walk

a first inkling of summer ahead, back in march.

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well hello, it's been a while.

it feels like i have lost my way somehow, all picture taking seemed utterly random. in a way, it still does. creative rut, persistent blues and all that. but i'd like to give it a try, and see what happens.

this place is my peaceful haven. i miss it, i have missed my conversations with you. how are you?

a summer's day

it was in august, we made an early start, driving down to the coast on bendy little roads and a fair bit of motorway. after searching around the old port for the boat shed, finally ringing the bell of a house in town, the only address we had - the private quarters of the captain, it turned out -, we were directed by a dignified lady in rollers to the end of the dock, where the boat was waiting. it was the summer, where, for the first time in my life, i rode in a convertible, and, for the first time in my life, i went to sea on a motor boat. a riva. it was one of the best days. in the evening, we sat by the pool, in the sun. then had an apéro. and later dinner.

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sometimes, it's all in the details.

mies et marion

marion suggested paying mies a visit, and we did. and look, how well they got on!

the house, originally landhaus lemke (1932), is tiny. like so many places in berlin, it has a complex history. after the war, the russian allies used it as a garage, in the 1960s, it was used by the stasi (east german secret service) as laundry storage. today, you can visit the house - it is almost empty, there is no signage, there are no wall texts, no plaques, no explanations. which is astonishing. at the same time, it gives you the chance to just see and feel the place, the light, the textures.

a few days later i found myself pondering how mr and mrs lemke, the original owners, might have used the space. i can work out kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom (fairly obvious), but how did they use the two main rooms? did they choose to have the view onto the garden and the little lake beyond from the living room? and how did they furnish the rooms? a look at the house's website gives you an idea, and i must say, well, in this instance, i agree to disagree with mies. i bet the carpets were chosen by the lemke's though. oh, the absence of taste.

p.s.: don't forget you can still enter for my little giveaway. i will draw a winner this coming sunday.

lights

first, you are amazing, thank you so much for your feedback on my last post, i was really quite stunned by all the love. wow. thank you. the praktica says thank you, too. she'll get out more often now.

november is a month i didn't use to like very much. grey. very often rainy in these parts. and cold. but this year i like it: the crisp, cool air on my face when i'm riding my bike, the misty days, the mood of 'yes, we are definitely in between autumn and winter'. november has got a certain magic this year, and i like it.

by the way, i think i need a scanner. i love the people at my lab, they are super friendly, but the scans very often have dust specks, contrast is not good etc. i need a scanner that's mac compatible though. any recommendations?

the light above is from kolor. oh, and i like this calendar.

how things are

i was wondering why i rather rarely post images that are recognisably berlin. i think it is because i am easily bored with clichées of this city. but of course, i would happily snap the eiffel tower when in paris. although, when in london, i never photographed red buses or the tower bridge either. so maybe no eiffel tower? anyway, i took these a while ago, the first two in 2011, the bottom two in 2009 and somehow, they are berlin to me.

on a different note: for a while now, i have felt that the subjects that interest me are fundamentally changing, that my general aesthetic is somehow taking different turns. it is a bit unsettling, but i'll just have to wait what evolves. it's possibly going to be less images hereabouts, for a while. i'm not sure. wish i could tell you.

but i'm hoping that you are hanging in there.

would you tell me what you are up to and what you're mulling over these days, as the seasons change again?

paper

sometimes someone picks you flowers. sometimes a good friend makes them for you with tissue paper and you put them on branches you found on a walk.

i'm ploughing on with work, but were lucky enough to have lunch with this visitor from marseille today. how great to catch up a little!

also thank you so much for your feedback on the wanderer. so many have been visiting already: you are the best! -- oh, and the comment function is now live there, just click on the date of any given post, where you can see and leave comments.

tapas with marion

i would never have found that small spanish restaurant without marion. safely tucked away in a side street, the front looked unassuming, and there were no customers in the first room. it was the tiny courtyard where everybody sat. it was hot, music was blaring from the kitchen, the dishes were marked on a board as long as my arm and my leg together. and my, were they good. (see those wine glasses. i want some.)

so here's to the lady, whose birthday it is today - happy, happy, marion!

slow down, you are moving too fast

i wish. the next four weeks will be anything but slow. but then: a two-week break. this weekend, my niece is coming to stay. that's a little break, and i couldn't look forward to it anymore than i do.

(how are you doing? holidays, staycation? and would you have any reading recommendations for me? i'd like to find something that really draws me in.)

p.s.: when it's really quiet around here, i'm often still managing to pin something here.)

the day of the potato

well hooray! yesterday i harvested my very first potatoes in the garden. last night, i had new potatoes with butter, today potato salad for lunch. now, i'll have a little potato break - but how good this felt! like digging for gold, pardon the clichée.

i also ran into a garden neighbour whom i hadn't seen in a while, and we both said that we had gone for the garden project to find out whether it was for us. and guess what--. i will definitely have an allotment, or a little garden outside the city as soon as i can make it happen. and until then, i'll stick to garden schemes like this one, pre-planted or not.

i sometimes think that we know much better what is for us than we think we do. i don't know about you, but i tend to agonise over decisions. just think how much time i could have saved in the past by listening to what i know in my heart of hearts. i need more courage to trust my instincts.

p.s.: this photo was taken on a weekend by the sea last year. in an old garden, with lots of old apple trees.

and another thought: sylee reminded me of this post, which i had completely forgotten about. i couldn't help but thinking, gosh, my writing has gone rather downhill in the past months. it's what too much work and utilitarian thinking does to you, i guess. but i do know, there'll be other times ahead.

on richard long and some other things

thank you for all your suggestions and well wishes, i'm trying to take your advice and hope that things will ease up a little soon.

what makes me really calm, is being in that big main hall of the hamburger bahnhof, the museum of contemporary art in berlin, and to look at richard long's berlin circle, and his monumental mural, the mud circle he painted with his hands. there's still time to see it, until the end of july. all of the above taken just there.

also, i'm really thankful for the kindness of friends, their emails, letters, and phone calls. and for danica's playlists on 8track and barbara-rose's glorious finds, both of which often give me a lift.

did i tell you i'll go on holiday at the end of august? i so can't wait!

p.s.: a click on the images will take you to my flickr site, where you can also view the photos in different sizes, or on black.

very expired film

a while ago, marion sent me a roll of expired kodak TMAX 100 pro as a little surprise. i was excited and curious, as i had never before used expired film. what would happen? less contrast than with fresh film? defects in the emulsion, scratches? i knew i had to take it somewhere special, so the next time i went to hamburger bahnhof (museum of contemporary art), i took some pictures of the richard long exhibition, berlin circle. his work is full of stillness and beauty. the big circular mural is painted by hand with mud from the river avon. i could look at it for hours, so much texture.

thank you, marion!

p.s.: when i looked through the roll, i found that the close-ups are mostly pretty decent in focus, while the ones showing the bigger picture seem blurry. any idea why that might be? (or is it just my eyes going funny? this is all manual focus, after all.)

at the lake

from a wonderful day at the lake. the choice of film and the light give these a rather dark edge that wasn't present when i took them. sometimes it feels as if i'm finding my feet with photography, sometimes it seems as if it's the first time ever i'm holding a camera. but no matter whether i'm happy with technical aspects or not, these seem to tell a story - and that i like.

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