Albania, landscape

Today finally I have some time to develop pictures from my time in Albania. Still impressed with the landscapes, here are a few sceneries from the mountains near Stegopul, southeast of Gjirokastra...

The "Empalaos" in Valverde de la Vera

I acumulated a lot of pictures in the last weeks and I did not have time to post anything here, so now I have to do it step by step... During a day trip through the mountains of Gredos we stopped at Valverde de la Vera. Many years ago, I tried myself as a photographer taking pictures all over the iberic peninsula, but I never was satisfied with any photo of this ancient and sinister act of penitence taking place every year in the early morning of good friday: men dressing up as "empalaos" and walking the streets of the town at night... The men who are becoming “empalaos” normaly made a promise to the Christ of Vera Cruz, a venerated image in a small chapel outside the village. This tradition comes from an older substrate of celtic initiation rites, so the actual cientific consense; in our days, overlayered by the Christian tradition, the "empalao" will pray the Via Crucis on the streets of Valverde de la Vera, an enchanting medieval town on the southern slopes of the Sierra de Gredos in Extremadura. The dressing up of an “empalao” is a difficult and solemn procedure and has to be done with special care. Normally the closer family members are with the empalao during the moments before going out on his way through the cold morning air of Valverde. The first piece an "empalao" has to put on is a white pettycoat. The body and both arms are surrounded with heavy cords and a big, heavy wood mast is put in horizontal position, to form a cross with the man's body. The sinister outfit is completed with a thorn crown, clanking chains and two crossed swords at the back. The whole event is surrounded by mistery and anonymity. Nobody knows the names of the empalaos except their families and their closest friends and those who help them to get dressed. Silence reigns in the streets and everywhere while they are walking on their particular Via Crucis…

Listen to the music: Voixmusik in Alps#7

Listen to the music: "Voixmusik - Hier spielt die Musik" in Alps#7 (05/2011),a reportage on the diversity of styles and the philosophy of so-called new or "young" alpine folk music by Dr. Claudia Teibler and illustrated with some of my photographs taken during the open air event "Night of the Alps" in Tegernsee. More: http://www.alps-magazine.com/

Some impressions of the Caritas Alp-X...

Here are some more pictures of the Alp-X with the children of the Caritas Kinderdorf Irschenberg. The story will be published in "Alps", spring 2012...

Alp-X Caritas Irschenberg

Congratulations to all of you! Hope to see you soon...

24th edition of the Garmin Alpen Triathlon in Schliersee

Some pictures of the 24th edition of the Garmin Alpen Triathlon in Schliersee (02-07-2011). For more information see: http://www.garmin-alpen-triathlon.de/

Almerer Alois, Ursprung Valley, near Bayrischzell

Almerer Alois invited me yesterday for an evening meal at his house in the Bavarian Alps after taking some pictures. He integrated himself in the specific circumstances of living in the alpine region after only a few years and he has a lot of interesting stories to tell, about personal things, about his work in the woods and with the animals, the new friendships he made...

"Ya tenemos el Sol, ahora vamos a por la Luna" - Madrid, Plaza Mayor

Last sunday on Madrids Plaza Mayor - I hope that all the exciting things happened and said during the last weeks in all major spanish cities will not burst like bubbles...

Real Democracy Now - Zaragoza

Assembly of representants of the Real Democracy Now-Movement from all over Spain this week-end in Madrid... Here is a picture of the Plaza del Pilar in Zaragoza from last week!

Real Democracy Now - Part III

Real Democracy Now - Part II

And here are some more pictures...

Real Democracy Now!

In the next days I will post some impressions of Plaza de Sol in Madrid - perhaps the last days of this great example of a peaceful movement for civic and moral values - for this time...

Beshket e Namuna - The Cursed Mountains, soon in DAV Panorama

Finally - DAV Panorama will publish my photo-essay and article about the Beshket e Namuna, the Cursed Mountains, in their summer issue 2011. Also known as Prokletije or Albanian Alps, the Beshket e Namuna is a mountain range in the Balkans that extends from northern Albania, to southwestern Kosovo and eastern Montenegro. Its highest point, Jezercë in Albania with 2,694 m is the tallest peak in the entire Dinaric Alps. Beshket e Namuna is a wild, myth-enshrouded region full of hidden pleasures...

Seseña - where the streets have no name

Building cranes, remainings of construction activities, empty, muddy spaces and wet asphalt: this is the aspect oft he macro urbanization called after ist promoter Francisco Hernando or Paco El Pocero near the town of Seseña, in the province of Toledo, only about 40 kilometers south of Madrid. After passing a pompous monument dedicated to this building tycoon the visitor enters a ghost town. The shutters of most oft he more than 6.000 flats are closed since the construction oft he buildings, in most oft hem never lived anybody, a boy passing the street with his dog, talking with his cell phone, produces an almost irreal echoe and feels almost as an unsettling and weird presence… Behind of this sad monument to speculation made of concrete and steel, another example for mismanagement and greed: over 10 acres of soil covered with old car tyres, more than 30.000 tons of rubber, supposed to be recycled, someday or somehow. Now it is known as the „black sea“, a stinking ocean separating Seseña and Valdemoro…

Interventions, State Building and the Future of European Foreign Policy

Public debate at Haus der Musik, Seilerstätte 30, 1010 Wien on Friday, 26 November 2010, 15.00 hours. I was invited after presenting my project "A forgotten promise" to the ESI (European Stability Initiative) and I took the chance to present some questions about the perspectives and the guidelines of European exterior politics concerning the situation of Roma refugees in the camps of Cesmin Lug and Osterode in Mitrovica, Kosovo. No one of the lecturers wanted to respond anything about the status of these so called Internally displaced persons living in these lead-polluted camps. Another trying to publicise the unbearable living conditions in Cesmin Lug and Ostarode for nothing... See also: http://aforgottenpromise.blogspot.com/2010/11/interventions-state-building-and-future_28.html

The God of Farmers - Leonhardi Ride in Schliersee (II)

The God of Farmers - Leonhardi Ride in Schliersee

Leonhard of Limoges, whose saint´s day is 6th of november, was a franconian noble and lived at the court of the Merovingians before he left his home and dedicated his life to christianity. In rural and alpine areas of Europe he is one of the most venerated saints, known above all as the patron saint for convicts and for cattle and horses. As in many bavarian villages in Schliersee most families participate in this old tradition. Women and girls put on their traditional costumes and their herited family jewellery, men and boys deck out horses with shining harnesses and adorn them with flowers and ribbons. Sitting on the carts or riding on horseback the faithful pray until they reach the pilgrimage church where all participants, men and animals, receive the blessing of the priest…