BazanPhotos | Student Photography Gallery

Photography by Ernesto Bazan

Lobsters Under The Rain

To participate in one of Ernesto’s workshops is to be reminded once again of entirely different ways of seeing--and of living. In the fishing villages around Salvador and the island of Itaparica life is quite different from what we are used to. Life for these people embodies an acknowledgment of their closeness to and dependence upon nature. My mind’s eye will always keep the images of young men walking with their birds in cages along the street in the morning for a breath of fresh air, horses being groomed and ridden at sunset, a man repairing a boat using only hand tools, an old man repairing a fishing net in a darkened room with parakeets on the window sill, children flying kites and practicing capoeira. Our group of students, “Lobsters In The Rain” tried to capture these moments of life and, with the help of Ernesto’s editing skills and student input, succeeded in making images that went beyond the merely descriptive. I am pleased with the images I am taking home, however my education in seeing is just beginning. But I am learning, slowly. “Let life happen to you. Life is in the right, always.” Rilke
Frank Baudino

Truly breathtaking! A unique experience in my life. I saw touching places. They have opened up my heart and my eye, and that has allowed me to take some images that can stir up one thousand emotions. I think I only have to thank Ernesto and destiny that brought me here…
Alessio Cesari

It has now been a week since I’ve returned from Mexico and my mind is still very much there. This 10 days immersion in your ‘world’ was fascinating and I am fortunate I was able to make it. Although I am not a very talkative person, I really enjoyed the moments in Tlacotalpan and in Veracruz with your family.

From a photo perspective, I learnt a lot by just observing the way you wander the streets and come across potential magical moments. It seems that you are always ‘on’ and aware of your surroundings. Tlacotalpan is a great place and I just wish I had more time to explore the edges of this village so as to unveil even more of its soul. To be honest with you, I cannot say I was too satisfied with my pictures. In the end it is not so important. What matters is that I slowly understand what it means to take ‘my pictures’! However, when Arturo looked at my pictures and mentioned Webb, I could not help but think:” I am struggling to take my pictures and there is still a long way to go before I manage to do so.” I will just have to try harder next time.

When I chose to do this workshop with Ernesto, I wasn’t really sure what I could learn from it. Knowing from the start that I would spend 10 days on my favorite things to do: photography and Latin America, I knew I would not be disappointed. In the end, it turned out to be a tremendous learning experience, and I am thankful to the Maestro, Frank, Chad, Silvia and Juan for what they taught me and for the good time spend together. Ultimately, I believe this workshop went beyond the simple act (not really!) of taking a photograph… what ‘beyond’ means might just be very personal … Grazie Mille.
Roberto Hurtado

The August 2009 workshop in Brazil was my fifth workshop with Ernesto. Although I have always used the same camera and the same lens, I felt that I was seeing the world differently this time than I had before. I found Brazil to be sunny and colorful, bustling with a zest for life. For ten days, I tried to photograph the people, and capture some small portion of their exuberance and their poetic quiet moments. Brazil was beautiful and I hope to go back someday.
Linda Kay Mayer

I wanted to participate to Ernesto’s workshop because I feel it’s the best way to improve your picture taking skills. Now, after having attended one, I’m not sure if I have improved some. I think something different has taken place: more than an improvement (no matter how difficult to quantify it) in my initial abilities, I’d rather talk about transformation; yes, I think that this term conveys better the whole stimuli that I received and their positive benefits on how I feel about photography. Ernesto asked of us an attitude of profound analysis on our photographs and more so on what we wanted to convey through our choices. Why feeling content just for the mere description of an image when we can try to be evocative? We need to go beyond the subject to capture the emotions both of the place and of the people living in it. In our childhood we learn to write and to express ourselves in a complete way, but this is not poetry; in order to have poetry you need sensibility, attention, depth thus the message gets to the heart, exactly from where it had all started. In the same fashion with photography you have the possibility to move others and to move yourself; to feel the soul of the person in front of the lens through your sensibility and your desire to overcome what’s in between. To me all that is poetry, and poetry is the form of emotions, in other words the essence of our own life. This is what I have learned from Ernesto. Now, I’m not better than before, but I can say with certainty: something has changed.
Gianluigi Nocco

When I met Ernesto and started to listen to his first comments to my photographs and to the ones of the other students in the group, I immediately understood the path taken up would have been a difficult one. Although some of my images seemed well composed and quite eloquent of what I wanted to convey, they were invariably eliminated. I still well remember, Ernesto, leaning over the computer in the daily difficult editing sessions, that with a denial movement of his head would say phrases such as:” it’s too descriptive; this subject is too aware; in this image there is too much confusion; the subject is too banal because there is nothing else in the image beyond what you see; the animal portrayed (even of undomesticated animals) is not collaborating; these group of people is perfect but unfortunately this face is not expressive at all, and so on.” I did my outmost on the concept of “awareness” – main cause of the slaughter of many of our photographs. I couldn’t understand how an element virtuous in itself when referred to the photographer taking the picture, fully aware of the act of taking pictures, could become a hindrance when it was referred to the subject (or even the animal) portrayed. Then a sentence by H.C. Bresson came to mind in which he roughly says that a good image depends heavily on the union of the heart, the soul and the mind. In many of my photographs I’d really apply my mind and the results would attest to it. But I was overlooking the heart and even more so the soul, namely the internal eye of which Ernesto often talked about. With difficulty I began to understand that to bear witness to the reality of a moment is not enough: you need to be able to convey also how the photographer feels and that this has to be in synch with the subject and it needs to vibrate with him instead of simply limiting itself to be an aseptic testimony. And the search for this synchrony is an exercise that you need to learn to get fast otherwise you will feel the photographic pains that I mentioned at the beginning that more often than not do not allow you to go beyond the mere description of the event. Thus, also with the very important editing we did of Ernesto’s images, I learned that the subjects/objects in the background are very often very important to help the foreground to come to completion; some drops of water on the floor much more important than any other flashy subject; the trace left by a canoe in the water can be more expressive of whatever “creative” blur; a small monkey caught in a very instinctive movement much more revealing of an attractive first element, that dark face of a man much more emblematic of a perfect studio’s portrait. Once I read a very beautiful sentence on photography that can be defined “ not a reflection of reality but the reality of the refection” (Jean Luc Godard): it’s totally true, because each photo is the reality of how we feel each reflection of the world that surrounds us and speaks much more about us that what we can imagine. Ernesto has helped me to grow, to understand a critical sense totally new and aware (this time in a positive sense) and I’m very grateful to him.
Maurizio Paganelli

This workshop was my fourth with Ernesto in Brazil. There was much that was familiar - visits with the people in the Chocolate Factory and the fishermen in the village near Salvador, great Italian dinners at La Lupa in Salvador, hot and humid weather everywhere. But as will always be the case on one of Ernesto's workshops, there was also the unfamiliar. Three days and nights on the island of Itaparica, a serendipitous discovery of a Sunday religious celebration in the fishing village, a lobster dinner in the rain, and cheese sandwiches for dinner after miscalculations about restaurant closing times. As usual, it was a wonderful combination of intense photographic work, cultural exploration and good fun.
Willard Pate

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