Please join us in VAGABUNDA POR EL MUNDO closing reception

I would love to see all my great Seattle friends this Friday at Neptune Coffee in Greenwood! It's the closing reception for my exhibit VAGABUNDA POR EL MUNDO, where you will be able to see some of the images I made during several photographic trips.

The joy of working as a photographer is not only about the photographic process, it is also getting to know the subjects. Conversations are as important as composition and execution. At the end of the day, when showing these images, people stand in awe not only with the phenomenal expressions of my fellow citizens but also with the little and big stories behind them. I am very fortunate to be able to show AND tell.

I would also love to invite you to check out my dear friend Lauri's blog, where she made a very nice mention about the show.
http://noesmuytipico.blogspot.com/2009/01/friday-pm-at-neptune-coffee-in.html

Hope to see you all there!

¡Bienvenida a Buenos Aires!

¡Hola, Buenos Aires!
Cabildo.
Encontré tus rasgos, (I found your features,)
tu sonrisa, (your smile,)
tus brazaletes, (your bracelets,)
tus planos (your blueprints)
y tus herramientas (and your tools)
en las abarrotadas calles bonaerenses. (In the jam-packed Bonaerense streets.)
¡Hola, Buenos Aires!

Simpáticas. (Nice)
Musas. (Muses)
Lunáticas. (Lunatics)
Alborazadas. (Lively)
Irreflexivas. (Light)
Ennumeradas. (Numbered)
Ubicuas. (Ubiquitous)

All Photos and Texts (and sudden translations) by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires

Florida street.
She embraces him.
“Ché, there is sun underneath your eyelids”.
She whispers, whispers two three four
ten words.
He is silent, he hugs,
rests his cheek
and shows.

Two birds, heat
four wings
feathers entwined
hints on the skin
spring bursts in Buenos Aires.
dermatologic
Romeo and Julieta.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires II

Florida,
a sensitive, allusive and evocative way
random
ephemeral elemental manifest
of the commercial music
the leather and the wool
the meats and the Malbec
of Argentines of peregrines
of idylls and love.

One day you will walk
into the roundness that precedes you
you’ll be a mother
maybe an Argentine wife.
Today you are distracted.
Today you’re the palm of a hand
a nose that breathes
earlobes that welcome sounds
the cacophony of Avenida Corrientes
one pair of eyelashes with makeup on
observing
sublime.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

En Argentino

Nos vimos
en la boca del argentino
dijo tu nombre
dijo el mío
acentos pausas inflexiones
como las voces de los nuestros
jamás nos han pronunciado
pasan de largo los bonaerenses
nos imagino tomados de la mano
discutiendo
lo romántico lo empírico lo malcriado
somos seremos distintos
en los bordes de Puerto Madero
los semáforos a nuestras espaldas
verano en enero
la palabra claxon
quizás
podríamos descansar
observarnos, inquirirnos
en lo que no es cotidiano
lejos de lo que enamoró a otros
en nuestras mínimas coincidencias
garabatos de lápiz que se consumen
imágenes
que tiemblan en los dorsos y reveses
promesas en mano
a full house doliente
en este altibajo que somos
tú y yo.


Photo and Poetry by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires

All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

En Pisaq te espero...

Alborea fresco claro
una luz que galvaniza imperceptible
aviva minúscula lo que yace, dormita
el observa como lo despierta
como lo hace bullicio y mercado
o silencio y misa quechua.
Las montañas peruanas crujen se abren
el clava sus ojos en mi.

Rodeos, ambigüedades, sutilezas
en formas figuras familiares
las chismosas oran sobre la carne
en monosílabos.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Pisaq, Peru.

Machu Picchu

One
Machu
(viejo)
Picchu
(cima)
una vista
sin palabras sin sílabas
perplejos
muy cerca
del Templo del Sol.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Machu Picchu, Peru.

Camino a Machu Picchu

Estás tan cerca
el aire
circula por tus hojas
porque eres vegetal
sinónimo de tantas bondades
el deseo de las plantas
de mis pies
de los movimientos
de mi estómago
eres responsable
de la ensoñación del día
de hoy.

Cuando vuelva
en algunos meses
en pocos años
pensaré
“¿seguirá tan triste cómo la recuerdo?
estaré en el tren
deseando otras expresiones para su rostro.
Pasaré por el mismo lugar
veré las mismas escaleras
y recordaré a la niña triste.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. On the way to Machu Picchu, Peru.

Diptych

Her figure
of immovable eyes
of constant age
a singular expression, still
an evocation, an allusion, an expose
revealing latitudes
discrepant, enraptured.
Uncovering a figure
on paper.

Her hands
the light on her nails
on the seams and stitches of the fabric
on the needle that goes, laboriously,
down and up, down and up.
She works in the market
a seamstress
right next to the beauty salon,
to the lady that sells fish,
and the couple that waits
around their display of sandals.
She smells like rambutan and mangoes
like leeks and hairspray
there is a little of all
in her.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Young Cambodia

All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Still - Move

Still (Room)

Move (Car)

All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Yangon, Myanmar.

Devotion

Ella

El

Juntos

Devoción

All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2006. Páramo Las Lajas, Trujillo - Venezuela.

Diptych

She was an heroic woman.
Her feet used
her eyes, her nostrils.
Yet she smiled for me
and posed.
I understood her
and she recognized me.
We sympathized.
She smiled for me.

She is beautiful
dim
brief.

All photos and texts by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007. Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Diptych

How beauteous! I conversed with him, and also with the place. I talked loud for his aging ears, I murmured to the ancient house. He got it just because he lived there for so long it naturally became his. Clean fingernails, an ashtray used for something different than flattening cigarette buts, his fan, his writings. We spent two hours together, and I got just an image per hour.

(Sea Breve / Cenicero. Charallave, Estado Miranda, Venezuela. Photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2006)

Flying and knotting

(All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007)

Flying cups and loose tiles

(All photos by Valentina Vitols. Copyright, 2007)