Double Doors 489
Another from my Sunday walk in El Centro & another for the series: Portals. Abandoned & as yet renovated houses in an area where wealthy expats are busily renovating & gentrifying.
Sunday Walk On The Paseo
For the series: Faces of Merida. A Sunday walk & shoot on the Paseo de Montejo; Merida’s version of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Por la serie: Caras de Merida. Caminando y fotografando en la avenida central de Merida.
A Birthday Snapshot
Birthday number 69. Teatro Peon Contreras for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán (OSY), a sweet Schumann and powerful Tchaikovsky crescendoes to remind me all concerts come to an end. My dear friend, Priscila, accompanied me in spite of her punishing training schedule for the 2016 Merida Triathlon (she did well). We dropped the celebratory dinner out for pizza at home so she could make her pre-dawn training.
After the not-quite catastrophic but debilitating surgeries in November in Miami; even walking a few blocks to the theater & climbing stairs to our box provoked angina. But music & friendship were far more important.
Greetings From Merida
The weekly theme at 52 Frames was meant to introduce oneself in a group from many countries & cultures.
Here are my submission (the carriages of Merida’s El Centro – $300mxn for 4 persons), and my 2 alternates: the funky statue, “Maternidad” and the façade of the Montejo Mansion on the central square. The Montejo Conquistadores enslaved the Maya, destroyed their temples to build their mansion, the cathedral and much of El Centro. They are the statues standing on the heads of the Maya.
Border of the Plaza Principal, built by Mayan slaves from the stone of their temples.
Huit Clos (Sartre); Entrée interdite (Howard)
The existential threat to doors. Walking in the New Year in El Centro, Merida. A play in one scene about denial without warnings…
Walking El Centro: 2016
Green doors in El Centro. The 2016 New Year walk.
Another Angle
While in Miami, semi-trapped in a rented condo, the theme was “Extreme Angle”. These were found from the building in the Dadeland area. Again, not submitted; just played with.
Recuperation
This week’s 52 Frames theme was “The Body”. I couldn’t deal with mine – recently sliced up to change a cardiac device; then again after it failed the next day. The failure seems to have damaged the heart a trifle more than the severe damage it already suffered. I tried working with my big, black model, La Bestia, but she refused to take off her fur coat and likes to lick the lens.
My young, beautiful friend would refuse to exhibit her athletic body to an elderly gentleman.
So I came up with my take on my body during a week when I fall asleep if I close my eyes, force myself to take The Beast walking since I need the movement and she gets crazy without it; becomes The Queen of Barks.
So I shot this. Part of a dose. My world at present. Too far removed from the subject; I decided not to submit it.
Style v. Substance
It has been a time since I last posted. I have not been shooting much and there was the stress of planning for a trip to the US when the cardiac implant announced its’ determination to die. Then traveling, surgery, device-failure and another surgery.
However I am now home again with the (sometimes) gentle giant, Ivy-La Bestia, at my feet and merely sleeping about 10 or 12 hours a day.
52 Frames has been neglected – although thought about – for months so, while waiting for mi amiga to leave work at the back of Altabrisa Mall I waited for the shot I wanted that would make the foreground work with the background. That shot didn’t happen and I missed the one with a nerdy guy passing the ad on a red, retro bike (Pee Wee Herman-like). Finally this shot made itself:
Images From Yucatan 