>Think Positive / Piensa positivo

This is one of those shots that arrive when you don't expect it. I had brought my camera for something else. The manager of the Starbucks coffee, at that time friend Adrian Mena, was writing on a table. Outside was a customer with his back to us, his shirt saying something. The window in between. Then the image and the poetic message came to me: The thoughtful reflection of the person working on the table appeared like the painting of the thoughts of the guy talking on the mobile, complemented with the mantra 'Think Positive', as if he was repeating it to himself, not to loose his temper with the person he was talking with, or just as a positive thought while enjoying his coffee. 11/04 Starbucks series. L R

>Ile Saint Louis

This is a picture of one of the first series I took on black and white. It was made at the end of my stay in Paris. It's on one of the islands on the river at the center of the city. Taken with my last 35mm camera, which i lost to debris blown into it by the exhaust blast from an FA-18 Hornet in an airshow. Many things I have done with this serie, scanned it and played all around. Look at it. Is it one photo, or three, or one photo put three times together? I have done just a bit of editing, to make this not too obvious. I love it. At the end of the street, there is a restaurant with chairs on the sidewalk, view to the river, and a street musician playing an acordeon to the memorable moments of a soothing evening. Ahhh Paris! 07/00 Paris B & W serie. M R, D E

>Hope / Esperanza

So many things expressed by this photo. Grace, illumination, hope, friendship. From the same serie as Acuatic UFO. A friend put it in his Nutrition/Nutrition disorders practice, a very good place for it. I have an opposing photo, with the hand all contracted, tight, cramped, full of despair and hopelesness. I had the left hand inside the water, posing, and the right hand out the water, very carefull not to touch it, taking the picture. I was all alone in the pool, like at 10 pm , shooting and shooting. It was great. 07/03 Alberca serie. L R

*Everything goes back to you / Todo vuelve a ti

Todo vuelve a ti
Tus imagines, el pensamiento de ti.
Yo me detengo, busco,
observo, admiro,
revoloteo con las mujeres,
¡todas se parecen a ti!
Me ocupo, trabajo, escribo, estudio,
me distraigo como mariposa a mediodía…
pero todo vuelve a ti.
Aunque mis fotos no lo digan.
"Todo vuelve a ti", PR 10/06

Can you guess how is this picture composed? It is not an effect, it's not manipulated.
I am standing on the street, in front of a fashion store, in Venezia. The woman is inside the store. I fall in love with her. She is a model, inside the display window. A poster. From were I stand, you can see her: inside, quiet, inquisitive, enticing, beautifull. Then the window, and on it you see my reflection in first plane, then the people passing behind me, on various planes, and then the building opposite the store on another plane. So many layers. For a moment I felt like a fashion photographer. First I took the picture just because I liked the girl. But it turned out full of meaning: It is a metaphor to express how women are part of our lives. Anytime, anywhere, whatever we are doing... there they appear, there they are, inevitably, inseparable, necessary, in our minds: like a paragon of attraction: distracting, seducing, outrageous, overwhelming, filling space with beauty. What a picture! P.S: A copy is resting on the headboard of poet José Cedeño.
09/05 Venezia serie. L R

>Plane Planes / Simples Aviones

Artifacts to reach the sky, become free, inmortal, gods. Various series 05-07 L & H R

*Stone cleavage / Escote de piedra

Men have a sometimes unexplainable attraction towards breasts, those two delitious targets, two blinding suns, perfect havenly heavens.
This is a little lighted stone fountain. I was watching it close by and suddenly came to mind the image of a nice cleavage. 09/03 Fiesta Sangha serie. L R

Desde que mi madre me tomaba en sus brazos se entreveía.
Crecí admirando el mar abierto,
la marea de todos los días pasando frente a mi
las olas tormentosas de todos tamaños.
Y me preparé para ser un marino;
hasta el día de hoy, me dispongo
con mi uniforme de cielo y sol
y mis ojos que escrutinan los astros mirándome
listo a abordar el barco vivo
a navegar
a sucumbir
entre el oleaje inevitable
y la espumosa blancura de tus pechos.
'Marinero', PR 08/07

>The eye / El ojo

When you see someone close by, you can see your reflection in their eyes. It also happens with pictures, you can see the photographer on the retina. This window looks like an eye, but you cannot see the photographer, but the witness, the nose, watching him, the owner of the nose. Who is she, or he? Who sees, who is seen? Which is the subject, which is the object, which is the action, where do these unite, or separate? 09/03 Fiesta Sangha serie. L R