busy bee

sorry about the absence here, and about missing corner view this week. work-wise i've got so much on my plate at the moment, i hardly know whether i'm coming or going.

thought i let you know though, that two weeks ago i've finally settled for a DSLR, a nikon D3000. will take me a while to get my head round it properly, but it's exciting.

i 'richter-ised' some old family photos: me 'n mum 'n dad; me in the bath very early in my life. you can kind of tell which decade i was born in, just by seeing the colours, don't you think?

p.s.: thank you so much for all your kind comments recently. even though i've been very quiet, i've read them all and really appreciate every one of them.

due to some spamming, i had to switch the comment moderation back on. what a bummer. hope you understand.

black and white: two

two more shots from my first roll and b/w film. i may be pestering you with more over the next few weeks. just so you're warned...

p.s.: those photo classes are great and unsettling at the same time. our teacher is a photographer who makes us look a lot at work by famous artists to realise what they are doing and how they are (technically) achieving it. looking at work by robert frank, richard billingham, rineke dijkstra, nan goldin, eugene meatyard and many others is so inspiring and yet at times frustrating. so many, many gifted painters with light out there!

black and white: one

i think i mentioned that my photo classes in analogue photography are all about black and white. well, i had my first roll processed and am not quite sure where i'm going and what i'm aiming for. most pictures were not at all what i expected and didn't work at all. i'll just have to keep going.

anyway, here are some shots to start with. i kind of like them but don't even know why.

happy saturday!

corner view: dish

ok, the dishes on that top photo are not mine, but you'll have to admit they are exceptionally nice. i spotted them at a friend's house when we had that famous 1920s poker night last month (remember?). i really like things with history. this may be why i love browsing for pretty dishes on flea markets. lots of my plates and bowls, pots and pans, glasses and vases have a little story to them. brought back from a holiday, found in a charity shop, passed on to me by a family friend - or found on a fleamarket ... i am a hunter and gatherer at heart, i guess.

find more links to corner views around the world at jane's. enjoy!

bornholmer strasse: 9 november 1989

twenty years ago, the berlin wall came down. long before i moved to berlin, it all started right here, less than a five minute bike ride from my house. it was a november day, nothing spectacular, until that press conference by GDR party officials who by the by mentioned that from now on, east german citizens were free to travel. yes, as of now. and yes, that goes for berlin, too. people were stunned. seriously? just like that, after 28 years?

after it made the west german news that evening, east berliners started queuing up at the checkpoints, thousands of people. finally, at half past eleven that night, the border patrol at bornholmer strasse decided to let people pass. have you seen film footage of that night, or photographs? people were crying, they were elated, they couldn't believe it.

i went to bornholmer strasse this afternoon. it was raining. i expected to be able to quietly stroll across the bridge before the official celebrations started, and take a few pictures. how naive. it was crowded. but although i usually can't stand crowds, i stayed. i chatted with some people who told me how they had been living in the neighbourhood when the wall came up in 1961, how they waved at the relatives from their window and cried. and how they were there in 1989 and walked over to the west. finally able to see friends and family in the other half of the city.

i'm glad i went.

read a bit more over on my other blog.

oh weekend

i so, so need this weekend. and the sun is out, spot-lighting some of the very few leaves still left on the tree outside my window, what a good morning. last weekend i had visitors: my sister and her family were here. my nieces loved looking out the window too, as you can see. if that's no proof we're related, i don't know... we also went for a ferry trip to kladow and a walk at the wannsee, which is where we saw those lovely autumn leaves.

apart from all this, i really enjoyed my photo classes last week. already learned a lot. we have a very open theme which should be guiding us when taking photos for the course these next few weeks. 'me, my friends, my flat, my neighbourhood' we can pick one aspect and interpret it or do a combination. haven't decided yet which angle to take. maybe i could do a portrait series (portraits scare me, so that would be a bit of a challenge) or a series about my flat (that would be staying in my comfort zone i guess). hm. we're going to work with black and white film. honestly, i have no idea how it will turn out.

and finally: today might be the day i buy a DSLR. after long to-ing and fro-ing it looks as if i'm going for the nikon D3000. a D90 is simply without my reach at the moment. it's a first step.

and no - of course i won't stop using my analog cameras, i love them far to much!

have a wonderful weekend.

corner view: contrasts

contrasts are fabulous. thinking about it - without them we wouldn't even SEE anything, right? i love colour contrasts, the contrast of shadow and light, the clash of styles. my photos were taken in september, at art forum, berlin's annual art fair. isn't the colour contrast in the first just a dream? i couldn't believe my luck. the visitors in front of the neon tubes in the second shot almost turned into silhouettes against the bright light. and the clash of classic midcentury modern, scandinavian furniture with contemporary painting and those dramatic and yet calm african and asian artefacts was so inspiring.

generally, i'm a harmony seeker. sometimes perhaps overly so. but i think contrasts are making our world so much richer (and that includes contrasting opinions). they are really rather something to embrace, don't you think?

for more corner views around the world go visit dana's. jane is back from philly, back on the corner view carousel next week. welcome back, jane!

p.s.: if you have any thoughts on my camera question, please leave a comment, i'd love to hear from you! lots of food for thought already - thank you, me dears!