It is difficult to be in Paris and to be at the Eiffel Tower and to be there at night, and NOT to take a cliche picture. Especially when so many other people are around - with cameras, some with tripods, most with flash, and all with camera phones on top of that. And yet, we see the sparkle not because the others point at it but because we seek it ourselves. And I loved it! And this will hang on my wall.
Photography
Flattered to have been featured on the L. Camera Blog
in Photography, Story
The pictures for the feature were selected from my street photography gallery.
Hipstamatic - The New Disposable
in Photography, Thoughts
The very first idea of this post came to me many months ago - I was reviewing my app-use trying to see if I could clean up a little bit my iPhone from apps that I don't use and camera apps take the largest share of apps for me. This leads to a struggle every time I want to take a picture - which app to use? Luckily most apps offer the option to import a picture from the camera roll so I can simply use the regular camera app that Apple includes. But Hipstamatic is an exception and as one of the very few exceptions (there was also Lomora 2 some time ago but a big update last year made it possible to import photos) of apps that simply take a picture not allowing you to import or to export original file. And that appears to be something they are adamant not to change. And I think this idea is a revelation in today's photographic sphere where multiple edits and painting over pictures diminishes the spontaneous nature of preserving a memory. When one spends too much time thinking of how a picture should look like, it is no longer a collection of an emotion but a polished work of art - and that's quite alright, too. But I take the picture not because I want to make art for someone else but to preserve a memory for myself.
There is something scary about standing in front of a finished piece of art - it is there, it carries its own value and it is immutable. It is not encouraging the question "what will happen if ..." but it asks the question "what made it happen". These are two distinct world-views - the exploratory and the questioning, the courageous and the accommodating, the acting and the observing, the emotional and the objective.
The finished work of art (the one that is thought through and designed by nature) is not welcoming; it is only existing out there, occupying space and time - demonstrating the great power of the human mind to design. The unpolished work on the other hand (the one with imperfections) is a charmer; it starts its existance challenging its own existance - it takes up no space and no time - and yet it is there demonstrating the great power of the human ego to feel.
And it is this questionning power and self-effacing evaluation in today's ego-, head-, and objectivity-centered society that make us add those imperfections and the unplanned to our pictures - consciously or not. And I am guilty as charged to extole and abuse them to my own catharctic advantage.
Project Silhouettes
in Photography
Today, Time Magazine Light Box featured a reflection on the calendar year with a series of 357 photographs of silhouettes. I felt particularly inspired myself by some of them and reviewed my street photography gallery to identify my silhouettes. Over the years, I've shot a considerable number of them but few really managed to stick transcending the moment and the location, whether it will be a mischiveous group of 20-year olds enjoying the late September sunshine at the lake, or the treasured autumnal sunshine of Berlin or the hot summer sun of Frankfurt refreshing from the fountain water, they all come together as a sharp cutout of their everyday reality.
Leica X1 - a small package with big promises
in Photography
I was lucky to have the chance to play a bit with a lovely little camera for several days - Leica X1. It is a camera that has been introduced back in 2009 along side the M9 and the S2. It was the camera that no one expected and that came as a surprise. Looking at the current second-hand market, it must have been popular enough. In the past 3 years there must have been a number of them sold (I wonder if there are estimates) and they are now coming around to the second-hand market. And they are quite well-priced still performing lovely and available often at 50% off the original retail price, they are quite attractive entry into the 35 mm photography. There are a number of great reviews on this little camera (DP Review, Luminous Landscapes, and others) and I wouldn't venture into writing another one.
The few observations I have about the camera refer to the ever-so-discussed auto focus and the potential function as a street photography camera. I haven't dealt with auto-focus for some time and it was strange coming back to it - the feeling of lost control was almost overbearing and I often felt the pulls of my muscle memory to rotate the ring around the lens. The way I shoot the M9 allows me to oscillate between focusing and composing, multitasking between the two until I press the shutter. With the autofocus one can also do it. But in my tests, I felt that it requires some mental and muscle adjustments. I think I didn't spend enough time with the camera to manage this myself (I did get the X2 recently and will write about it as well) but I imagine that it will make for a lovely back-up camera (and if you are one of the owners of the new black-and-white Monochrom, the X1 or X2 would be a suitable colour back-up).
