28 March, 2007

Inside the World’s Largest
Hydroelectric Plant

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. The worldwide famous Iguassu Falls
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2007



In front of me a group of Paraguayans eat, drink and wholeheartedly sing (I’m assuming that they are Paraguayans because Paraguay is right next door, but it’s impossible to tell by the way they dress since their outfit is all but typical, if you know what I mean). Behind their table, a musical group – actually a duo of a keyboarder and a singer – plays a medley with instrumental versions of all-time successes including “Only You”, “Solamente Una Vez” and “The Girl From Ipanema”... One of the gentlemen at that table makes a move like he’s getting up to sing along with the musicians. His friends tell him to go for it, but he gives up. I still haven’t decided whether I found it good or bad that he didn’t have the guts to go ahead.

It’s 11 PM and I’m having dinner at the hotel’s restaurant after an intense shooting day at the de Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant. This is the eighth day of assignment, from a total of 25. I’m just done transferring the photos to my laptop, editing the images, backing them up and transcribing my day’s field notes – a big day as usual, I must say.

Today I photographed a little bit of everything: animals such as caimans and a jaguar, plant nurseries, fat and thin people, rivers, landscapes. I also photographed the job of some folks who rescue fish that get trapped inside the plant’s structures.

Periodically, one of the 20 turbines from Itaipu are deactivated for maintenance, and that’s when a team of specialists come to capture and save fish that might have been stranded somewhere inside. This wasn’t in my original shoot list, but since I figured that it could render good pictures, here I go tucking myself through the ducts of the world’s largest hydroelectric plant.

Our walk starts at a long, narrow, humid, hot and irregularly lit concrete corridor that for some reason reminded me of Dachau in Germany (fortunately the similarities are solely structural). I’ve never been claustrophobic, but for a moment I felt something strange. And this was only the beginning...

From the first corridor we took an elevator and quickly went up some 25 meters until a second alleyway even narrower, which led to a yellow metal spiral staircase, which led to a tiny little room full of levers, controls and gauges, which led to a sort of hatchway, that finally led to a small ladder similar to those found in swimming pools, by which we descended in total darkness. Voila, there I was inside the duct. In front of me, no more Paraguayans eating and drinking and singing, but a steel wall full of huge rivets that holds all the backwater from Itaipu’s Lake – or almost all the water, since part of it is dripping down the wall and from the ceiling, leaving the floor extremely slippery. Five meters behind me is a 40-meter deep abyss that ends up at the turbin. I bravely refrain from the temptation of asking how many meters we are under the water surface – and what would happen if someone hypothetically forgot that we were inside and opened the floodgates. This time – as opposed to my doubts whether the Paraguayan folk should or should not sing – I’m sure that the best to do was to remain quiet and just listen to the instructions.

Inside the plant – two meters ahead, the abyss...
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2007


The technician in charge of the fish rescue operation gives me strict orders not to get away from his side, under absolutely no circumstance. I guess that he got kind of scared with me this morning, when I walked a bit too close to a mommy caiman with its babies. To calm him down I tell him not to worry, since I really don’t fear animals that much, but am very respectful to things such as dark ducts and turbines and black abysses.

And there he goes underneath the big wall, fishing net, flashlight and bucket in his hands, trying to save some stranded fish. Search here, search there, but nothing – fortunately all of the area’s fishes seem to be safe and sound. I feel glad about them, but kind of frustrated for not being able to get a good picture of the rescue operation.

No problem, tomorrow we have another chance, they are going to take me to a “neater” spot (inside the turbine!) where the chances of rescuing fish trapped in the duct are higher...

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17 March, 2007

Bavaria’s Last Snows?

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. A color picture or a black-and-white picture?!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2006


Yesterday I got an e-mail from Judith Schnaubelt, a journalist friend who lives in Munich, just loves Brazil and interviewed us during our project in Germany. Needless to say, one of the subjects that she brought up was global warming.

A view from the roadside at Bavaria
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2006



The forecast today says it will snow in Bavaria this weekend. We are already in mid March, but this is only the second time that it snows over there this winter! It’s hard to believe that at the same period, exactly 12 months ago, I was taking such pictures...


Sunrise at the Alps, border between Germany and Austria
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2006


I wonder if they will worth more in some years, not necessarily due to their artistic quality, but for being rare records? I guess that only time will tell...



Street lamp post with a "cold" lamp bulb
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2006



(During the next two weeks I will be at Iguassu Falls on a photo assignment for Itaipu Binacional – if I have the time and internet, I’ll keep you posted!)


”Snowmobile”!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2006

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14 March, 2007

Tales from Germany, Part 3: Football!

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. The Allianz Arena by night
PHOTO: © Daniel De Granville, 2006


This week I am celebrating the anniversary of my assignments in Germany, and will continue telling some cool stories.

One of the reasons that took me there was the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Therefore, even though my photo work is essentially turned towards nature, I felt “obliged” to shoot some things related to football (or soccer, if you are in the USA) – which brought about an invitation for a second exhibit of my work at the Muffathalle.

This is how - thanks to acquaintances’ contacts and the essential support of friends such as Christopher and Arnold - I managed to get press credentials for two TSV 1860 München matches. For those of you who don’t know, the “Lions” (as their fans call them) are one of Munich’s pro football teams, along with worldwide known Bayern München. TSV is the #1 team of the masses, the unconditional “sufferers” who dream of their team returning to the first league of German football (their peak was in 1960, when they became champions of the major league).


Ticket and credential
PHOTO: © Daniel De Granville, 2006



Best of all? Both teams built Allianz Arena together – this is the world’s most modern football stadium, where the 2006 World Cup opening ceremonies took place. In other words, the “Löwen” matches would all happen there!

Match day, we got to the stadium by subway, everything extremely organized and civilized. At the entrance line, a thorough rummage by the security staff, I had my vest’s pockets full of lenses and other gear junk (and without being able to speak German to make myself understood...). But the guys were very polite and spoke English – showing them my press credential and the Brazilian team jersey that I was wearing underneath was enough! “Ok, you can go, enjoy the game!”. Vielen dank...

Now I had to get the official vest that gives full acsess to the football field. The guy in charge asks me for a journalist credential. I tell him I don’t have one, that I am a photographer participating in a cultural project sponsored by the city’s Department of Culture. He says that’s OK, “it can be some other document, I’ll give it back to you once you turn the vest back in”. I offer him my passport, he thinks it’s too much of a responsibility to keep such document. So I end up giving him the cheap plastic card that grants access to my town’s public recreation center. “Ah, this will do, just perfect!”.


Some biiiiig lenses...
PHOTO: © Daniel De Granville, 2006



At the playing field, after passing through the press room where there was a full banquet served, I meet several photographers lined up with their supertele lenses muuuuch more powerful than mine. A German lady photographer asks me: “in Brazil’s stadiums, do fans behave so badly as the ones from here”?? She must be kidding...

The match’s summary: TSV was desperately in need of a victory because they were in risk of falling to the THIRD league! They started out very well, scored 1 to 0, everything seemed to be heading towards a happy end. But suddenly, at the very last minute of the match some folks from the defense failed, the opponents tie the match… and I go back home with several cool images, including a shot of the electronic scoreboard showing TSV winning the match at half-time. “Congrats Daniel, this is the most rare scene you’ll ever be able to photograph in Germany!”, was the joke I heard from the always high spirited Löwen Fans...


"Daniel in the Lions’ Den"


(at the next match that I went to some weeks later, the “Löwen” won by 2 to 0 in a sensational game, and at least ensured their continuity in the second league – guess I brough them good luck...).


A lion’s embrace after a tie with the taste of defeat...
PHOTO: © Daniel De Granville, 2006

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08 March, 2007

Back to School, back to São Paulo...

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Opening page of my story on the Pantanal
published at Toyota Magazin (Germany)
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2006


In recent times, my work has naturally followed a path closely associated with communications – particularly talking about environmentally-related scientific subjects – be it in my duties as a photographer, biologist or naturalist guide.

Some good examples are the photos and articles that I published in Magazines such as Atualidades Ornitológicas (Brazil), Toyota Magazin (Germany) and at National Geographic’s website, the scientific publications about birds and conservation of private reserves in which I participated as an author, the Bonito Field Guide and the field works with elementary and undergrad students from Brazil and the USA.

For such reasons, lately I was thinking of undertaking some studies on the journalistic field. Hence I applied and got approved for a postgrad course on Scientific Journalism at Unicamp, one of Brazil’s major public universities. The course lasts for one and a half years, a period during which I will have to move from Bonito and the Pantanal to the region of Campinas (São Paulo State).

Stay tuned for more info about this sudden and very positive change – coming soon!


Cabeceira do Prata Private Reserve (Jardim, MS, Brazil)
Photo published at Horizonte Geográfico Magazine (Brazil)
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2005

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