Photographs & Memories

 Amanheci em cólera. Não, não, o mundo não me agrada. A maioria das pessoas estão mortas e não sabem, ou estão vivas com charlatanismo. E o amor, em vez de dar, exige. E quem gosta de nós quer que sejamos alguma coisa de que eles precisam. Mentir dá remorso. E não mentir é um dom que o mundo não merece. Clarice Lispector  A descoberta do mundo. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1999. Santa Cruz do Sul, Brasil, 6 Março 2025

Porrentruy, Suisse, le 2 Juillet 2026  "Avez-vous réussi à dormir malgré le bruit ?", m'a demandé la serveuse au petit-déjeuner. "Pas vraiment", ai-je répondu. Tôt le matin, vers 5 heures, le match de football Suisse-Algérie était retransmis sur un grand écran près de l'hôtel. La serveuse a expliqué que les routes étaient encombrées et qu’elle avait eu du mal à se rendre au travail. Originaire de Galice, elle était fascinée de voir que les Espagnols et les Portugais encourageaient l’équipe nationale suisse tout autant que les locaux. Et je me suis dit en moi-même: à Sargans, qui compte exactement le même nombre d’habitants que Porrentruy, une telle chose serait inimaginable. Je m'étais trompé. Quelques jours plus tard, le chef de gare de Sargans m'a informé qu'il y avait un écran géant à la gare routière, qui était très fréquenté.

Entre Vendlincourt e Bonfol, le.  2 Juillet 2026 J'ai beaucoup apprécié ma randonnée entre Vendlincourt et Bonfol, même si elle a été bien plus longue que prévu. En regardant les photos aujourd'hui, j'ai l'étrange impression que, avec le recul, cette expérience m'apparaît encore plus belle.

Hiroshima Port, Japan, 11 October 2025 A Swiss couple, who stayed at the same hotel, told me of their plan to visit a nearby island for which boats were leaving from Hiroshima Port. So off I went to the port where hundreds of tourists waited to embark. Since this was clearly not for me I strolled around and took photos. The one above belongs to my alltime favourites.

Sargans, am 27. Juni 2026 Zuerst war es die Form, die mein Blick erfasste, dann, beim Nähergehen, die Innenseite der Pflanze, die ich hoffte, sichtbar machen zu können, was mir auch gut gelungen scheint.

  Santa Cruz do Sul, 2025 Die abgebildete Pflanze ist definitiv eine der von mir am meisten fotografierten. Ich habe Marcelo, der den Garten pflegt, gefragt, wie sie heisst. Das sei eine Bromelia, sagte er. Das sagst Du aber bei so ziemlich jeder Pflanze, erwiderte ich, worauf er lachend meinte, mit Bromelia liege er eben selten falsch, es gebe so viele Arten davon.

Santa Cruz do Sul, 3 Fevereiro 2025 Essa planta é muito pequena e não pode ser vista a olho nu.  Já não me lembro como a encontrei. Mas, pensando bem, fico surpreso  por tê-la descoberto.   E fico feliz com isso.

Santa Cruz do Sul, 4. Februar 2025 Die Vielfältigkeit der Natur ist unerschöpflich. Warum ich von gewissen Naturerscheinungen, darunter Palmen, nicht genug kriegen kann, wüsste ich nicht zu sagen, doch andererseits gehört das Gefühl von nie genug zu meinen Charaktermerkmalen. Doch davon abgesehen: Diese Palmenmuster sind schlicht ein ästhetischer Genuss.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 This is "my" first South Korean cactus. In fact, there were three on display (the other two were orange) yet I was in a hurry (or so I thought) when I passed them by.  However, about 500 meters past I returned and took some photos. It had been a good decision for when I returned around thirty  minutes later, the shop had closed and the cactus were nowhere  to be seen.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 I guess what prompted me to take this picture was that when I looked at it I felt intrigued by nature's ways. ,I'm completely fascinated by this chaos  –  which no artist could ever  have created  –  and which strikes me as utterly aesthetic.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 When crossing the street, I saw this flower in front of a flowershop, approached it, took the photo while not really feeling at ease for I remembered that I once photographed various flowers outside a flowershop in Trieste which prompted the owner to furiously shout at me that the flowers had to be bought and were not there  to be photographed.

Santa Cruz do Sul, 9 December 2021 How these patterns form is beyond me. The larger question of course is: What makes nature tick the way it does? No question that could better illustrate how little we know.

Hiroshima, 11 October 2025 The limitations of my mobile phone camera become especially apparent when I want to capture more than just a detail. Differently put, I'm well aware that this pic paints a distorted version of what had been in front of the lens, it however shows pretty well, I think, my attempt to compose something pleasing the eye.  

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 I'm very much taken by Korean architecture, even the most unremarkable aspects intrigue me  – as I'm sure the above picture demonstrates.

  Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 Contemplating the various forms in which nature presents itself is truly awesome. The work of literally  every artist pales against it.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 It is baffling that I was able to go through most of my life without realising that there are flowers virtually everwhere. I'm deeply grateful that I can see and appreciate them now. Nothing is more soul warming than to recognise beauty.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 I feel truly enchanted by the zoom-feature of my cell phone for it allows me to see a world I had been most ignorant of.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 I arrived in South Korea on 4 June 2026. Since then, it has never rained. The first time it did was on 20 June. Temperatures were constantly between around 18 to 30 degrees Celsius.

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 70 percent of the country consists of mountains, I'm told, and thus cannot be inhabited. Needless to say, some still try yet most seem to live in skyscrapers.

Santa Cruz do Sul, 5 February 2026 This picture shows part of the new annex of the school where I regularly teach intensive courses in English conversation during the Brazilian summer holidays.  The photo, to me, is an attempt at catching the sunlight that at this very moment fell on the school patio. Needless to say, only for a brief moment the scene looked like that.  

Andong, South Korea, 20 June 2026 You can't see what you see here with your naked eye. The camera (especially when using the zoom feature) shows me a world beyond my natural ability to see.

Gyeongju, South Korea, 18 June 2026 This is what you get to see when you step out of the train station in Gyeongju. If you want to tell people that they do not matter as individuals, you make them live as faceless objects in concrete jungles.

Gyeongju, South Korea, 17 June 2026 Ir was a great surprise to see these flowers in a  flower shop in Gyeongju because so far I've only seen  them in Brazil. Yet another lesson that life is teaching us:  flowers know no  political entities (which are arbitrary despite  o ur historical reasonings),  they only know climates.

Gyeongju, South Korea, 17 June 2026 Framing is not just a question of what to leave in  or out of the frame; it is also about what I decide to focus on. Moreover, it is a creative act by which I present my  personal way of seeing.

Maribor, Slovenia, 10 November 2025 I remember how surprised I was that hardly a youngster seemed to speak German (the Austrian border is close). English was the language  of choice, a nowadays common phenomenon, I learned. My handy-camera is not suitable for pictures of buildings (as one can see) yet I simply couldn't resist the glassfront that intrigued me.

Maienfeld, 28 September 2023 Das interessiert mich überhaupt nicht, Sascha! Privat können Sie meinetwegen denken, was Sie wollen, ja. Da rede ich Ihnen auch nicht rein. Aber hier, hier haben wir bestimmte Prinzipien, an die wir uns halten, alle, verstehen Sie: alle. Und jetzt mal klipp und klar: Den Lebensabend unserer Bewohner, den bezeichnen Sie bitte nie wieder - hören Sie: nie wieder - als 'Restlaufzeit'.Haben Sie mich verstanden? Jens Sparschuh: Das Leben kostet viel Zeit

Copenhagen, 27 June 2012 I've often been to Copenhagen, my friend Alex lives there. Quite obviously, I'm not the only one who takes pictures there, however not the kind that I tried to document here. This kind of photographs belongs to the reassurance category: they prove, and assure me, that I exist, been there and done that.

Pohang, South Korea, 15 June 2026 I have taken numerous pictures of the building of which the above image originates. Since the window bars are slightly blurred, I went back to take some other pics yet the light had changed. So in the end, I decided to be fond of the shot with the blurred window bars.  

Pohang, South Korea, 15 June 2026 When it comes to flowers, I'm totally ignorant. In a conventional sense, that is, for I rarely know how they are called. Well, it has never interested me, and it still doesn't. In fact, I do know so little about botany that I'm surprised to find the above flowers here in South Korea since I have seen them before in France, I think. Which to me means that they belong to France. Yes, I do know that similar climates will generate similar flowers ... nevertheless ...  

Pohang, South Korea, 13 June 2026 I was looking down from a pedestrian bridge when I discovered this, to my eyes, pretty uniquely covered bench. Later this Sunday, I took many more pictures but they didn't  seem to turn out much better.

Pohang, South Korea, 13 June 2026 I usually photograph flowers from the front. It’s rare for me to take  pictures of them from behind, and when it’s windy, as it was in this case,  it takes quite some patience not to give up.