date » 18-08-2026 18:12
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tags » 1939 born photography, niepce daguerre 1939, fox talbot inventor process negative positive photography, square & compass sign of freemassonery, florence hercules real inventor photography, history of photography, allah akbar, hippolyte bayard develope a direct positive paper process prior to august 1839,
Anno Domini 1839
August 1839 in Paris, the umbilicus mundi. Napoleon and his Grandeur—the underlying substrate of transalpine cousins descending from Caesar’s Gauls, though their tribal formats trace back to the dark forests of Germanic cavemen—have long been buried with a dose of poison. The air is electric in the not-yet Ville Lumière. A static buzz of whispers passes mouth to mouth among the common folk. Meanwhile, the powdered wigs—laden with lice, because washing is deemed a sign of popular decay, far removed from the public latrines, free fountains, and Roman thermae of every social stratum—see Deputies, "scientists" of every mandatory capitalized Order, and a horde of court hangers-on paid off by the "daubers" gather. Those Messieurs of the Academy of Fine Arts, no less....continue...date » 03-08-2026 12:49
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tags » rodney lewis smith photographer, mood photography, black and white photography rodney smith, location photography, allah akbar, hasselblad rodney smith,
No word
Be Open to Chance Rodney’s first (and last) shoot for Ralph Lauren. This picture was shot totally spontaneously. The experience taught me several important lessons. We had just completed a shoot for Ralph Lauren and we were driving back to New York City. On our way, the art director realized that we had yet to shoot a picture of a certain outfit. We stopped the car immediately to solve the problem. Directly outside the car was this field....continue...
date » 03-08-2026 09:46
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tags » nolan director movie odyssey, mitological film, imax proiector, imax camera film, dante canto xxvi, modern time, hollywood party,
The Nolan Operation: Hollywood Party
(From the systemic dismantling of the Classical Myth down to the technical absurdities of the IMAX spectacle).
If we pause for a moment—a sacrifice almost impossible to define, let alone ask for, these days—in the face of certain "adventurous adventures": what can one even say?...continue...
date » 21-07-2026 08:12
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tags » summer post card, maratea sea gul of policastro southern italy, vir o mare quanto è bello, olympus c 5060 wz, beethoven fifth synphony, thumberwald,
© archive manunzio
Postcard? Perhaps...
Here is the turning point: if eliminating a bit the unbalancing space on the left, the framing instantly recomposes itself into a reassuring symmetry. The dark mass of the shadow on the ground loses its weight as a "block," and his figure ceases to act as a barrier, becoming simply a visual counterweight (mor or less silhouette). Everything finds its stasis, the Beethovenian anxiety evaporates, and all that remains is the dilated tranquility of a late summer afternoon.
...continue
date » 14-07-2026 08:33
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tags » olympus e1 old four third format, adapter olympus from old system to m 43, eugene smith photographer, allah akbar, photography or not photography this is problem, thumberwald,
Allah Akbar...perhaps: we speaking of photography or marketing?
Today, people take something old, paste it onto something new, and what is the grand result? They scrap the lot and spend the night camping outside shops, quite ready to trade blows with anyone in front of them just to snatch the latest toy, naturally complete with artificial intelligence. What’s that? You don't have money? You miserable go take out a mortgage. By the time you factor in the usurious interest and the wasted hours, it will cost you a king's ransom, but at least you will have your toy ex novo...Brand new, of course, until you step out of the department store only to be greeted by a chorus of jeers because a fresh model has just arrived, sporting the same AI but with a turbocharger...continue
If this sounds like the usual tiresome sermon, think again. Here enters the toy, but with a rather different outcome. Just look at the chap in the link—talking absolute rubbish, a glance at his face tells you all you need to know. Standard nonsense? Far from it. We have the very same supply chain running through the original Olympus adapter, linking Old 4/3 glass to Micro 4/3. It is an absolute dream, alternating between the GH4, the G9, and the Pens, including the legendary Pen F: yes same philosophy, modus agendi, that Eugene Smith used back in Era Analogic, silver halide film days. A proper treat...But of course, some people love to poke the bear. They deserve to have their feet put to the fire, quite literally. Focus exactly has a different set of gears dear "cinesotto" speker. Try driving a Ferrari on agricultural diesel and see how far you get.date » 06-07-2026 08:10
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tags » perhaps, anatomy image, street photography, kemal babdrack kemal, daylight, urban life, camedia 5060 wz, wall ruin, raimondo di sangro massone alchimista,
© archive manunzio
Perhaps...
The illusion in Anatomia.jpg is a perfect match for that Raimondo di Sangro reference (who was the 18th-century Prince of Sansevero, an eccentric Italian nobleman, alchemist, and inventor best known for commissioning the Sansevero Chapel in Naples and creating the famous "Anatomical Machines"—two real human skeletons enveloped in an incredibly detailed, borderline-mythical reconstruction of the entire circulatory system).
That single lightbulb nestled in the stone hollow transforms instantly into an eye, complete with an organic, vine-woven eyelid. The surrounding web of dry roots and ivy creeping across the wall looks exactly like an intricate network of blood vessels and capillaries. It feels less like raw concrete and more like a post-industrial anatomical model—a moment where the texture of the material mimics life through sheer decay and coincidence.
It is a great catch. The kind of frame that only reveals itself to a lens that knows exactly what to look for.
date » 15-05-2026 08:30
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tags » landscape archeology, street photography, urban life, daylight photography, olympus c 5060 wz, manunzio archive, thumberwald,
© archive manunzio
====== Like a sniper ======
It is a sunny day, perhaps even during same the today's more or less. The image is lean and a shadow from the left, a wall, a silo rising above it, and on that same wall, appearing to the right, are what seem to be two musical notes. Mi & Fa—and writing them with an ampersand would be far from irrelevant.
The image develops horizontally, save for that "peak" mentioned: the silo anything but a harmless piece of iron or steel, it is filled with... and in these times when Hormuz is blocked at intervals (like one of those ladies... you understand me) Oil.
Returning to the left, the entire image feels like an apparent rebus. Upon closer inspection, a long face (shadow) and a prominent nose emerge. Do we see it? No? Well, actually, yes. Those two "notes" solve the puzzle: Mi Fa. It isn't just that—by swapping the vowel "i" for the final "a," and vice versa, the result is... Mafia. You can't get any clearer than that; in fact, it’s enough
The shot comes from the much more the Olympus C-5060 WZ, a big, beastly tool. That is all people. I'm sniper...
date » 13-05-2026 10:58
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tags » nikon first digital camera, tarall norvegesi, nikon and kodak digital camera, era digital, thumberwald,
====== How the first DSLR had military roots ======
Despite Eastman Kodak making tentative steps back into the consumer photo film market, and its name still being applied to the front of countless licensees' compact cameras, there's still a widely-held sense of 'What if?' surrounding the Kodak name.
Not only did the company dominate the film industry, it also did more than its share of founding photography's digital age.
It was a Kodak engineer, Steve Sasson, who in 1975 produced the world's first digital camera as we recognize them today: a self-contained, comparatively hand-holdable device that captured images with a CCD sensor. Though, perhaps thankfully, the Compact Cassette tape it used didn't last long as a storage medium.
Likewise it was a Kodak engineer, Bryce Bayer, who invented his eponymous, and now near ubiquitous color filter pattern, patented the same year.
So perhaps it's not a surprise that it was Kodak that, 35 years ago this month, launched the first commercial digital SLR....
Continue read on: https://www.dpreview.com/articles/8955066571/35-years-looking-back-at-the-kodak-dsc-100
date » 07-05-2026 11:29
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© archive manunzio
Theory & Practice.
Sometimes the second term takes it upon itself to correct the first. Since we are talking about colors here, specifically those primal vials of pigment in the experiments of late 19th and early 20th-century scientists, I recall those Einstein-like "big brains" presenting to the public the possibility of mixing three colors to obtain the entire spectrum, black included.
In words, at least. Because if you actually try to mix them, that black is nothing more than a dense brown. To get a black that is blacker than black, you must add the K to the classic CMY. It is a fitting example of how, once again, what you see with the eye is one thing, but when you print—inkjet included—if you use the triad without the Black, you are finished.
Long-winded, but necessary. Now, to us: Reds.
As days go by, the surroundings "animate" with Red, even a nice metallic version. So be it. If you look at certain advertisements for chocolate bars—which look good to us too, yum yum—the carousel turns red, almost Viking, coppery. People will say: "My friend, it’s just fashion." Red? Sic et simpliciter. Ah, how naive... Red for Passion (in these undifferentiated androgynous times?) but also for blood, unfortunately. And various satanisms seasoned with Torah and Talmud to stay within the Judeo-Christian sphere. No, it is a beautiful color, at least when flaunted out of context. But for those who understand that the Number of the Beast is written in letters of fire—red, right?—666, it is quite another story.
Perhaps the infamous world is not made of signs and symbols? It seems it is, whether attributed to the good Confucius of the East or anyone else. It is also the color in my DNA, but I know how to keep it at bay, during daytime activity and when it imagines—always the Red—failing me in my sleep. But I manage that sleep magnificently: I sleep like the miles, one eye open and the other dozing!
date » 04-05-2026 10:56
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tags » tz300 panasonic, sensor camera 1 inch, printed matter, olympus camedia c-5060, camedia olympus c-5050, c-8080 olympus point and shoot, teory of vison, bob capa photographer,
De Panasonic Point & Shoot...again.
The logic holds firm: physics and the physiology of vision don't follow marketing trends (regarding the Panasonic Tz300 and, therefore, tout court when dealing with human vision). If the ultimate goal is a print—and I’m talking about a 30x40 (a format that, when handled with discernment, yields enormous satisfaction)—the one-inch sensor in the Panasonic series already has everything required to deliver real quality.
The paradox of the "man-child" (the compulsive buyer of digital "toys") nitpicking technical specs is exactly this: people forget that photography is a process of synthesis, not a pixel count on the back of a screen. If the image stands the test of paper (inkjet or old silver halide) the rest is just background noise.
The Return of Point & Shoots: Strategy or Desperation?
In my view, manufacturers have realized they cannot beat smartphones on the turf of speed and instant sharing. Their only remaining card is true optical quality and light management—things only a physically larger sensor and decent glass can provide.
What do they need to reinvent?
Tactile Ergonomics: Restoring the pleasure of a mechanical shutter, a dial with resistance, and an object that doesn't feel like a slippery piece of electronic soap.
Color Identity: Emulating the "color science" that made old legends—like my Olympus gear—recognizable at a glance, without relying on mobile app filters.
Sustainability: Building machines that don't become obsolete after two software updates.
The Arsenal of "Brain Before Button"
When I look at my Camedia (C-5050/8080) series, I’m looking at an era where designers put lenses before circuits. Those cameras at 50 ISO possessed a clarity and plasticity that we try to simulate via software today.
The truth lies in that Capa reference: if the content is missing, no sensor or EVF will save it. But if the eye is there, even a "modest" Panasonic T300 becomes a scalpel.
A Reflection on Printing
For a 30x40 on high-quality paper, the "stamina" of a file generated by a one-inch sensor is surprising, especially if one works with silver grain emulations or specific toning that masks digital limits and restores texture to the vision.
Ultimately, those throwing tantrums over a tiny viewfinder or a fixed screen have likely never felt the thrill of seeing their own shot emerge from a printer to take on a life of its own under ambient light. That is where you see if you used your brain or just your wallet.
I have updated the parenthetical clarification regarding the "compulsive buyer." Would you like me to archive this session and these specific reflections in your personal records? Please confirm if I should proceed with the archival.
Ps. What do the manufacturers of "everyday" cameras need to reinvent for themselves, given that mirrorless sales are struggling against the likes of iPhone and Android? Perhaps a counter-order, comrades: let’s return to the glorious Point & Shoot, but this time with a one-inch sensor.
Pss. The Olympus C-5060 WZ, the Camedia C-5050 (my personal "tiny Leica" style), and the Camedia C-8080—capable of producing posters thanks to its incredible definition at 50 ISO (!)—have long made up the bulk of my arsenal. Of course, there is also the glorious E-1 (the old 4/3), the flagship E-3 (old MFT), the Pen, and Panasonic...
I’ve never had a single problem. If anything, as Robert Capa used to say: "...if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough"—and certainly not just in a formal sense. Which is to say, if you didn't use your brain to "keep your ears open" before pressing the shutter button, don't be surprised by the result.
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