start: bus

I just got back from a little adventure. It started at the Retiro bus station here in Buenos Aires, where I got a nice window seat upstairs on a two-tiered bus.



The comfort and location of the seat is important when taking on a 13-hour bus ride.

MALBA

I have been here for four months and have only visited one museum. Last week.



MALBA stands for Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. There was an Art of the Cuban Vanguard exhibit going on that I enjoyed more than I thought I would. The building itself reminded me of the interior of the Guggenheim in New York, with the galleries hidden and somewhat difficult to navigate, and this dramatic center of usually wasted space. The one brilliant exception was the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit they had in Spring 2008 called "I Want to Believe." I thought it would be shallow and overblown, but went because I was in a bad state and I could get in there for free with my Columbia ID. It was incredible. I still remember the feeling of vulnerability and absolute wonder I had when I stood at the top of the spiral, after having walked through the entire exhibit, and looking down at all those silly cars. Nothing seemed so silly anymore.

Check out a NYTimes slideshow on it here.

sweet monday

I am still away but thought I'd kick off your week with one of my favorite things about Buenos Aires: ICE CREAM DELIVERY. My roommate and I have made quite a bad habit of it. 20 minutes or so after making a call, a dude on a motorcycle shows up with your custom-packed pint of three different flavors. My magical flavor combo is: chocolate amargo, menta granizado, y banana. That's dark chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and banana.



They even delivered these thick cones in our last delivery. Man, are my pants shrinking?

time

Today is my 30th birthday. I am away at the moment, celebrating this milestone in obscurity. I wanted to go to the desert. Last year, around this time, I was in the Bolivian desert.



I never imagined myself to be a desert person, but hey, that's what happens. Time passes and we find we hardly recognize ourselves.

feel the noise

I don't know how much I've told you about my neighborhood but it is, for the most part, chill. I live by a large, walled cemetery (photos to come, you know it!) in the middle of a netherworld consisting of solely auto-body shops and their suppliers. All of the businesses shut down from about 2-4 pm. It was a very welcome change from when I first lived downtown and life was always littered with street musicians, drunks, and traffic.

That said, it can be noisy in a different way. Next door, they have been constructing...something...forever. Huge trucks will pull in carrying nothing but sections of metal pipes. They will throw each bundle of pipes down to unload the truck, making a terrific racket in the wee hours of the morning. Then, once the pipes are unloaded, they'll move each bunch individually to another pile. Because there are so many repair shops, I constantly hear incredibly noisy two-stroke motorcycles tearing down the street as the mechanics test them out. And there is one dude in a caramel-colored shirt who seems to be attempting to build the loudest motorcycle ever. I alternately love and hate him.

There is also random noise like this. I woke up one morning and it sounded like someone was right outside my window, hurling a metal beam repeatedly against the curb. That's the way you think when it's early and you feel like the world is just trying to torture you. Usually I try to ignore things, but I had to see what was going on.



Yep--there was a man right outside my window, hurling a metal beam repeatedly against the curb.

bicentennial

This year Argentina is celebrating its bicentennial. In Palermo there is a pavilion with an exhibit about the history of the country.

...of the rest of your life

If you ever need to know what day it is, you can walk by the police station in Palermo Botanico.



Yesterday was also a holiday, Día de la Memoria, honoring the fallen and disappeared of the military coup on March 24, 1976.

good morning

The first two weeks here, I lived downtown in a hostel, where the provided breakfast was the standard trifecta of three croissants, a coffee, and a shot of orange juice. They call the croissants "medialunas"--literally, half-moons. This past crappy week, I've been exploring all the various options in the neighborhood in an effort to get my day off to a sweet start. You can buy them everywhere, usually for about one peso each (roughly 28 cents), or by the kilo.



Every day I've been getting an assortment of medialunas and other facturas (pastries). This morning this gorgeous, sugar-dusted alfajores caught my eye. Alfajores--or just alfas--are another sugar staple here, biscuits with dulce de leche sandwiched between them. Another piece of heaven here in Buenos Aires.

Beetle Series I

There are an incredible amount of Volkswagen Beetles in South America. I first began shooting them when Suze and I were in Uruguay. I have a whole collection. Because I haven't been shooting much lately, I'll share some Beetles with you this week.



I shot this mustard-colored one in Ollantaytambo, Peru, just after getting off the helicopter.

Tigre V

More Tigre! This is a photo taken from the interislena (inter-island municipal boat) as the sun was setting. There is this big, corny amusement park right on the water that was unfortunately closed, seeing as it was Tuesday--and a Tuesday at the end of summer, at that.



Boats, sunsets, and...ferris wheels? Isn't life grand...

Tigre IV

Here are the municipal boats loading and unloading passengers at the main dock. Another vertical shot, oh my! I was shooting pretty much directly into the sun but I like the shadows you get as a result.



I like all the schoolkids getting off the boats. Boats are fascinating to someone like me from the midwest, where we actually did have a boat. It was a sailboat that was hoisted up in the garage for about twenty years until one day it mysteriously disappeared.

Tigre III

More on Tigre! I loved it. (Also, I have been sick---so no new photos.)

These are the municipal boats that you take from island to island in Tigre. When we got there we asked for a map to find our hotel, but (road) maps were hard to come by---and useless.



I love places with interesting transit.

house under glass

Yes, Papa! The glass house of Sarmiento is so strange. I thought it was some kind of architectural stunt. But it is simply the house of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who was the president or Argentina from 1868-1874.

Tigre I

Where did I take the train on Tuesday? To Tigre! That's the Tigre Delta region, just about 25 miles from Buenos Aires. The train takes less than an hour from downtown and costs about a quarter. It is such a cool place, so different from the city. The region is made up of a network of connected rivers and such. You take boats to get around.

refresher

I got on a train yesterday and went somewhere. Where? You'll find out! But in the meanwhile, enjoy my second vertical shot in one week. In fact, have TWO since I skipped posting yesterday.



The Retiro train station in downtown Buenos Aires. Kind of looks like a lot of other train stations. Or, maybe, all train stations look alike when you're tired yet excited and just want to get on the train. You also get the mix of freight and passenger trains here, which I adore.



Where did I take the train to? You'll find out tomorrow...THURSDAY.

life in the fast lane

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. I haven't been shooting as much as I would like to be. I have been trying to get in to shoot photos of amateur drag racing at the Autodrome forever.



I finally went yesterday and they wouldn't let me in without liability insurance. Then I tried to just go in to shoot without getting access to the track and the pits and they were not having it. This is when having a gigantic camera is bad. You can't just take photos on the sly.

whip it

Last night I saw the movie Whip It about roller girls. I go to see all the English-language movies here. The pacing was a little uneven, and there were some totally unnecessary things--like a long love scene in a swimming pool--but I loved it anyway.



In October, when I was in Chicago, I shot a roller derby match between Chicago and Portland (OR) for The Norman Einsteins. It was a good time. I totally would have gone for the tryouts a few weeks later--but you know, then I moved to Buenos Aires. Maybe I should start a league down here.

the family at home

I brought Dan and Zoo dinner the other night. We sat on their lovely terrace and ate and drank and talked about Obama. It is humbling to be schooled on U.S. politics by foreigners.

i heart my neighborhood

When I first moved into this house, there was this big trash pile on the corner filled with building supplies. The trash collectors come EVERY NIGHT to pick things up, but they ignored the pile for about two weeks. Then one day it vanished. I had this idea to take a picture of my corner every day. Some anthropological studies are based solely on what people throw out.



Did you know that in Canada women can go about topless, same as men? I wonder how many months out of the year it is warm enough to do that.

palermo balconies

I find Palermo to be a largely uninspiring area of the city--well, during daylight hours. Then you see how cardboard and pushed together all the apartment buildings seem. But they all do have balconies, and a lot of them are shaded by these weirdly tall trees.

the beacon

This is the Swiss Hospital in Buenos Aires. It is such a cool building. It glows red on the top floors and there is a big cutout waiting area where you can see people standing inside. Sometime I'll go back with my tripod and shoot a closer photo of that part. But I like how it just stands out--so appropriate, because it's a hospital. If you're bleeding out, you can just point to the beacon and say, "Take...me...there..." Or, I guess, "Llevame alla!" (Thanks Ricky...I can't believe I dont't know how to say that.)

brought to you by playboy

The colectivos (buses) here are crazy. You never know what you're going to get. Last night both my buses were illuminated by dim blue lights on the inside, giving them a very lounge-y feel. Sometimes the buses have disco balls in them, like when they go off- duty they'll become party buses.



This was definitely the most Playboy bunny logos I've seen on a bus so far. I'm not sure what's up with that Number 9.

meat market

Next to the verduleria (vegetable stand) near my house, there is this abandoned market. One side is open where there is a snack bar. Empty stands line the perimeter of the big room, and everything is fading and peeling and withering away. Imagine my surprise when I went to buy some vegetables the other day and standing behind the central stand was a butcher in his white apron and cap, like he had always been there. He had two cuts of meat in the case in front of him.



I went home to get my tripod because the light was very low and came back to shoot inside. There were some sanitation workers in back playing cards. I was even more surprised when a guy came in to buy meat. Where did this butcher come from? Why have I never seen him before? It was all very strange.

back to school

Kids went back to school this week. Here is a photo of parents waiting to get their kids at the school in my neighborhood.



The kids all wear these big white overshirts over their regular clothes as their uniform. It makes them all look like little pharmacists in lab coats.

missing nyc

I miss New York this week. This is a photo from the summer, on my buddy Luis's last night in town before he moved to California. I demanded he stay up until sunrise.

playa repetto II

Yesterday was such a lovely day. I cleaned the grime out of the kiddie pool, soaked on the rooftop with a book and a cup of coffee, and thought...Life...Is...Good.



And...my toes are wrinkly.

studio work

Monday my roommate asked me to do some head shots for his actor's portfolio. I've never done posed studio photography before, but it was fun. Certainly doesn't hurt that I love my roommate and he is beautiful.



We shot a set of photos in our "studio," i.e., our living room. I thought the photos turned out pretty well, for not having a fancy light-setup or anything. I thought, hey, I could do this. So, in a new money-making endeavor, I have decided to start offering my services as a studio photographer to actors and models here in Buenos Aires. We call our house Playa Repetto, Palacio Repetto, and, during the floods and blackouts, Fortaleza Repetto. Now, it can also be Estudio Repetto!

coastal dreaming

Here's another photo from Punta del Diablo, Uruguay, in January. It was cooling off for a moment here in Buenos Aires and I thought that the summer was over, but then today it was 30C/86F, and sunny. So today I am dreaming of the cool coast.



I think I will need to get out of the city soon. Maybe this weekend I will go somewhere.

love in black and white

So yesterday I posted a photo of 11-hour-old Ethan. Today I want to share with you my favorite shot from the hospital.



I always thought it took a while for babies to grip things, but look at him here, holding Daddy's finger. And I love this look that Zoo is giving Dan. Moments like these--this is why I schlep around such a big camera.

11 hours old

My friends Dan and Zoorana were expecting but not anymore!



This is Ethan Shakeel Klasson, just 11 hours old. My roommate and I went to visit and the four of us just stared at him in awe. He was flexing his hands and tasting the air. I have seen one- and two-day-old babies before. They are something amazing. I'd kind of just gotten used to seeing Zoorana pregnant, and then you meet this guy and realize just what she's being carrying.