When I start taking these kind of pictures, people generally turn away to go have a coffee …
Very practical sometimes. This was in Corsica in 2007.
Monthly Archive for August, 2008
Regardles of where I go, I am always fascinated by window-displays and fassades. So I hardly ever come home without some pictures related to this topic.
These pictures here were taken in Cambeltown, Scotland, on the 27th of december 2007.
As I travel I cannot resist sneaking into shops to take some pictures of the shelves and their contents. Often I just take pictures blindly from the hip and hope they turn out somehow.
I remember reading an advice from Banksy once: “It’s always easyer to get forgiveness than permission”. Sometimes, when it is unavoidable, I do ask. And lucky me, I have not been turned down (yet)!
If I would ask more often … maybe I would get better pictures?!
Lots and lots and lots of caravans & trailers on Islay (Scotland). It felt so saturated that after the first shots I planned to take further pictures just under very, very specific circumstances. I started late, because I was not the only one interested in the subject and did not want to get in the way. But then, after the trailerpark under the rainbow, I decided to simply go for it. Just for myself anyway. As I had still 3 weeks to go I felt like being on the safe side … but … Once I left Islay, there were hardly any caravans to be seen, let alone suitable ones for what I wanted to do! I took a fair amount of pictures, but I will have to go back there once again for more. And not just there … The thought of living in a caravan is an interesting one. For many reasons.
Airports are fun! Crazy Architecture, weird maschines, all kind of people …
From an old tv-set … Partially broken but still a window … showing the news … fassades.
Ever knew you were up for the next wall?
These are some of my very, very first digital photographs that did not have to do with my diploma in architecture.
Finally decided to show some of my “Collections”. I am not really sure why I am putting them in here … Maybe because it is something that is so deeply attached and important to me … Maybe it is because I have been asked to show more pictures, and I am still working on the longterm projects etc. So these picture-collections come in quite handy.
Both, my private and my project pictures, are important to me for different reasons, like probably for most of the people who take photographs. I usually use the pictures from my “collections” as reminders … Just visualize butterflies pinned on a piece of cardboard. In a way that is what these pictures are for me. If I have ever heard of a pre-alzheimer brain as spongy as mine, then … I have forgotten about it. I desperately need reminders.
My parents tell me that when I was little I used to carry a huge bag around with me, so I could take home whatever I found worth collecting: seeds, leaves, dried insects, woodpieces, stones, grains, shells, bones, garbage … There still are tons of these things in my parent’s cellar (including the garbage), carefully filled in glasses and jars. And boxes packed with little bags full of sand I took from every beach I was at. Other than that I collected, postcards, stamps, old buttons, hats, airplanespoons, scrap metall, ancient fabrics, ancient paperworks, anything with an interesting structure, anything with crazy patterns … and much more.
The older I got the weirder my collections. Until I moved out of my parent’s place and took my own first tiny student-appartment. 16 square meters (complete with kitchen, bath and an extra little terrace)! The point is, I just love empty appartments and I hate too much stuff around! So I instantly stopped collecting things – out of necessity.
My present appartment is much, much bigger but still: The only extravaganza I allow myself now are my books. I just need to POSSESS them, to have them next to me. I cannot just lend me a good book, because that would be completely unsatisfactory: I have to have my own!
Anything else I feel like I have to keep, I end up putting in boxes which I date (thany you for the idea Mr. Warhol!).
I have to admit that I felt an incredible relief after I stopped collecting things, because it made life so much lighter and easier, but I also felt a terrible loss. I suffert until I got my first digital camera late in 2000 to document my diploma in architecture – a little NIKON Coolpix 1200×1600px – and all of the sudden I had found the perfect way of colleting for my eyes on an immediate way without spending a fortune, messing up my bags and without cluttering my appartment. Ok, it does not smell… and it does not have a texture… but I can remember both by looking at a picture. So it is 99,9% fine with me.
Since then my only worries are that I cannot take pictures while I am editing, and … what to do with all the pictures anyway? How do I preserve them?
I have not found an answer to that yet… Until I find it, I’ll just go on taking pictures for my collections. I cannot help it anyway.
Just returned from a magical week in the breathtaking hills of Tuscany, where I had the chance to participate in a workshop by David Alan Harvey. It definitely changed the way I look at photography and … I do not only have a new ongoing project now but also a lot to think about.
Thanks David and everybody else.
Here is a little slideshow for you … Nothing big, nothing planned, nothing finished … just some pictures to get back into dreaming-mode.
Sooo, dear friends from RoadTrip, this is the idea:
We might not know each other’s faces but there is a face we all now: DAH’s!
I just checked and found one frontal image of him. Not the best, but it will work.
UPDATED TO-DO-LIST (after testing!)
1. Download the COLORED MASK (sorry, link is not active at present)
2. Print it out on at least 200g/m2 paper with a good color-laserprinter (I had it done in a simple copyshop around the corner.
3. cut it out (+ eyes)
and finally:
4. HOLD IT UP AT PERPIGNAN when we meet at the Cafe or wherever!!!
WE WILL FIND EACH OTHER EASILY!
Bonus: attached sunglasses!
