August Sander

August Sander (1876 –1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. 

Sander's first book Face of our Time (German: Antlitz der Zeit) was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century."

Francesc Català Roca

Francesc Català-Roca (Valls, 1922 - Barcelona, 1998) is considered one of the first Catalan photojournalists. 

His work has transcended because of the strangeness of his point of view (absolutely contemporary) and because it reflects on the time and is very aware of the power of image information.

Català-Roca considered himself as a professional photographer who tried to capture everyday reality, believing in short that he was more a documentalist than an artist. Nevertheless his work combines reality with beauty, thanks, among other things, to his natural ability to get in touch with the people he portrayed. 

Mooses in Sweden

No country has as many moose per km² as Sweden, even though some 100.00 are shot by hunters every year. 

Nothing new about that, these photo's date from the 1950's. Little has changed since, apart from the hunter's attire maybe. These days baseballcaps and bright orange beanies are the standard, while 60 years ago a small diameter black beret would do.

Personally, I prefer to see these majestic animals in real life:

Portugal

Even though Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with beret-rich Spain, beret wearing has never hit it big in this country. Some famous Portuguese are well known for being boineros too though, like  José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, Manuel Cabanas, Joaquim Pereira Teixeira de Vasconcelos and Miguel Torga.

A nice surprise all the more to find these great pictures in my mailbox (thanks PLG); some great shots of Portuguese fishermen and boinero kids happily munching away on some Portuguese steps. 

More traditional to Portugal is of course the Barrete Preto Pescador, the traditional Portuguese black fishermen's “barrete”, made of 100% wool with cotton/viscose lining.

A genuine artisan made Portuguese hat, still in every day use by the fishermen of Nazaré on Portugal’s Costa de Prata (Silver Coast).

Secua, a dentist/healer from Bilbao

Secua was a self-taught dentist and itinerant healer of uncertain origin who alleviated infantile paralysis, extracted teeth, healed the rheuma and manufactured a miracle ointment whose rights ended up being sold to a pharmacist from the Casco Vieja (Old Quarter of Bilbao).  

He always worked in the open air and was accompanied by an orchestra (trombone, drum, bass drum and cymbals); music therapy whose melodies served as an anaesthetic for his patients.

Vicente Jodra Sanz

Vicente Jodra Sanz (1845-1922) was a street flute player. Born in Pamplona, ​​he is believed to have arrived in Bilbao in the 1880s as a military musician. Discharged from the service at statutory age, he began to supplement his miserable pension by playing the flute through the streets of Bilbao.

He had a broad and opportunistic repertoire, folded to any taste and ideology, and topped with a personal bragging: to play the flute through the nose.

El Madriles from Bilbao

"Madriles” was the nickname of an otherwise unknown Bilbaoan, who died in the great flood of Bilbao in August 1983.

Madriles lived and work in the Casco Vieja (the Old Quarter), collecting cardboard and paper for recycling and to earn a meager living.

Friendly bar and restaurant owners usually ensured he didn’t get hungry or thirsty. 

He used to say that a better world was possible; he believed and defended it. Good-natured and idealistic, he only plucked officials, because, he said, they “sold their lives for a plate of lentils”.

The WORLD, from New Zealand

To my enormous surprise, I found that there is another beret label from New Zealand. Yes, there is Hills Hats (whose berets are principally made in Pakistan and only finished here), but fashion label WORLD now has it's own model.

WORLD was established in Auckland in 1989 by Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper.  Fuelled by their energy and passion, their vision and work has seen their label develop from a cupboard at the back of an arcade, to one of the leading fashion houses in New Zealand. Certainly WORLD is this country's fashion house that is most widely regarded as being "avant-garde". 

The berets are made of 100% NZ grown merino wool, are unlined and fitted with a sized headband; made in New Zealand. By whom, I don't know unfortunately (as said to be a trade secret).

The berets sell at NZ$199.00 through WORLD's online store. 

Âmes vaillantes

The Âmes vaillantes magazine was created by Éditions Fleurus in December 1937, for young girls. Less known than Cœurs vaillants, it nevertheless appeared until 1963.

Due to the German invasion in June 1940, Fleurus's editorial team retreated to Clermont-Ferrand and then to Lyon, and published a few issues under the common name “Cœurs vaillants et Âmes vaillantes ". This joint publication continued bimonthly until 1944.

The publication was interrupted in September 1944, because of paper restrictions.

Âmes vaillantes reappears under its original name in September 1946. At first biweekly, eventually the magazine becomes weekly. 

Cœurs Vaillants (Brave Hearts)

Cœurs Vaillants (Brave Hearts), known later as J2 Jeunes and Formule 1, was a Catholic French language weekly newspaper for children.

Founded in 1929 by l'Union des œuvres catholiques de France (The Union of Catholic Works of France; UOCF), the weekly newspaper targeted readers aged 11 to 14 to become part of l'Action catholique des enfants (The Catholic Action for Children; ACE). The newspaper is notable for introducing The Adventures of Tintin to France.

Cœurs Vaillants was prohibited in the Zone occupée (Occupied Zone); it was replaced by the small periodical Belles Histoires de Vaillance (Beautiful Stories of Valor).

The French comics series Sylvain et Sylvette was created by Maurice Cuvillier in 1941 and appeared first on the pages of Cœurs Vaillants. Later it was published in a different French magazine, Fripounet et Marisette.

In 1963, now published by Editions Fleurus, Cœurs Vaillants took the more contemporary name J2 Jeunes (J2 Youth). The "J" referred to "Jeudi" (Thursday), the day of publication, which is the day French children did not attend school. In 1971, the magazine was renamed Formula 1. In 1981, Formula 1 ceased publication.

Wheelchairs, Escalators and Berets

Travelling in Aragon and the Basque Country last May, I saw many members of the older generation enjoying the outdoors from their wheelchairs.

Nothing newsworthy in itself, but what did really strike me were the facilities that were put in place for people of old age and/or disabilities.

Signage on monuments, ruins, old buildings, etc may have been in Spanish and Euskara only (and not in English), they did provide for the blind with the text in braille.

In the old cities, typically built on hills, escalators were installed, to enable people of all ages and abilities to live their life as independently as possible.  

I had to think of my own city Wellington and how unfriendly it is to disabled people with steep, narrow roads, footpaths changing from one side of the road to another, broken pavements, cars typically parked on the footpath. 

Great to see places where things are thoughtfully different!

Braille, lower left corner:

Stained Glass and Berets

When staying in Leintz-Gatzaga on my last trip in Guipuzcoa, I had dinner at the Gure Ametsa restaurant outside the town. Not only did they prepare me a lovely vegetarian meal, I also found a beautiful cabinet behind the bar with stained glass windows portraying many berets.

  

A quick internet search showed me there are many more berets depicted in glass to be found (not all as beautiful as the ones above) and also actual berets inspired by stained glass - the full circle, really.

Maybe not berets in the literal sense of the word, but I find these crocheted berets in bright colours quite stunning in their own right. Then, I found another beret in stained glass, made by Maire Genevieve Gallois,a nun in Petit Appeville (Normandy, France), fitted in the small church of the village.

Reinvented Citroëns

Followers of this blog know about by long time love affair with Citroëns; 2CV's and Type HY at the very top.

The Citroën H or HY was developed as a simple front wheel driven van after World War II. A total of 473,289 were produced in 34 years (1947-1981) in factories in France and Belgium. Rare to see on the road “in the wild”, but recently they have become very popular as rotisserie/falafel/vegan burger stall on markets and street fairs. They have even made it to New Zealand as hipster fast-food outlets..

Italian architect Luca Agnelli, meanwhile, missed the beautiful 2CV (production stopped in 1990) and designed an environmental alternative: an e-bike based on the classic model by Pierre Boulanger.

Gaztelugatxe

Gaztelugatxe is an islet on the coast of Biscay. It is connected to the mainland by a man-made bridge. On top of the island stands a hermitage (named Gaztelugatxeko Doniene in Basque; San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Spanish), dedicated to John the Baptist, that dates from the 9th century.

With another small neighboring island, Aketx, they form a protected biotope that extends from the town of Bakio until Cape Matxitxako, on the Bay of Biscay.

The strategic location of the site has given it an important role in historic episodes. It was one of the places where the Lord of Biscay, Juan Núñez de Lara, confronted Alfonso XI, King of Castile, in 1334.

In 1594 it was attacked by the Huguenots of La Rochelle, who sacked it and killed the caretaker. In the 18th century it was assaulted by English troops; in the Spanish Civil War the naval Battle of Cape Machichaco took place nearby.

It is not so much the 231 steps up to the hermitage that wears one out in 32oC; the return walk to my car was a lot steeper, longer and hotter. Luckily, a well-placed café helped out.