Amplifest finally returned, and so did we.

The pandemic meant that Amplifest, an eclectic music festival, was put on hold, more than one time. Meaning that 2022 would be the grand return to Hard Club, its traditional venue in the downtown of Porto. That hiatus meant that this was a double edition, two weekends that felt like two festivals in a row.

And by the end of that “first festival” I was feeling it was something I’d like to shoot, something I feel very often in live shows. Not just the live performances, but everything else: the passion of the shows, the mood of a small festival, the constant swinging between Hard Club’s two rooms or the relaxed breaks. So I did, in the second weekend I grabbed my small camera, the one I took on that trip just in case I was in the mood for photos outside the festival (and not the most optimal gear for the occasion), and kept taking some snaps throughout those days!

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In January 2020 I was in Salsas, near Bragança, photographing one of the last winter solstice festivities of Trás-Os-Montes. I had been around the region since Christmas, as I’d done in previous years, and was about to return south, return home. As I was saying goodbye to André, and told him that we would meet again later in the year, he told, in a warm and direct way so typical of those from that part of the country, that he would be waiting for me and made sure to tell me that this year it would be great, that it would be really brutal (and I do not use this word in vain). I have some pre-pandemic and pre-confinement moments that became crystallized in my mind, this is one of those…

André is one of the Caretos de Grijó de Parada. If there is one thing in common all the different winter festivities in that region (and in fact there are less than it seems) is that there are always one or more people who are their driving force, André is one of those people. And what he was talking about was the Young Men’s Festival, or St. Stephen Festival (the Catholic name for such a pagan tradition): a tradition that dates back to ancient pagan fertility rituals, which takes place every year in the days after Christmas. This was one of the first winter solstice parties I visited, one I make sure to return and, to this day, the only one where I was injured!

For two days the village lives around it, with the “caretos” (the masked demons) dressed in red, which now include young and old, men and women, being the main characters. They are the ones who, with or without a mask, are gathering the crowd and doing the party and tricks to the sound of drums and bagpipes. Starting with the rounds through the houses, beginning early in the morning, which are led by the “mordomos” (the stewards that run the festivities), and where everyone is greeted with food and drink. Ending with the races, already past sunset, where, in pairs, those who want can show who is the fastest. These races open to everyone, myself included, and where a fall would lease my shoulder sore during the following weeks.

The post Young Men’s Festival of Grijó de Parada appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

In last year’s Summer we were still with still knee deep into the pandemic (and by then we even didn’t knew it), so everyone chose to explore their backyard or to return to their roots. Myself included. One year later it feels like we’re in some kind of “no man’s land“, in between what was left of lock-down and the glimpse of normality ahead, in some ways the loosening of the restrictions meant becoming kind of lost on where to move next. Some are fully committed to reconnecting with their routines, and having to discover again how to do that in the way, while others not so much. Each one has their own pace.

In many ways this Summer felt funny because of that, the feeling of having the foot on both sides, still trying to find where to put them next next. Myself included. If last year I focused by embarking in a mini-project on my family, this year wandered aimlessly without any goal, just shooting what crossed my path…

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/8, 1/400 sec, ISO1000)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/2, 1/13000 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/4.5, 1/250 sec, ISO6400)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/5.6, 1/1400 sec, ISO320)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/5, 1/340 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (29.2mm, f/6.4, 1/850 sec, ISO160)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/5.6, 1/900 sec, ISO160)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/5, 1/400 sec, ISO500)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/3.2, 1/7000 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/3.6, 1/5400 sec, ISO160)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/4, 1/2900 sec, ISO320)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/2, 1/250 sec, ISO12800)

FUJIFILM X100V (23mm, f/2.8, 1/120 sec, ISO12800)

The post No Man’s Land appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

Maybe it’s my goth-ish nature, the gloomy side of my personality, but the Semana Santa (or Holy Week) always had a great appeal in me, despite myself being fully agnostic. It’s a season of atonement, of introspection, of penitence, the climax of a solemn season that is Lent. All this ends up in its very slow-paced, dark and intense rituals that becomes the core of every Holy Week tradition in every catholic country throughout the world, regardless of how different. For some time I had my eyes set in Spain’s Holy Week traditions, after already attending some in my own country. Despite being so close, Portugal’s neighbor tends to be much more devout, religion plays a bigger role in the traditions which leads to being lived in a much more passionate way, more committed and in larger numbers, and in Spain you really don’t have a bigger holiday than that.

With all that in mind me and my mate João Maia, packed our gear and drove to the north of Spain, there’s a plethora of cities to pick from (again, you really don’t have a bigger holiday than the Holy Week), but we ended up heading towards Zamora, a small city with that cool, laid-back small city vibe that I liked so much the first time I was there. A place charming enough on its own to spend a few days, without the having to rely too much on a few processions of hooded men, a backup plan just in case this ended being a flop… It wouldn’t be. Waiting for us were a dozen of processions, and by the time we arrived we had already missed a few. It would be a week were each day was more intense than the previous, so that when it got to Holy Friday there was almost a non-stop cycle of processions, day and night. By the time we were back in Lisbon we were truly needing some rest.

As expected, all this was lived very intensely in the city, the huge crowds attending the many insanely long processions (one of the largest gathers around 5000 people, starting as early as 5AM) where it’s quite common to have people participating several of them, and throughout the city it’s hard to avoid it’s happening: from the closed streets to small things like the small hooded men dolls in the counter of the café we used to have our breakfast. Nowadays the more I photograph celebrations, festivals and such, the more I’m attracted with the small things outside the “main event”: all the build up and that beer before it starts, the breaks in between, the aftermath or all the things happening in parallel. Those for me are as important as what’s happening under the spotlight, and tell a lot about how a community lives its traditions.

OnePlus A3003 (4.26mm, f/2, 1/25 sec, ISO200)

OnePlus A3003 (4.26mm, f/2, 1/1135 sec, ISO100)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/450 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (23mm, f/2, 1/2200 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (35mm, f/3.6, 1/800 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/4, 1/340 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/3.6, 1/1700 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/2, 1/4000 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (50mm, f/2.8, 1/1500 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (50mm, f/2.5, 1/75 sec, ISO1600)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/34 sec, ISO6400)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/4, 1/480 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec, ISO2000)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/2.2, 1/140 sec, ISO6400)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/2, 1/2900 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-E3 (35mm, f/3.6, 1/1300 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (16mm, f/2.8, 1/25 sec, ISO1000)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/3.6, 1/200 sec, ISO2500)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (16mm, f/2.8, 1/120 sec, ISO6400)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO2500)

FUJIFILM X-T2 (23mm, f/2, 1/50 sec, ISO640)

The actual processions of the Semana Santa, all of them, will proceed right after this.

The post Living and Breathing the Holy Week of Zamora appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

As the 2021 version of lock-down is hopefully getting closer to a loosening to the restrictions here in Portugal, and maybe trying to anticipate what my upcoming months might be, I’m looking back to the aftermath of the 2020 version of lock-down. Last year things started to open in mid-May, and after a couple of months restricted to an apartment in Lisbon it was time to go to countryside, one of the perks of having my family roots outside the capital.

In any non-urban area seasons aren’t defined by mere dates in a calendar, but much more fluid and much more tied to nature’s cycles. At the small village at Beira Baixa where I spent so much time last year, in the outskirts of Portugal’s Central mountain range, the time I arrived coincided with cherries season, the event that truly marks the beginning of the summer. I ended up spending a lot of that summer there, back and forth but much more that I normally do, despite that I don’t even travel that much in that time of the year. A summer on a slower pace, hovering those rural little routines, the ones that don’t really care about a pandemic, and enjoying things like the lunches outside, the warm nights by the terrace or the Sundays by the river. And the weeks slowly passed by, until it was time to do harvest vineyards, in other words until the end of Summer.

The post A Slow Summer… appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

At Vila Boa, a village in the municipality of Vinhais on a slope of the Nogueira hills, the masks, bagpipes and all the things common to the pagan festivities of the Northeastern Portugal can also be found. There a festivity that initially was set to take place in the later days of the year slowly moved to happen a few weeks later, closer to the end of Winter. What was an ancient celebration of the Winter Solstice become the Carnival or Shrovetide that it is today.

This is the reason why there are similarities with the other winter festivities that take place not far from there, starting with their central characters: the “caretos”, or “máscaro” as they are called here. They are demonic figures, hooded, usually dressed in red, and wearing masks of wood or tin; a long time ago they would to hide everything they were going to wear in the surrounding woods, so they could change clothes in a hidden place and return to the village already transformed, and thus be able to play all the tricks under total anonymity. These other masked figures will join them, some more traditional, such as the “madamas” and the “marafonos”, others not so much and it is normal to see a child in the superhero costume of that year’s blockbuster. Along with the musicians and lots of unmasked people, a chaotic procession goes from house to house, eating, drinking, singing. All those not wearing masks are expected to have flour being thrown at. But in the midst of all this revelry there’s something special: fire.

There is a huge symbolism of fire in pagan rituals: it is a purifying element that cleanses sins and eliminates bad things, especially when it’s the party precedes a solemn time of discipline like Lent. So it is normal these Winter Solstice and Shrovetide festivities have fire as an important element, it is normal to end with a bonfire where everyone gathers around, it is normal to jump over that flames, it is normal to burn a “demonic figure” that owns all evils. But in Vila Boa the fire is bigger and more present, the bonfires are more central to the chaos that is the day of Entrudo, one is lit in the square of the village, still early in the afternoon, and all the “máscaros” jump over it, regardless of how young they are. And the day ends with other bonfire, but larger, which will burn at dusk, in the place where the party ends and at the highest point of the village, in plain sight of everyone.

The post The Purifying Fire appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

There are many Winter traditions in Trás-Os-Montes that, like so many in Europe, go all the way back to the pre-christian Winter Solstice celebrations. Without going into much details, because are too complex for me to explain well enough, these are rituals that mark the birth of the new year, the time when the days start to become longer and it’s meaning is a lot related with fertility and the success for the harvests of the forthcoming year.

These celebrations were extremely important, so much that ended up being assimilated into the Christian traditions, specially Christmas, and until today there still a pagan and a non-pagan side to those. With time these started to spread out in the calendar, which now spans over a period that goes from late December to early January, and the same way its dates started to shift slightly its rites also evolved, adapting to each region’s, and even each village’s, surroundings and habits.

In the northern edge of Trás-Os-Montes all things happen during and right after Christmas, and what you’d see is something that this part of the country is getting known for: hordes of masked people, usually roaming the streets doing tricks. But in the Mirandese Plateau, the top-right corner of the country, things aren’t quite the same, something you’d expect from a region with a very strong identity, so much that’s where the other official language of this small country can be found.

Up there, in the villages of Tó, Bemposta or Vila Chã de Braciosa, these Winter traditions have moved to the first day of the year, with fewer people and less agitation but with the same passion, starting early in the morning, which tends to be cold in the stone-walled pastures of this part of the country. Each is different from the other: while in one there’s one of Portugal’s most elaborate masks, covered with several pagan symbols (like the serpent, the oranges or the horns that hold them), in another the mask has been replaced by a black face (legend says a priest stole it a long time ago, so the face has been painted black ever since). While the costumes and the actors may vary, there’s also a lot in common: one, or more, demon like figure that goes through streets, knocking on each house, asking for a offering, so that the new year brings good fortune to all, that ancient fertility symbolism that connects all these different celebrations.

The post Demons of New Year appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

On December 26, Saint Stephen day (the saint that brings this pagan festivity to the catholic realm), four young men wearing hats and colorful scarfs start the day by knocking on the houses at Ousilhão, a small village in the northeastern corner of Portugal. They’re followed by the sound of drums and bagpipes, and are welcomed by the homeowners with a table full of treats and drinks, the young men then sing and dance asking small a gift for the saint. Throughout the morning masked people wearing red clothes randomly start joining this procession, doing small pranks and enjoying the delicacies served at each house.

The morning ends with everyone gathering by the church for the mass, where a table with offerings is already set. They are joined by that year’s “king” and his two “vassals”, those who have been in charge of organizing the festivities, wearing decorated their paper crowns, waiting to attend the mass. The masked ones wait outside, the church is totally out of bounds for them. Right after, the new “king” and “vassals” are crowned and a decorated ox car pulled by the masked ones awaits for them, a procession with everyone gathered will carry them to where the celebration will end, where a bonfire is being prepared and another table is set to end the day eating and drinking.

The post Festa dos Rapazes, or Young Men’s Festival – Ousilhão appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

At this point is kind of pointless to explain how hectic these past few months have been. But it still amazes me how in early March I was just doing a photowalk in Alfama, looking from all the pandemic issue from afar and following it from a safe distance (I thought), to just a few days later having to move all my daily routines to inside my own home. In less than a week I would become more physically disconnected from the rest of the world than I usually are.

Fortunately there were plenty of things to do, work didn’t slow down at all by moving out of the office, and on top of that the everydaycovid project was born: I became one of the editors of this project, that aims to document the pandemic and quarantine in Portugal, seen through the eyes of dozens of photographers and photojournalists. The schedule during quarantine most of the times was full, but the world had significantly shrunk.

The confinement meant staying indoors most of the time, only leaving for shopping and those short walks nearby and alone, so the goal was to stick with that plan while needed. Meant that, for an unknown number of weeks, the laptop was the most important window to the world. Also meant that the world I could reach and explore was the one I could see from my window, that roughly matched what I was allowed to reach in my shorts walks. The short walks that most of the times only happened later in the day, when all work as put aside.

OnePlus A3003 (4.26mm, f/2, 1/180 sec, ISO100)

SONY DSC-RX100 (23.27mm, f/3.5, 1/100 sec, ISO125)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (18mm, f/3.6, 1/850 sec, ISO400)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (16mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO12800)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/3.5, 1/40 sec, ISO125)

SONY DSC-RX100 (11.89mm, f/2.2, 1/2000 sec, ISO125)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO320)

SONY DSC-RX100 (13.42mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO1600)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (18mm, f/2.8, 1/26 sec, ISO1250)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2, 1/30 sec, ISO3200)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO160)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/3.5, 1/100 sec, ISO125)

SONY DSC-RX100 (11.75mm, f/2.8, 1/2000 sec, ISO125)

SONY DSC-RX100 (23.82mm, f/4, 1/500 sec, ISO160)

SONY DSC-RX100 (18.45mm, f/3.2, 1/200 sec, ISO250)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.2, 1/15 sec, ISO125)

SONY DSC-RX100 (10.77mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec, ISO125)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (35mm, f/2, 1/52 sec, ISO200)

FUJIFILM X-T3 (23mm, f/3.2, 1/640 sec, ISO400)

The post My weeks of confinement appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.

A long overdue update of t3mujinpack! I was meant to release this version to match the launch of Darktable 3, but a bug related with the edit of existing styles prevented me from editing them, and thus had to wait for Darktable 3.0.1 to be released to wrap this up.

As you might expect from such a huge amount of time since the last release, there are a few updates. First of all, most of existing styles were re-tested and, for many, re-tweaked. Second, a new set of presets of consumer negative films, to complement existing emulations with a different mood. Third, styles can now be grouped so they are more manageable to use, this will be available in a separable download that will work exactly the same, and can even work together.

Flat hierarchy

Shows the full, big list without any hierarchy, the way the presets have been show in Darktable until know, ex:

• t3mujinpack – Black and White – Ilford Delta 400
• t3mujinpack – Color Negative – Fuji Pro 160C
• t3mujinpack – Color Negative – Fuji Pro 400H
• t3mujinpack – Color Slide – Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX
• …

One-level hierarchy

Groups presets into three different sections (Color Slide, Color Negative and Black & White), the presets will appear like this in Darktable styles interface:

• t3mujinpack – Black and White
  • Ilford Delta 400
  • …
• t3mujinpack – Color Negative
  • Fuji Pro 160C
  • Fuji Pro 400H
  • …
• t3mujinpack – Color Slide
  • Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX
  • …

Changelog

• New style: Fuji Fortia SP 50.
• New style: Kodak Ektachrome 100 G.
• New style: Agfa Vista 100.
• New style: Agfa Vista 200.
• New style: Agfa Vista 400.
• New style: Kodak ColorPlus 200.
• New style: Kodak Gold 200.
• New style: Kodak Ultra Max 400.
• Scripts supporting for Darktable 3.0.x database.
• Option for hierarchical view.
• Tweaks in most of existing styles.

Head over to the main page of t3mujinpack for more details and samples or register to download it.

The post t3mujinpack 0.6.0 is out appeared first on João Pedro Almeida.