocent. Safe. Unbroken. No filters. Everything is wonderful or terrible or awesome or sad. Searching for magic and all things amazing. Dreaming, forever the Dreamer. And, in my case, sprinting around our farm with a lightsabre I constructed (your skills are now complete). Willing myself to run so fast I would hopefully fly into space. Has not worked yet but it might one day.

Mind returns to Cusco. I make a few more pictures as the boys run under the bridge and disappear. I see them throwing rocks still as they emerge on the other side, laughing. I smile. Gracias. For the memory trip. The pictures. Small moments that are really the big moments. Back to attempting to run fast enough to fly into space.

The Making of. I have used this technique in my latest books Skyvandrer and Diario Del Peru and since I am often asked how I create these cut-out and pencil effects, here is a quick recap, it is not rocket science. I write my words on a piece of paper and photograph them. Then I erase the background in Photoshop so I can save it as a transparent PNG file. I need it to be transparent so I don’t have a white background, so I can place the items on top of other items or a background and it will look very real. The image of the boys was printed out, then I tore up the paper, then I doodled on it, photographed it and carefully removed the background and saved as transparent PNG. I leave a bit of the shadow so it looks quite realistic. I have also sometimes written directly in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet, saves a bit of time. That is it really, easy, very fun, go for it!

Any questions about the process or how to make your own lightsaber, let me know.

Categories: Peru, Photo, Photography, Portrait, South America, Travel

Tagged: adam l weintraub, blurb, book, bookmaking, child, cusco, dream, dreamer, kid, magic, peru, photoexperience.net, photography book

Burning Man on a Field of Dreams with Snipers on the Roof

Posted on Tuesday 19 February 2013

“Burn it! Burn the fucking thing!”. Feeling of the crowd is quite clear. If possible, if it is not too much of a bother, would sir kindly consider lighting this symbol of all things gloom? Please? Now? BURN THE FUCKING THING!

Personally I would pay a gazillion dollars for a bow and flaming arrow. Burn it! Emotions of Zozobra runs high. We are rather eager to set our gloom on fire. But let us begin with the beginning.

Zozobra, the burning man of Santa Fe, is held every year and the idea is to write down all your gloom on a piece of paper. These pieces of paper are then placed at the foot of a huge 15 meter tall Zozobra effigy and the whole thing is torched. Gloom up in flames, let us move on to next year. That is the idea anyway. Emotions run rather high as we want to burn our gloom and everything has been stalled for 90 minutes due to wind. BURN, please.

I am at Zozobra with Daniel Milnor. We are filming UNA PURA VERDAD. Basically I am stalking Daniel with a camera. It is an interesting way to experience things. This being New Mexico, it is not surprising we have met people dressed in renaissance clothing (medieval people I like to call them), a beauty queen, a massive police presence, and a small Jedi-girl with pink bunny ears wielding a light saber. Also there are snipers on the roof. And I look down and discover I am standing on the pitching mound on a baseball field. Burning Man on a Field of Dreams with Snipers on the Roof.

Via a friend of Dan’s we have access to the VIP area, a good spot in front of the crowd for filming. Afternoon has proceeded nicely, it is now close to 8pm, the sun has set over the field of dreams, and we should like to burn some gloom now please. One problem. Wind. Too much of it that is. For an agonizing hour and a half the proceedings are delayed due to wind. Patience is not really on anyone’s plate right now. “Burn the fucking thing” the crowd chants beautifully every time Man with Tall Hat asks us to wait some more. My kingdom for a bow and flaming arrow I tell Dan. I am sure the snipers are checking to see if they have some tracer-rounds lying around. Burn!

Just before the crowd is ready to start testing just how far they can throw a Zippo, the procedures finally roll forward. Dancers dance, twirling fire batons are, well, twirled, the same “roarrrrrrr” sound effect is looped on the PA, not really helping our sanity at this point.

In one minute it’s over. Zozobra and all the gloom, well the paper, is gone. After all that waiting, perhaps a bit of a quick release. Not sure all my gloom can disappear in a minute, but hey, geronimo, maybe it can, let us see if all the gloom is gone, for a while at least, quite sure we need to BURN THE FUCKING THING again next year. Crowd goes home, Snipers goes home, Jedi-girl goes home, we all go home, presumably gloom free for a little while. Onwards and forwards.

So endeth the tale of Burning Man on a Field of Dreams with Snipers on the Roof. As I was video filming for 99% of the time I only have a few quick nothing snapshots. It is my one gripe with doing video. I cannot shoot stills also, and miss it terribly. Itch I cannot scratch. To see my Zozobra video footage, well look no further, you must watch UNA PURA VERDAD (see what I did there, clever bit of promotion).

Categories: Fuji X-Pro1, New Mexico, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel, USA

Tagged: daniel, documentary, gloom, milnor, santa fe, smogranch, una pura verdad, zozobra

Journal of photographer Flemming Bo Jensen

Photographer, Time Traveler, Writer and Nomad