A 100% electric van

On 23/05/2012, workers of Nissan in Barcelona attend the presentation of new electric van e-NV200.

Nissan will build its new van model at its Barcelona plant, located in the Zona Franca district, next to the city’s port and airport. The new ‘e-NV200’ will be a totally electric vehicle, an evolution of the ‘NV200’, which is already built in the Catalan capital. The new model will bring an investment of €100 million and is expected to create 700 direct and indirect jobs. The ‘e-NV200’ will start to be assembled in 2013, and will be sold worldwide. In the first year, Nissan expects to build 20,000 units from Barcelona.

In the port of Barcelona


Dock workers in the new terminal of the Port

Last week I visited, in assignment of Bloomberg News Photos the TERCAT terminal located in the Port of Barcelona. TERCAT (Terminal Catalunya) is part of HPH, the group is the world’s leading port investor, developer and operator. HPH plans to develop TERCAT into its principal gateway port for Southern Europe. Recently TERCAT holds the concession to build and operate the new container terminal based at Muelle Prat.

I am very grateful to them for giving me the chance to visit and shooting the very new installations.

 

Barcelona e-motions

Barcelona e-motions is a photography service for tourists during their stay  in Barcelona, whereby a photographer follows the tourist around the city, taking pictures along the way. The client and the photographer agree on the itinerary prior to the tour, which includes visiting monuments and tourist spots: recreational, cultural and gastronomic highlights of the city. The photographer’s role is  to capture special moments against photogenic backdrops, when the lightning and atmosphere are at their best. The photographer makes the most of each opportunity to photograph the most spontaneous and unpredictable moments of the visit.

The tour lasts around half a day, and three different places are photographed. At the client’s request, the photographer can also  arrange other services through authorised organisations (such as hiring a car, tour guide, etc). The techniques used ensure the best fine-art printing results, offering top image reproduction and maintenance.

The photos come in two sizes: 24×30 and 30×40 (at different prices). The photographs are presented in a specially handcrafted folder (album), of a high quality suitable for preserving and protecting the photos. The intermediary’s (hotel or agency) logo can be used on the folder.

The folder includes:

  • 15 photos printed in the chosen format.
  • A letter describing the experience (written in the client’s chosen language).
  • A DVD of the original photos in high resolution.
  •  The photographer’s biography.

The product will be given to the client or posted to the client’s address. The client receives a unique, artistic and once-in-a-lifetime souvenir, which forms part of a very personal experience. The client also receives the legal rights to use the images, which can be kept in a folder or framed, printed from the DVD and/or sent to friends and family by email or published on social networking websites.

Who this is aimed at:

Tourists and visitors to the city: couples, families, groups of friends or work groups. This service is aimed at whoever wants to keep a memory of their visit to Barcelona but who wants something more than just a standard souvenir – an original product, developed from their personal interests or wishes. The client gets a new and exclusive product that makes them feel good about themselves or is just a memory of a special experience.

Sales:

Sold through the most exclusive hotels, travel agencies, tour guide agencies,  escort services or marketing and communication agencies.

Promotion:

Promoted through web galleries, photo exhibitions in hotels and direct marketing.

Any doubt  or questions about the price? Please contact Stefano directly at [email protected]

11/11/2011

Dani Plou Martí practicing Thai Chi in the City Hall of Barcelona. He is trying to calm himself down minutes before to get married on 11/11/2011. Congratulations to Cris and Dani.

 

The Last Bullfight

José Tomás in the Monumental Arena, Barcelona, September 25, 2011

The first bullfight in Catalonia took place in the 14th century; the last one was on September 25th.  Once deeply-rooted in this region of northeastern Spain, the spectacle of the corrida has succumbed largely to Catalan nationalist politics, as well as animal-rights activism and a failure to attract a new generation of young people.  But that Sunday every one of the 19,000 seats in Plaza Monumental was filled, testimony to an abiding passion for bullfighting,  Read more

Catalonia’s budget deficit

With an economy the size of Portugal’s, Catalonia accounts for 16 percent of Spain’s population, 19 percent of  gross domestic product and 27 percent  of its exports. With 30.3 billion of debt, however, represents 28 percent of  Spain’s combined regional debt pile. Catalonia is planning to cut public spending  by 10 percent this year. The story by Raphael Minder is published on the International Herald Tribune.

Some words about Stefano, by Braden Phillips

My friend Brad

Although I grew up in Manhattan, the city always felt just outside the sanctuary of my relatively quiet neighborhood in Peter Cooper Village, a housing project on First Avenue between 20th and 23rd Streets.  It bellowed and fumed over my shoulder, an infernal machine full of divine promise. It’s no surprise the atom was first split in the U.S. in a laboratory on the corner of Broadway and West 120th Street, releasing its titanic energy. New York is a kind of breeder reactor of human possibility, where incalculable volts have been produced over the years, for better and for worse. Read more

Roberto Saviano, a “national hero”


Roberto Saviano in Barcelona, February 2009 (photo: Stefano Buonamici)

In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra (a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization), exposing its territory and business connections.

Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling book Gomorrah (Gomorra in Italian), where he describes the clandestine particulars of the Camorra business, Saviano has been threatened by several Neapolitan “godfathers”.

En 2008 six Nobel Prize-awarded authors and intellectuals (Orhan Pamuk, Dario Fo, Rita Levi Montalcini, Desmond Tutu, Günter Grass, and Mikhail Gorbachev) published an article in which they say that they side with Saviano against Camorra, and they think that Camorra is not just a problem of security and public order, but also a democratic one.

Since 2008 he lives under a permanent police escort.

Joan Laporta goes in to politics

a story from the Helsinki Sanomat

Barcelona’s hidden gardens

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Hidden from view, behind the Barcelona’s grand facades in the district called Eixample, there are many public gardens and courtyards that offers refuge from the urban rush and an intimate view of everyday Barcelona life. A lot of these green spaces have been carved in recent years from the patios that form the center of each city block, and are reached down narrow passageways or by cutting through a building.