Salamanca woman (charra)

I told you I had an artistic photo taken in Salamanca. This is it.

I took this one in the Cathedral and, once again, I had to follow my subject around. I spotted her when I went in and immediatly noticed that she was walking very slowly and with difficulty. The day before I had noticed that there was set of candle shedding very little light over a corner of the cathedral and thought "Hum... I wonder what she would look like near the candles."

Originaly, I wanted the picture to be in colours, but after a miute or two after walking in, I got distracted and lost her. So I had to track her down and my the time she was near the candles it was too late to set the camera back to colours (I had set the camera for black and white). So this is her.

This is also one of my all-time favourites because the woman sees tiny.

Plaza Mayor

I probably took about 10 pictures at Plaza Mayor, in Salamanca. This is the only decent one.

Plaza Mayor is (I think) the central square in the city, as it was the case back in the day. It's a huge squre, with a large centre, where go and have expensive coffees, sit around doing nothing, fall asleep on the ground because it's made of stone, which is fresh during the summer (Yes, Hugo.) (inside joke). But when I was there, there was a book fair going on, so the pictures of the square were very limited.

Around the square is where it is the Municipal Council, and overly-priced degraded houses, empty houses and one or two hotels.

Salamanca Exhibition # 1

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - 30.03.2009 - Metro, Lisbon)

I also leave you with one of the pictures from my Salamanca exhibition.

Casa de las Conchas (Shell House)

It sounds like something by the sea, but it isn’t. It’s a former house now library in Salamanca, with shells on the outside. The house has this name (and decorations) because Rodrigo Maldonado, from the Order of Santiago, had the house built in the early 16th century and the shells were the symbol of the Order.

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira – “Shell house”)

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - Shells)

Inside, to the right, there were these pink mannequins. They were the colour of bubblegum and were about 1.80 m tall. Everyone was taking pictures at the mannequins and with the mannequins.

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira – Pink Mannequins)

On Friday, there was going to be a concert there (after the library was closed, obviously) and they were just setting the stage ready when we got there. Hugo and Phillip Jenkins (from “The Lisbons”) asked me to take a picture of them sitting on the stage to pretend it was their stage.

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira)

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira – The Lisbons – Hugo and Phillip)

Salamanca's Cathedral

While I was in Salamanca, I took more than 300 pictures. Which is a normal amount, for me . Of all of these, I’ll probably end up with 20 good ones.

One of the most beautiful building there, in my opinion, is the Cathedral. It took them close to 200 years to finish and then, one they were done, they rebuilt it. So now there is the Old Cathedral and the New Cathedral, all in one.

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira-16 Maio 2009)

I took this picture in sepia because it just looked so beautiful and I wanted to make it look like an old pictures (minus the modern day looking people right at the bottom…)

The Cathedral is not big, it’s huge and recently it underwent some construction works and someone (Hugo told me “a man”) decided to include something bizarre near the door. Can you see?

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira-16 Maio 2009)

No? How about now?

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - 15 Maio 2009)

As you can see, there is an astronaut on the façade. Iup, an astronaut. Leave it to men do think of something like that!

(I also have a very artistic picture of an old lady I followed inside the cathedral, but that will come later.)

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira- 15 Maio 2009 - Cathedral seen from the roman bridge)

Salamanca

So, Salamanca...

City of sun and students. Lots of students.

I arrived there at midnight, after a 6-hour train ride, on friday. Technically, it was friday because it was already midnight. I was on a train car with 6 more students, 3 of which (4 with me) also heading to Salamanca for their final exams (not me).

When I got there, Hugo, my friend, took me to hotel where I stayed up until 2 in the morning because I could not sleep. It's not that the bed wasn't confortable (that pillow, my God!), I just wasn't sleepy. He was going to be my official guide to the city, and so we met the next day for breakfast and sighseeing.

Before he got there the next morning, I went out to explore the surroundings, and near the hotel was this bench with a smile on! I couldn't resist and take take a picture. (I'll save the more artistic ones for later).

These are just pictures of textures.

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - 14 Maio 2009, Salamanca)

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - 14 Maio 2009, Salamanca)

(© Sara Rodrigues Pereira - 14 Maio 2009, Salamanca)

Back from Salamanca

And I'm back!

I arrived on Sunday at 11 a.m. (came on the 5 a.m. train). After 1 1/2 hour of sleep, I arrived to Sunny Lisbon.

Now I need to put my 300 pictures of Salamanca on my pc and then on the blog. I 'll try and do it this week.

Keep coming by.

1 to Sal.

1 more day before taking a train to Salamanca! I am super happy and excited. Apart from the 7-hour train ride part.

I'll be staying for 2 days and two days ago, I realized that I'll be there during party days: friday and saturday. Better yet, viernes and sábado. I'll be taking the train back to Lisbon on sunday (domingo) at 5 in the morning.

Lots of pictures will be taken, I am sure.

Stolen Pictures

(it's the name of the newspaper article)

Regarding my photography exhibition, I gave a phone interview to a very prestigious and expensive portuguese culture newspaper about 3 or 4 weeks ago (my first photography exhibition came with a complementary newspaper article...).

The artile came out last wednesday, and it is here. It's written in Portuguese, but still, Enjoy!

I bought the newspaper and today I found out it was available online for free.

Salamanca, here I come

Just one more week before I take a train to Salamanca because of my photography exhibition.

All photos have arrived safely to their destination (so Hugo said).

7 days to go...