Comments for The Constant Eye

Comment on Bull with Fire by Paul

Paul — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:38:19 +0000

Thank you for the kind words about my pictures Jorge.

One of the things I love most about Spain is the astonishing variety of festivals and rites, many of them completely baffling to the outsider! Indeed I have never heard an explanation of many of them, and I’m not sure one exists. Great photographic potential.

Comment on Bull with Fire by jorge

jorge — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:25:03 +0000

Hello: I´m also make photos with two old Contax film cameras (28mm & 50 mm +Tmax 400) and after 25 year i enjoy like a child with a new toy. Usually I make pictures of rites in Spain; I wonder how this country gives no importance to this cultural heritage.
Your pictures are great. Congratulations.

Comment on Early Morning Mass by Paul

Paul — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:23:06 +0000

This picture has been selected by the highly respected black and white printer Robin Bell to appear in the exhibition in London in April 2009, to celebrate his 40 years in the darkroom. I think he does come out sometimes. We all have needs.

Comment on Stay warm by Paul

Paul — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:19:22 +0000

We hired a taxi to take us around to some of the villages. The driver asked, to clarify our request, “You want to go to the villages?”. We told him we did. He stroked his chin.

“It’s almost lunchtime. Everyone in the villages will be drunk by now.”

He looked at me with a straight face and put his head back and let out a bellowing laugh.

Comment on Unpaid Worker for the Oil Industry by Paul

Paul — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:13:40 +0000

On 19 November 2002 the ‘Prestige’, a bulk tanker carrying 77,000 tons of oil, broke in two and sank off the coast of Galicia, northwest Spain.

It had been obvious for some days that the vessel was about to break up. The captain had asked permission to bring his ship inshore and have the oil pumped off safely. The Spanish government had refused. Once the expected disaster had occurred oil started pouring out of the two halves of the ship even before they sank.

The governor of Galicia, previously a member of General Franco’s fascist government, issued orders to arrest the captain and then announced that he was going on a hunting trip for a few days.

While the oil made its way towards the coast the government insisted the captain was responsible and that the shipping line would pay any clear-up costs, but as one of the NGOs involved stated at the time “The Prestige is Bahamas flagged, American classed, Greek owned by a company that may or may not be registered in Liberia, and chartered by a business that could be Russian or Swiss. Nobody yet knows.”

The oil hit the beautiful rugged coast of Galicia a few days later and, while the government had no contingency plans or specialist equipment, volunteers from all over Spain arrived to help the locals clear up. Contamination caused the immediate closure of the fishing industry, the major local employer.

A month later the prime minister of Spain, José Maria Aznar, acknowledged that his government had made bad decisions, and that the ship would not have broken up if the captain had been given the assistance he had requested.

Two years later the wreck was still leaking oil.

Comment on Christ on a Beach by Paul

Paul — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:08:49 +0000

This picture was nominated for the 2007 Black & White Spider Awards in the Photojournalism section. Even though I’m not a photojournalist…