"Photo in Natura" ?!?

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Our new upcoming logo!
Concept and artwork: © Daniel De Granville | Tietta Pivatto, 2008

Many of you who are used to visiting Fotograma | Photography and Environment have been asking me what's this "Photo in Natura" story all about. Well, here's the explanation: my website is being totally re-created with a brand new design, a lot of unpublished pictures and many other online resources. As part of this new process of visual identification, the brand Fotograma will become Photo In Natura.

In the mean time, you are invited to keep on visiting the original versions of Fotograma and its equivalent blog, FotogramaBits, always with new contents. Be welcome, and please don't forget to bookmark us for future references!

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Spiders in my Backyard (again!)

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.One little, two little, three little spiders...
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I posted a story here in FotogramaBits about a Brazilian Wandering Spider who decided to take a stroll in our garden. Well, last night one of its relatives (a wolf spider of the genus Lycosa) dropped by for a visit – and this time with a bunch of babies on its back! I obviously registered the event with my camera, but despite the fact that this spider can be dangerous, I was more worried that it wouldn't drop a baby on the way than about getting bitten...

Now, changing subjects, I’d like to recommend a peculiar website that I came across (tailor-made for photographers and cat lovers): this German lady places automatic mini-cameras on her cats’ collars, who inadvertently register their walks through the neighborhood. The idea isn’t exactly new – the so called critter cams have been used by the National Geographic and other companies, but I never heard of them on house cats...

... a whole bunch of little spiders!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2008
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Beautiful Ugliness

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. Flowers on the banks of the more-than-polluted Tietê River
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2007

It seemed like a great photo program for the weekend, combining nature and history: to go around the Japi Mountains stopping by historical towns of great importance during Brazil’s colonial period, such as Santana de Parnaíba and Pirapora do Bom Jesus. Camera in hand, hit the road. No maps nor commitments, relying on surprises as proper fuel for a little adventure.

After several curves that unveiled beautiful mountain landscapes, all of a sudden we began seeing a dike with some stuff hanging from the waterside vegetation. The first impression we had was that they were egrets, but a closer look showed colors and the surprising conclusion: those were countless pieces of garbage – bottles, grocery store bags, torn clothes and other unidentifiable items (besides a handful of stubborn birds). “But we are arriving at such a small town, it seems quite unlikely that the population of this place can produce so much junk”, we thought.

But we soon found out. All of that was coming from the State capital São Paulo, through the Tietê River. The State’s most important waterway, which in the past carried the Bandeirantes explorers and granted great historical importance to these localities, now only brings trash and stench.

On the bridges over the river, in the towns’ squares, bars and restaurants around, life seemed to go on at its normal pace. Children were playing, a car’s loudspeakers announced the big dancing ball that would happen some hours later. The phenomenon that uglifies the town’s pretty architecture is rather recent, having become more intense in 2003. It’s impossible not trying to understand how can people live like this, how they gradually get used to this inconceivable reality?

Ultimately, the peculiar contrast between the dark water and the white foam – which resembled floating blocks of tropical ice – yielded some good images, even pretty if we neglect the sad truth.

Environmental pollution and visual pollution...
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2007


READ MORE:
Polluted River Covers Brazilian Town with Foam

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