José María & Jazzy Moon

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Until the Werlisa Color…

… I didn't realize I had been on the boring side of the camera

It was at the age of seven when I managed to cross the line that separates those who pose from those who decide:

the first are immortalized for eternity, the second, …, create eternity.

Crossing to the other side

It was my mother who gave me the chance, with my father reluctantly witnessing: “He’s going to drop it, and we’ll be left without the new camera.”

With the Werlisa hanging from my neck and almost touching the ground, I climbed up to the rooftop and took my first shot, framing the bell tower of the Logrosán church at the top of the viewfinder.

And I’m still on the other side…

… almost 60 years later, when black and white is now just an option for nostalgics, and AI has replaced the darkroom, the developing liquids, and the enlarger.

It was hard for me to give up film, but now I won’t step off the cloud, which seems to be where photographs reside these days.

For now, I remain on the side of the camera that I like, although, ever since phones transformed, no one knows which side they’re on anymore.

Where does JM² come from?

That summer of '69 seemed within our reach through a black-and-white television, from which Hermida’s unmistakable voice also escaped. It was then that the Moon started to become something important to me.

But, everything urgent that life requires you to attend to got in the way of what was truly important.

And it was life itself that, seven years ago, although collecting its dues, offered me the chance to stand before the moon and capture its silhouette, its topography, and its colors in a few megapixels.

And what has happened in those seven years?

With the imperfections that come from being self-taught and the limitations that unfathomable life has bestowed upon me, I have spent time, persistence, and effort to catch the Moon off guard and capture it in NEFs and JPGs.

Not long ago, on one of those cloudy days whose main purpose is to serve as a visual barrier between oneself and the Moon, I reflected on those seven years chasing moons: I had accumulated over 200,000 files with a Moon inside them.

What to do with 200,000 files of the Moon?

The first thing was to give my photos of the Moon a title, my initials: JM.

Mathematics gave me the solution to make it original:

Square it: JM2

Then, make my photographs available to anyone who wanted to see them.

What is JM²?
(A title in search of meaning)

JM² = JM & JM

JM are, obviously, the initials of my name.

But for what I was searching, I needed to link them to the Moon.

What is JM²?
(Looking for adjectives)

Playing with the initials of my name (JM for José María), the M was perfect, almost like a premonition written in English:
MOON.

I was lucky and it didn’t take long to find the appropriate adjective, also in English, of course:
JAZZY.

And what does
JAZZY
mean in Spanish?

If you ask AI, it initially gives you up to eight possible alternatives.

JM²

Under this signature, you will find
JM (Jazzy Moons)

Striking, Shiny, Eye-catching, Chic, Elegant, Lively, Colorful, Stylish Moons.

And all of them made with my best wishes.

José María García-Orellana

Will the Moon pass right there?

Sometimes a photograph, even a great photograph, can originate from pure chance.

This is not the case with the Moon when you intend to pair it with a terrestrial object. In my case, I wanted that rising moon to appear behind Madrid's 4 [5] Towers.

And that has nothing to do with chance but rather with prior preparation using the known trajectories of the Moon.

Our terrestrial object