An excuse to go out and take pictures, I ended up in a gathering of people at Centro Cultural de España in Casco Viejo meeting Panamanian photographer Ricardo López Arias. An interesting and passionate man with a long history of shooting film, be it large format or simple 35mm, showed up yesterday with a beautiful Hasselblad camera close to him, next to the event organizer Maylín Pérez Prado. No only it was an unexpected opportunity to meet Ricardo, but also to have a chance to see him performing his art in the streets of Santa Ana.
I packed light, with the intent to shoot film, but also to have some immediate feedback by using a digital camera. To accomplish this task I carried my Nikon FE2 with a roll of Tri-X and both 28mm and 50mm lenses, and the inconspicuous Fujifilm X-100T. All packed in my new father's day gift, a beautiful Billingham bag, thanks to my wife's intent to keep me happy.
Through close observation, I realized how much attention Ricardo paid to the exposure of light, the way he measured it, and the way he approached subjects, by talking to them, and posing them to make sure the photograph documents not only the surroundings, but also does justice to the subject. I could have asked more questions, but honestly, I was absorbed in a different world of my own taking pictures in an area I haven't been before. And I loved it.
In the end, it was a good day. And thanks to the X-100T there are a few pictures I can share with you. In the meantime, my roll of Tri-X is flying to US with another set of rolls to be both developed and scanned, so we'll see what will come up in the coming weeks.
For the moment, good bye and enjoy the pictures.
