december

been a long time
new work
new pastures
new balance
only the beginning
but looking good

time to light candles
soon the height
of the long nights and
the short days and
the wheel will turn
once more

(image showing: dan flavin at hamburger bahnhof, museum of contemporary art, berlin)

p.s.: asako iwama, a berlin-based artist and friend is co-organising a pop-art café
on 8 december 2012, at the 'TWS - who we are? who you are?' event in tokyo,
addressing the 3/11 (fukushima) catastrophe and its aftermath.
check out the event's facebook page, and please spread the word!

outtakes

the last few weeks have been a real whirlwind; i've hardly taken any photos.
so for today it's only some outtakes from my first bronica roll,
full of imperfections, scratches, mystery white fluff and all.
i hope you'll bear with me.

have a good start to the new week!

p.s.: i think i may have a bit of a crush on that fuji reala 100,
the tones are almost like slide.

blooms

my mother always has fresh flowers in her house,
my grandmothers and great-grandparents had beautiful gardens,
and i just can't help myself - i always have to treat myself to some blooms.
home isn't complete without them.

(top: zenit e with colour negative film
bottom: nikkormat EL with slide)

art watching (IV)

and a little bit of colour, too. double-exposure, you happy accident.

(art-work by rana begum at abc 2012)

art watching (III)

i've got the bronica back from the camera repair place, and the first roll of black and white film too. very excited to shoot more with this new camera, it's like starting from scratch all over.

i like the theatrical quality of the second (very dark) shot. methinks, finding out which b/w film to use in which light conditions will be a bit of a challenge. do you have any particular black-and-white favourites, both for indoors and outdoors? film talk aside, i've been happy to hear from you over the past few weeks, keep leaving me a little thought, or perhaps just a little hello if you feel like it!

(top: entrance area to abc 2012
bottom: christoph keller's 'expedition-bus and shaman-travel',
presented by esther schipper gallery at abc 2012)

//

the other night at a friends' party. it was a very good night.

art watching (II)

some more art watching at abc / art berlin contemporary. when i picked up the roll, i noticed the girl with the pink shoes and her boy appearing several times in my frames, we must have been walking through the halls at the same pace. they seemed very fond of each other - it makes me happy to see people like that.

top: timm ulrichs, konzert der türen (concert of the doors), 1995/2012
middle: gerold miller
bottom: carmelo tedeschi

art watching (I)

you know what i like best at art shows, openings in particular? it's obvious, isn't it? 

(both images taken at abc / art berlin contemporary
top: not-so-behind-the-scenes scene; bottom: art watching at boers li gallery)

a blue night

it was a blue night - the opening of abc (art berlin contemporary), taking place under the umbrella of berlin art week this year. taking the bronica with me, but no tripod, and a film with quite a pronounced grain, this is what i got. plus some unintentional light leaks, which means - pretty as they are - i'll have to take the camera back to the repair place. hey-ho!

in any case, i'm much enjoying the art week so far! off to some more art shows, an art book fair, and a party tonight. at long last a weekend that's not dominated by work. have a good weekend yourselves!

bottom image: art work by isabelle le minh, presented by galerie christophe gaillard, paris.

to gather with friends

to gather with friends around a table, with homemade food, much to share and some jolly good laughter is one of the best things i can think of. oh, and the light will be low, more often than not, so you might well end up with exactly two pictures to remember that night.

//

thank you so much for your comments on my last post - i so relate to saving up for a dream camera: it was a long way for me. i'm a big believer in dreams, they have a way of coming true with time, sometimes when we least expect it.

i went to favourite places in my neighbourhood on that first photo walk with the bronica. what a good feeling to know there is so much to learn, i'm very much looking forward to it.

i'm loving september so far, how about you?

//

it's a bronica EC, friends. i'm over the moon.

after years of rumination, i finally made the leap and went for a 6x6 medium format camera. a hasselblad was out of reach budget-wise, so i settled for its japanese counterpart, a vintage bronica EC from 1972. i'm so very happy about this new addition to my camera collection.

when i received the parcel, i couldn't wait to go out the very same afternoon to shoot a test roll and take it to the lab. i woke in the early hours, having dreamt of being told there was nothing on the roll - and being absolutely devastated. was of course silly excited when it turned out there were indeed pictures on the film. some minor trouble is the white residue you can see on these scans, so the bronica is being serviced. a first check confirmed lens and body are fine, it's probably to do with a crumbling foam sealer in the film back, which will be replaced. camera buffs out there - do you have any other guesses?

happy weekend, everyone!

p.s.: while i'm picking your brains: any of you using an epson v500 or epson v600 scanner? would you recommend it?

the archives

morning! a breakfast from the archives. here's hoping you had a good start to your day.

september is bringing us glorious light, the warmest, gentlest sunshine. doesn't it feel like a turning point: while in august, summer is the general expectation, in september, each summery day is gratefully received and much enjoyed.

urban walk (II)

we went to see the glorious anthony mccall light sculptures at hamburger bahnhof (museum of contemporary art), and took lots of pictures. sadly, i wasn't allowed to use my tripod, and when i went to pick up the roll from the lab, i found that none of the light images had come out. well, that was a bit of a downer.

anyway, there still are a handful of images on the roll. these are two of the survivors. taken at the barn, where we fortified ourselves with cake and some pop. the writing on marion's new bag - "dit is mir jacke wie hose" - is berlin speak for "all the same to me" or "i don't mind", literally "like jacket like trousers to me." you wonder how they cooked up that saying.

have a good start to your week (or enjoy the labor day weekend, if you're lucky enough)!

corbusier (II)

that day, marion and i first went to teufelsberg, then stopped and paid our respect to monsieur le corbusier. i think, if i'm not mistaken, we had five or six cameras between us: marion the rolleiflex, her LC-A, and my praktica (this was the day after georgette went on strike on karl-marx-allee); i had my nikkormat, a disposable, and possibly the zenit, which i can't recall for sure. i believe though, these were taken with the zenit. in any case, this is the slide roll, and it worked its crystally magic.

corbusier (I)

word. some residents at corbusier's building in berlin are trying hard to re-establish natural conditions.

also: spot the dog.

happy weekend!

urban walk (I)

there was some slide film in my camera, and we went for a little walk through mauerpark. had coffee at bonanza's too. i love how quiet the city is in summer. now, school has long started in berlin, and we are almost back to the familiar urban buzz. still, summer keeps lingering, and i'm enjoying every single moment of it. (marion's lomo LC-A is a little beauty.)

same but different (III)

and this is berlin, too. (top photo taken by marion. merci, copine!)

same but different (II)

more teufelsberg. eh, marion, looking good!

same but different (I)

when marion came, we went to see teufelsberg - venturing deep into the cold war past of berlin. american intelligence built a station on a hill in the southwest of the city, listening in to communications behind the iron curtain. the place is locked off now, and going to shambles - eerie. we both took pictures, this is my part of the story. same but different.

the opening (IV)

eventually, the sun went down, and marie curie was watching over the buffet.

the opening (III)

so much to see!