Today it was one of those days of forced introspection, as the mind decided to wake up in a restless state, in need of reorienting paths and drawing horizons. These are strange times we are living in, where the frantic and numb consumption of images leaves their stories behind, with increasingly less people conscious of the importance of stopping and breathing, to be able to receive the treasures that creation brings to our inside. The finger slides impatiently through the smartphone screen, the mind oblivious and removed from that same moment, waiting to find itself, but meeting nothing except emptiness. The richness of things is extremely far away from the rush we put into them, and is always waiting to be found between moments of inner silence.
And so I found myself spontaneously grabbing an image made a few years ago, which was waiting for an editing that would make justice to a very special moment, a moment which deserves to pause and breathe. This photo was made in one of my favorite Portuguese beaches, in Vila Nova de Milfontes. Under the right light and tide height, this beach reveals an incredible rock pattern in the ground, allowing for endless compositions.
Soon after I arrived to this spot, the place was suddenly filled with a heavenly-like music, coming from a very strange instrument, played by a slender figure sitting on the sand. I had never heard the hypnotizing sound of the “hand pan”, e was extremely curious about it. As soon as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, suddenly the musician approaches me and asks me to take some photos of him! No landscape photographer likes to see these precious minutes of golden light being disturbed, but in this special situation I thought it would be fair to retribute for the lovely music.
After making some photos of him, I got the sunset just for me again, and in the end I was able to know the name of the talented musician – Geronyom – e after a few weeks I had the pleasure of sending him one of the photos I made.
And so, returning to what I wrote in the beginning, about the finding the richness of things when they are allowed to breathe, here’s what Geronyom wrote about this photo when he published it on his page: “All I am is in this picture. Music saved my life in 2008 when i was living in Helsinki – Finland. My heart was broken and I was getting sick. Since then I’ve been playing all different kind of musical instruments and healing hundreds maybe thousands of people.”
Location: Vila Nova de Milfontes – Portugal
All images are available for licensing or sale as print.
Contact José Ramos for more info.