>Wet dream / Sueño humedo

Photography often reflects our state of being, the way we feel. The photographs can be full with brightness or dark like a deep forest, black or white, or black and white. Sometimes it looks like the camera also has states of mind. When you don't worry to control everything, and leave it at random, one picture comes out in a light, and the next comes out different. What was my camera thinking? The way we choose to see the world is the way our camera pictures it... Which is the real color? We live in a common space but in different universes and they are all real. 07/03 Alberca serie. L R

>Non solid surreal window out of the Matrix/ Ventana no solida y surreal hacia fuera de la Matrix

How many times do we look through a window, and we see our reflection, the window has become a mirror. How many times a painting becomes a window, and we feel like we are sneaking into someone's room, a vast nature landscape, or into another place & time. How many times a mirror becomes a painting, a window to the outside, or into ourselves. It folds reality. Through windows reality becomes multifaceted. What do we see when we look into a mirror? It's just a reflection, an idea of the images in our mind, or our thoughts becoming the image of ourselves. We are not solid, nothing is solid, 'reality' is a projection of what there is in the mind...
You can put your hand through the mirror into the other room. See how the corner folds, trying to show us the non solidity of reality, to crash our program. If we brake our matrix, our mental veils, our dream... what not we could do? Everything is possible... I would fly. 10/03 Espejo en AGS serie. L R

>Up or down or sideways / Arriba o abajo o de lado

Which side is up, and which side is down? What is this, from what view are you seeing it, what is its real position? Is northern hemisphere really in the north? Maybe it is in the south or east? Maybe the southern hemisphere countries are less developed because they are upside down and their ideas fall out of their head? But which side is up, what is real, what do we believe in? 10/03 Club Campestre AGS serie. L R , D E on the two below

>Our lady of the forests church / Iglesia de nuestra señora de los bosques

This pictures were taken in Aguascalientes, a clean and organized small city in the center-north of Mexico. I was driving to or from the school of some cousins when I went past it. I had to stop and go see it. Look at the sobriety plain concrete expresses, and the difference with other times' churches, like the Gothic. It also reminds me of the sobriety of Romanesque churches. The past returns to the future, fashion repeats itself. I love it that if not by the cross or religious symbols, you could know not that it is a church. From some angles, you have no idea what it is. It could be a structure from ancient Egypt, a II WW cannon fort, a building from the distant future, or from another world. 9/03 AGS INSDLB serie. L R

>Photographic painting / Pintura fotografica

It is amazing to see how there is unlimited potential in every thing in life. Photography is no exception. You can stay for days picturing a place and there will be no similar pictures. The light changes, the angles change, the film-settings change, the objects-subjects in it change...your perception changes. And another variable is now digital effects. Wonderful. Another world. I admire though the photographers that have never used any effects. But who can say something is totally pure? What photographers do now with computers, the analog photographers did in the lab. This picture is of Epson company in Mexico City, and the same place in another world. 06/07 PS serie. H R , D E

>Reality / Realidad ( Past/ Pasado)

What is real? Which is reality? How many realities are there? What is the difference between absolute reality and relative reality? Are you real? Are your thoughts real? Isn't dreaming the reality, and wake state a dream? Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. What is reality in the picture, and what is a reflection? I love it when things in or outside us create an effect, an illusion, a perception different than normal, that makes us wonder what is real...to tear our mental veils. And in photography, timing is everything! By shooting just when she looks behind her, the girl in the picture adds another element to it: to see what it is that I am picturing, is it her? Is she looking at her past?, or trying to see that which escapes the eye, what is there besides the obvious, checking out what is real, checking out her reality? 09/05 Venezia serie. L R

>My Office / Mi oficina

I don't remember when i took this picture. It doesn't matter. I was up in the sky, the air, the Troposphere, somewhere around 35,000 feet high. My office. A place never the same, a place that never ceases to amaze me. I can never get enough of watching through the window. So beautiful, so infinite, so soothing, when its calm, and so powerful and dangerous when it isn't.
A place so far from life supporting conditions. At this altitude, there is oxygen and air pressure enough for just a minute or less of conscience; the temperature is around -45oC. The beauty and unhospitality of nature. Photography lets you dwell in these contradictions.
There is a high layer of altostratus clouds; in between the two layers we see two protuberances of cumulus, maybe cumulonimbus (storm clouds); the lower layer that covers the surface like a cotton field, are stratocumulus. (???) Cloud series. L R

>Le Village Saint Paul

This was taken in the old cartier of Paris, Le Marais, the 4th arrondisement, where I used to live. Part of it is called Le Village Saint Paul, close to the Saint Paul et Saint Louis church, the Hotel de Sens, and the Bastille. I would go out in the evening and walk to the Louvre, see its illuminated inner square with its fountain, or even to the Place de la Concorde and come back by midnight. The first picture, the original, is composed of three scanned photos of two different streets, put together, with a few modifications, to make it less easy to see. The others, part of a larger serie, are the same picture with digital effects. When you enter this area, the streets call you, enchant you, pull you in a dream to follow their meandering paths and get surrounded by their talelike constructions! I love places that make you dream, where you feel like you are in another place, out of this world, or in both at the same time. 07/00 Paris B & W serie. M R, D E

>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

>Catapult launch! / !Lanzamiento de catapulta!

" Even now I close my eyes and hear the clickety-clack of the shuttle, as it moves aft for the next launch. The exhaust from the powerful and reliable F-110 engines fills my nostrils until we drop the canopy and bring our jet to life. Air roars through the ECS. Systems power up. Soon we're parked behind the cat, waiting our turn. I roger the weight board -68,000 pounds! Grasp that if you can! The jet blast deflector comes down and we taxi into place, my pilot deftly splitting the cat track with the twin nose tires. And then -even after decades of doing the same thing- the adrenaline starts to flow as we start into the deck ballet unique to the Tomcat. The nose strut compresses, giving the fighter the look of a rail dragster. The launch bar drops down. Wings motor forward. Flaps lower. Outboard spoiler module circuit breaker is engaged -an old RIO gotcha. Our four hands go up as the ordies arm the missiles, bombs and gun. The cat officer's arm is raised. My pilot puts the throttles to mil power and wipes the controls -stick forward, aft, left, right, rudder left, rudder right. "Mooch, you ready?" he asks. I run the fingers of my right hand across the top of the lower ejection handle -just for orientation purposes, of course- and answer: "Ready." He trades right-handed salutes with the cat officer. We both lean forward slightly into the straps -no self respecting Tomcatter would take a cat shot with his melon against the headrest, a good way to get the old bell rung because of the way the airplane surges down before it jerks forward. A couple of potatoes* and we're off. Airborne."

Ward “Mooch” Carroll
F-14 Tomcat RIO for 17 years, author of the Tomcat trilogy starting with 'Punks War'. www.wardcarroll.com
(permission by him to reproduce previous text, from Tomcat Bye-Bye, Baby...! by Parsons/Hall/Lawson, Zenith Press 2006, p. 6)

*potatoes: word used to count seconds: one potato...two potatoes...three potatoes…

07-06 T.Roosevelt/F-14 series H R

An F/A-18C about to be launched.

>Bye Bye Baby! Last Tomcat Take Off / Último despegue del Tomcat

On July 28th 06, the last 8 Tomcats in service, made their historic last landings and take offs from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. After the last operation, the Tomcats took off to land on NAS Oceana, in Virginia Beach VA. Before that, there was a flight demonstration between a Tomcat & a Hornet, a Tomcat's transonic pass and a goodbye diamond flight formation of 4 Tomcats surrounded by 12 Hornets. The F/A-18 Hornet had been taking the place of the Tomcat and would substitute it definitely.
"Everything looks normal. Pilot and RIO of F-14 Tomcat no. 112 of Fighter Squadron VF-31 “Tomcatters” make the final control checks on catapult no. 3 on the waist of aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, at 4:42 pm of the 28th of July 06. It is not. Tension is in the air. The plane and crew are about to do their last catapult launch aboard an F-14 ever, for it will be relieved from service. They surely feel nostalgic after flying that powerful and beautiful plane. Seven shooters instead of one move stylishly, giving the catapult operator the signal to release the plane, as a way of saluting the aircraft goodbye. In three seconds it is shot and in the air.
This favorite plane of many is being retired after 33 years of service because the cost/time of maintenance is four times higher than the F-18 Hornet’s. The F-14 crews will move on to fly this plane. Its last combat operation was in February with VF-213 “Blacklions” and VF-31 “Tomcatters” in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, the last squadron remaining on a carrier, the distinguished VF-31, will fly to NAS Oceana until its retirement in September.
For years I dreamt of watching the Tomcat on a carrier, and today I am here in the very last chance to witness its last operations in service! I am the only Spanish speaking journalist. Dreams, at least most of them, are realizable: after a hundred letters, emails and calls, the confidence of this fills me. Here I am, overjoyed, photographing the Tomcat.
The Tomcat was made for the cold war and yet it could well continue to serve. It has the most powerful radar ever used by a fighter, the long range Phoenix missile, only usable with this radar, it is faster and has more weapons load capacity and more range than the Hornet, and with its variable geometry wings it is highly maneuverable.
Pilot Lieutenant Justin “Jugs” Halligan puts it this way:
(…) the Hornet is not an excellent plane, it is just good, it does the job, and for the way combat happens nowadays, you don’t need more…but for flying, I’d rather get in the Tomcat and hit the afterburners!!!"

P.R. 07/06 (Article published in 'Entrelineas, la pasión de volar', magazine(bilingual), year 5 #26, Sept-Oct 2006). http://www.youtube.com/PabloRomay , http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=24913 http://www.grupogw.com/ 07-06 T.Roosevelt/F-14 series. H R

>Walk, walk, walk / Camina, camina, camina

Venezia, Verona, Mama mia una cosa per non dimenticare!, two very romantic places. Their colors have the habit of climbing to your skin, and you let them guide you to no destination, only the road, the streets, the meandering paths to discover your own colors. Walk. In the end you know you'll find the way back. 09/05 Venezia, Verona series. L R

>Cartoon putting hat and winking / Caricatura poniendose sombrero y giñando

Est-ce que c'est incroyable, n'est ce pas!? One of the masterpieces of Le Corbusier: Notre Dame du Haut, chapell at Ronchamp, France. I spent the day there and would discover different faces of it as the light changed. It is alive, like it's moving. One of those perceptions is a cartoon face (big photo), putting its hat on and winking, with its mouth to the side. The hat is the roof, the hand the frontal end of the western wall, the eye the clean area witout window at the upper right side of the eastern wall, and the mouth is the altar. 07/00 Ronchamp serie. L R