tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63641383136260368382024-03-05T10:08:01.818+01:00Always Arriving - News & UpdatesNews, updates & comments on the photography site Always Arriving, which features people and urban photographs from around the world. Feedback is very welcome.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-31326268215787127122016-05-01T17:26:00.001+02:002016-05-01T17:26:51.479+02:00Goodbye Blogspot, hello Wordpress<div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">I have decided to end this blog here at Blogspot, and to continue at <a href="http://gheedondlinger.wordpress.com/" id="id_35de_a868_89d6_6356">Wordpress</a> There are a number of reasons: better support for mobile devices, better layouts, a dedicated app, a community, a non-Google company...</font></div><div><font face="Verdana">All the old entries have been moved to the new site, and from today on, entries will solely be poster there,</font></div><div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><a href="http://gheedondlinger.wordpress.com/" id="id_abc2_4b46_cbba_a0f6"><font face="Verdana">Click to head on over now</font></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-59822270598713814172016-04-09T09:22:00.001+02:002016-04-09T09:24:37.031+02:00People of Bologna (and Ferrara and Padova)<img id="id_e799_77a0_2b02_504f" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRid3T0K_eaj3A4ykkAPbRo727XR75L5wLTycljlQxQnQ9N6Oy3gXkpIfnJTMptzA5tTRvrq4UHnXRCsnlFq_EkHH_4ltzy-FBzjaYq33mUPNRgrc-niWXwgyJhiPlfwCBUvFAzf2aJYcp/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recently spent a week in Bologna in Northeastern Italy, from which I returned with a nice collection of street photographs. Bologna is a city of colours and textures (and light and shadow), and I tried to reflect these aspects in the photos I took, which is why I shot primarily in colour during the day. I resorted to black and white for the evening/night time photos. I added two sets to the People </span><font face="Verdana">sections:</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/BolognaColour/" id="id_3ccc_8111_ff34_6f3a" target="_blank">Faces of Bologna (colour)</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/BolognaBW/" id="id_d19b_1cbf_abf9_85fd" target="_blank">Faces of Bologna (black & white)</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I also made a couple of day trips, to nearby Ferrara and Padova (Padua), and a few of the pics in the colour set were taken in those two places. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">All photos were taken with a Fujifilm X-T10 using primarily a 35mm prime lens. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">More </span><font face="Verdana">links:</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/" id="id_214e_931c_f07b_8696" target="_blank">more people photography</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Travelogues/Italy/index.html" id="id_2c19_cfbd_95fd_f2e0" target="_blank">more photos from Italy</a></font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-44651426200073647892015-12-24T07:58:00.001+01:002016-01-09T10:05:10.291+01:00Personal Portraits 2015<div style="text-align: justify;"><img id="id_9df3_89e5_1e9_2c52" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeOELRHnFFGZXwexQyKr0lZ0XQdODy8VnauikzYdE25xWoqGseeu49K3dlDBl0G-mMvA1UhNZMKk0nKTtH_qmEfJ39qu1JE2hftqg5OQ6pcrBorHAqxRmFFd-kAVkBm0fmx_RkU_TKS6-2/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's been a little over a year that I reverted back to digital photography, abandoning, for now at least, the lo-fi analog cameras which I had been using for many years before. This is a good time then to look back at the photos taken over that year, and particularly the portrait photographs. While much of the photography I undertook this year was either street or architectural, I selected the portraits for a 'best of' review which I posted here: </span><a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/Personal/UpClose3/" id="id_ac54_2c6_33d4_22ed" target="_blank" style="font-family: Verdana;">Up Close and Personal 2015</a><font face="Verdana">.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The photos included in that set feature portraits of friends, acquaintances and random strangers who agreed to pose for me.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">I have been playing around with three cameras, the nicely compact and versatile Fujifilm X-30, the Leica X2 which takes great pics but is in dire need of a view finder, and the Fujifilm XT-10, which has become my favourite camera. All three cameras, plus the iPhone, are represented in this set. </font></div><div><font face="Verdana">Enjoy.</font></div><div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div><font face="Verdana">Links:</font></div><div><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/Personal/UpClose3/" id="id_a068_d168_202c_9ef2" target="_blank">Up Close and Personal 2015</a></font></div><div><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/" id="id_18dd_17ac_f661_ffb9" target="_blank">More people photography</a></font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-52136825414284409152015-12-06T16:49:00.001+01:002015-12-08T18:59:27.553+01:00India By Night / Faces of India 2015<div style="text-align: justify;"><img id="id_abd7_46c3_a341_9411" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f1eMaCsuPDQ/VmRY_FxieCI/AAAAAAAABhM/GvvaDXVD7M0/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">In November of this year I returned to India, my 11th visit so far. This time I did not travel around much but for personal reasons I decided to stay in Kolkata for the better part of the trip, with a few days also spent in Mumbai. This time was the first time that I did not take any analog camera with me to India; indeed I decided to travel light and take only a single camera, the Fujifilm X-T10, with two lenses, the 35mm and the 16-50mm. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Each camera which I took with me over the years was different and unique, be it the Diana+, the Polaroid cameras or the panoramic Holga camera I had with me last year. With the versatile X-T10 I was looking for something which would coax out something unique out of it, and I soon found it. The brilliant 35mm f1.4 lens is of course perfect for night photography, and I was more than spoilt with opportunities to shoot at night.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: start;"><font face="Verdana">My stay in Kolkata was timed to coincide with two back to back festivals</font><span style="font-family: Verdana;">, Diwali and Kali Pujas, a festival dedicated to Kolkata's patron goddess Kali. During the nights leading up to and over these two festivals, people were out at night, celebrating and having fun. Obviously this was a perfect chance to capture lively night scenes, and I had great fun doing so. Add to that also a couple of evenings spent in Mumbai's Juhu Beach and Marine Drive areas where people gather after nightfall to hang out, relax and have fun. India is a country of colours, hence I decided to shoot mostly in colour, I broke out the black and white filters only rarely.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">All these night time activities have resulted in a set which I have now uploaded: <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/IndiaByNight/" id="id_dd22_1406_f1c7_3306" target="_blank">India By Night</a>. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">All this doesn't mean that I wasn't out in the day time taking photos, so I added a second set, <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/India2015/" id="id_5e3b_20b9_f850_c93b" target="_blank">Faces of India 2015,</a> with portrait and street photography from Kolkata.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">As in the previous years, I came back from India with the fondest memories, leaving me very much looking forward to the next trip back there.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Enjoy the photos. </font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-36814116885162949632015-10-10T09:01:00.001+02:002015-10-10T09:16:34.327+02:00Paris by Night<div style="text-align: justify;"><img id="id_e5b2_a594_10b6_a9d8" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fmFtEDE42JQ/Vhi3rWPa_tI/AAAAAAAABgw/Wxu0ifFSvXg/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">I recently spent a short week-end in Paris. It's a city I've visited and photographed before, so I decided to do something I haven't done before, in Paris or anywhere else: I took the camera with me on a night outing. The camera being my camera of choice at the moment, the Fujifilm X-T10, this was the first time I gave it a serious try-out with low light photography, and it performed marvellously. I shot at high ISO, 6400, which adds a bit of graininess but that works just fine. Sure, some shots came out blurry, but most photos come out technically great. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">All the shots are people photographs, taken around the areas of Marais and Saint Germain, both in the street and inside cafés and bars. Some people I shot with their permission, most without. I now put up a selection of those photos here: <a href=" I recently spent a short week-end in Paris. It" s="" a="" city="" i've="" visited="" and="" photographed="" before,="" so="" i="" decided="" to="" do="" something="" haven't="" done="" in="" paris="" or="" anywhere="" else:="" took="" the="" camera="" with="" me="" on="" night="" outing.="" being="" my="" of="" choice="" at="" moment,="" fujifilm="" x-t10,="" this="" was="" first="" time="" gave="" it="" serious="" try-out="" low="" light="" photography,="" performed="" marvellously.="" shot="" high="" iso,="" 6400,="" which="" adds="" bit="" graininess="" but="" works="" fine.="" sure,="" some="" shots="" came="" out="" crap,="" most="" photos="" come="" great.="" all="" are="" people="" photographs,="" taken="" around="" areas="" marais="" saint="" germain,="" both="" street="" inside="" cafés="" bars.="" their="" permission,="" without.="" now="" put="" up="" selection="" those="" here:="" paris.="" enjoy.="" '="" id="id_65c9_5bb0_71bf_2322" target="_blank">Night Out in Paris</a>. Enjoy. </font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-82454540541983287002015-10-06T18:48:00.000+02:002015-10-10T09:15:30.557+02:00Neighbourhood Watch (Folks of Many Shades)<div style="text-align: justify;"><img id="id_82d_b1ed_2a2f_3a05" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCCtdqRfDnyyf32S30vpW1CmEky31kUxk5cUNuU6CYwSjCCAvcM4zgHniOQFYyjmb4GHQjc_okaO0LvAhw33xGT0-5IsP5QwMCXOmuCvl3m6bTmrtgPjdlv_dmLCm6zIPFrg9-xToGSLd/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I live in Neukölln, a part of Berlin that until a few years ago was mostly a working class district, with a high percentage of 'guest worker' immigrants (that is, mainly first and second generation Turks and Lebanese, and a sprinkling of East Europeans), and an unemployment rate bordering on 30%. When I moved here some 15 years ago, nobody wanted to live here. Anyone who could afford it moved out, even more so if they had kids who reached schooling age. Rents were low and the district was going down the drain. Shops closed one after the other, only to be replaced by game parlours and betting places. There was one single decent restaurant around (a sushi place of all things), and you could count the amount of decent pubs on the fingers of one hand. The area was known for drug trafficking, for youth gangs, for schools who could not find teachers to teach, for heaps of dog shit on the sidewalk, and for people walking their beer bottles every hour of the day. Its fifteen minutes of fame came and went when national media outlets started branding parts of Neukölln as 'no-go areas'. Oh, and David Bowie named an instrumental track after it, only he managed to spell it's name wrong ('<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuk%C3%B6ln" target="_blank">Neuköln</a></i>', on the album </span><i style="text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana;">Heroes</i><span style="text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana;">).<br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Much of that changed several years ago, when neighbouring hip Kreuzberg became crowded and expensive, and students and young new immigrants (sorry, 'expats', as the Americans, Brits, French, Israelis and Spaniards like to be known) realised that Neukölln's low rents beat its bad reputation. What started slowly is now in full swing: gentrification. That's both good and bad. Now we have decent pubs and clubs, plenty of no-fuzz restaurants (old and new) serving good food, and a mix of languages, ethnicities, fashion statements and gender fluidity to rival that of London and New York. And people clean up after their dogs. But, inevitably, this also means rising rents and unscrupulous landlords trying to force their old tenants out. There are even plans to build posh walled estates in the middle of those supposed 'no-go-areas'. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDqG8fKbs_eqe7Ms2g7VfKBh9MMAmczYM62l06fGOti-G61kzPJo8EfNbIXdZib0aorUoCitmWYzmE8UnZDvT9_65bHLuMYgE4bFyeHd3TitGONSpDZTfGoSwZurso5Fx6eZLh4jyq3p4/s1600/L2080844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" id="id_9e0b_217b_1058_c45c" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDqG8fKbs_eqe7Ms2g7VfKBh9MMAmczYM62l06fGOti-G61kzPJo8EfNbIXdZib0aorUoCitmWYzmE8UnZDvT9_65bHLuMYgE4bFyeHd3TitGONSpDZTfGoSwZurso5Fx6eZLh4jyq3p4/s320/L2080844.jpg" style="height: auto; width: 210px;" width="210"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Yet, the district is still far from being upmarket. Walk the streets and you still find discarded furniture and appliances just tossed on the sidewalk. The game parlours are still there, as are the smoke filled corner pubs with the all-day drunks. There are still plenty of people trying to make ends meet, running the gamut from homeless to jobless to those working their arse off in low paying part-time jobs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Nowhere is the 'clash of cultures' more evident than on Hermannplatz, a busy square between Neukölln and Kreuzberg. It's ugly and not very inviting, but for about a year now, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">a market is being held there on four days of the week, with stalls selling traditional Berlin food such as 'Currywurst' (sausages with curry powder ketchup) and doener kebab (which is now as traditional to Berlin as the bagel is to New York) besides stalls selling vegan, Korean or Spanish food as well as hip(ster) coffee brews. And it's here that a very colourful mix of Neuköllners both new and old hangs out: the hipsters, the homeless, the drunks, the yuppies, the refugees, the artists, the retired, the students, the housewives, the jobless and the working, from all corners of the globe.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif98QOY8KE5HV1k9JVRa04T_gRaCqG4Vj1EmIQsBnSVDSXobeUMDqYX2ox8m8FX1vvXNu-KTgIqo3JZFCoChgs_rEtHD_xU6Zqs2HYTlBcMfx9k-Qm74aJrSde_KLRNufo_c_Ugcw4jmit/s1600/L2080822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" id="id_ac6e_48d9_48f6_69d7" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif98QOY8KE5HV1k9JVRa04T_gRaCqG4Vj1EmIQsBnSVDSXobeUMDqYX2ox8m8FX1vvXNu-KTgIqo3JZFCoChgs_rEtHD_xU6Zqs2HYTlBcMfx9k-Qm74aJrSde_KLRNufo_c_Ugcw4jmit/s320/L2080822.jpg" style="height: auto; width: 211px;" width="211"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I pass this square every day on my way to work, yet for some reason I had never stopped to take photos. This changed a few weeks ago when I was sick for a week while being on vacation. Not feeling up to criss-crossing the city, I took my camera to Hermannplatz, sat down and had coffee and observed the people. And I started taking photos. First I took candid shots, the way I usually do in Berlin, but then I decided that I might get better results if I asked permission of people. Surprisingly, I found a number of folks who were not only willing but happy to pose - much like the gentleman pictured on top, who quite happily chats with me now every time I run into him. The same goes for the lady posted here on the right. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A number the people I photographed, with or without permission, live on the fringe. You can tell that they struggle to make ends meet, yet the ones I talked to seemed content, if not happy; or at least wanted to appear so. Moreover, you can tell that what they want to display, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">behind all their idiosyncrasies,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">is dignity and pride. And this is how I hopefully manage to portray them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yes, there is also a fair amount of homeless people, hard-core alcoholics and a few lone junkies hanging out here, and to paint a true picture of the neighbourhood, I would have needed to include their portraits. But I'm not a reporter, and I do draw the line at photographing people's mysery just for the sake of it.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've been taking photos in the square and the neighbouring streets almost every day now for the past two months, usually on my way home from work, which explains why many of the photos reflect a soft, late-summer evening light. Because I wanted to use an unobtrusive camera, I mostly used the compact Leica X2, and to take advantage of that special light, I shot all photos in colour. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've now uploaded a selection of the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">photos, and you can see the full set here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/Neukoelln/" id="id_bdc2_d7ce_50f7_5bf" target="_blank">Folks Of Many Shades</a>.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-62376154068812382632015-09-19T18:40:00.001+02:002015-09-19T18:48:31.185+02:00As Summertime Ends<div style="text-align: justify;"><img id="id_1d5b_6b1_b4e5_d416" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_oq8sIS13Zc/Vf2QCRu3sWI/AAAAAAAABgA/SucU3_VBJkA/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">With summer drawing to a close in these parts of the world, it's time to wrap up those summer photo shoots. I've still been out and about in Berlin over the last sunny weeks and captured more street photographs, a selection of which I added to the sets I uploaded a couple of months ago: <i>The Singer On the Couch</i> and <i>Scenes of Summer</i>, the former being in black and white, the latter in colour. As before, the bulk of the new colour photos were shot with the Leica X2, and all the black and white ones with a Fuji, this time the X-T10. These are the final additions to these sets, and I must say I'm happy how they turned out.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Apart from the images which I added to these sets, I also shot a bunch of street photos around my neighbourhood, most of them with the Leica X2, which I will be adding later as a separate set - these photos really stand on their own and don't really fit in with the happy-go-free images of the other two sets.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">So, here's to a good summer almost past. Enjoy.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Links: </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/Streets2015/" id="id_168f_8642_6597_3c" target="_blank">The Singer on the Couch</a> (black and white set)</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/SummerStreets/" id="id_2703_f08f_4ef3_1ec" target="_blank">Scenes of Summer</a> (colour set)</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/08/the-singer-on-couch.html" id="id_fc87_70dd_e3c5_29c5" target="_blank">The Singer on the Couch blog entry</a> </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/07/summer-streets-berlin-street-photography.html" id="id_ea02_a437_e6e7_9723" target="_blank">Scenes of Summer blog entry</a></font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-40753408491359271372015-09-02T20:03:00.001+02:002015-09-02T20:07:31.416+02:00Eyes Wide Open - 100 Years of Leica Photography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">C/O Berlin is currently hosting a photo exhibition: Eyes Wide Open – 100 years of Leica photography. This extensive, and impressive, show which features hundreds of photographs, traces the trajectory of the small, handy camera through the various aspects encompassed by modern photography. Used first as a tool by people to document life around then, the Leica camera was quickly adopted by photojournalist, and served to pretty much document the better part of the 20th century in the Western world, including most of the 20th century conflicts from the Spanish civil war onwards. From journalism, the application of the Leica branched out, onto street, fashion and fine art.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The photos on display include a great many of the last century’s iconic, classic images – from Cartier-Bresson’s man jumping over a puddle, to the Vietnamese girl running from Napalm by Nick Út, the sailor kissing a woman in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt, and the classic James Dean portrait captured by Dean Stock. Different national tendencies are also analyzed, as the show dedicates different sections to respectively German, French, US, Spanish and Japanese post-WW2 photography.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Verdana;">The bulk of the images on display are in black and white, and personally I found that the chosen colour images resound even stronger for that. The fact that the 21st century plays only a minor role in the collected body of work obviously documents Leica’s diminishing role in this day and age, whatever the reasons may be.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The exhibition is rounded off with information about the Leica and the people and facilities behind the discovery and the production of the camera. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The accompanying hard-cover catalogue is massive and clocks in at nearly 600 pages (and almost 100€).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thus, all in all, a very worthwhile exhibition to visit. It is on until 1 November 2015. Various lectures on different aspects of Leica photography as well as guided tours with the curator are also offered.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For more information, see here: </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.co-berlin.org/en/eyes-wide-open" id="id_430e_61e2_551a_eccf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Eyes Wide Open – 100 years of Leica photography at C/O Berlin</span></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-45017970295601740642015-08-22T09:42:00.001+02:002015-08-22T09:45:26.248+02:00Learning From the Masters: Eric Kim<div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><img id="id_fe6a_582a_7369_7556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFtw9V1B29SxbwhpjblH0rZHOsFxf-b-A7feL00hvr46y7MgoGwvz1jE41IVw3PSEkIeFzkiRe-dWKaGYL1Gr7wNUq5AxGIXRnEjljijoUvRp8THGo-qKKJXIlZdhBbUhicT4JKFjI7lX/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><font face="Verdana">Photo by Eric Kim </font></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">It's been a while since I posted an article on something not related to my own work, so it's about time I do that again. Recently I attended a lecture by <a href="http://erickimphotography.com/pages/about/" id="id_1e8_695_abd_ec0" target="_blank">Eric Kim</a> at Eyeem's Berlin HQ, which is just around the corner from where I live. I didn't know Eric before reading the announcement of the lecture, although plenty of others do, since he is a young man who is making a living out of delivering lectures and workshops on street photography. On his web site he gives all of his ebooks and lectures away for free, and it's definitely worth a visit.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Earlier, I posted a <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/07/analog-and-digital-or-identity-crisis.html" id="id_914e_ed86_a20b_b5b7" target="_blank">lengthy article</a> on how returning to digital photography has left me a bit at a loss regarding the direction I want to take. Street photography, which I had been doing on and off since the 1990s, was high on my list, but I knew that with digital cameras, I had to approach it differently from the way I used the Holga cameras. Hence my decision to attend Eric's lecture, which was entitled '<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">7 Lessons from the Masters of Street Photography'</span> and which can be <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KHtHWm84PZCPYz72YsVgOwPkkIKC1wDFZBRF6TOHjhI/mobilepresent?slide=id.gc540fca93_0_30" id="id_764d_3cd2_c9d_5b72" target="_blank">viewed/downloaded here</a>. It was thankfully light on technical stuff, but what little technical advice he gave was excellent and I started applying it the next day: basically, set the camera in P mode, put a high ISO (up to 6400) so that the camera uses fast shutter speeds, and there you go (or as an alternative, use a slow aperture setting to again force fast shutter speeds). Excellent advice as you needn't worry about camera settings when you're out shooting, and a voice of reason in a field where the general advice seems to be 'real photographers do it all manual.'</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Eric also weighed in whether it was preferable to shoot candidly or with the subject's permission - he does both and has made some very good experiences in getting his subjects' cooperation for the shooting. I had earlier written about how frustrating it is in Germany to photograph people as they are very reluctant to have their picture taken. But on my recent visit to Marseille, France, I decided to try and approach people to let me take their photo. So I chatted with people and then asked if I could take their picture. It didn't always work out but in half the cases it did. Since being back in Berlin, I've tried the same. More people turn me away here, but certain folks are happy to have their picture taken - but that's the stuff for another article...</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Back to Eric then. One of the things he also preaches is to keep things simple. That includes your camera gear. He advocates using one camera and one lens. Again, very good advice as I was considering taking three cameras with me to Marseille (a Fuji, a Leica and a Holga), and based on Eric's advice, I only took the Fuji. The decision saved me from backaches (lugging that gear around in a backpack) and from headaches (pondering which camera to use for which situation).</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">As I said, Eric is full of very good advice, different from what you get from other photographers, and all his output is available for free, so there is no reason not to go and read up on his stuff.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Eric's links:</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://erickimphotography.com/blog/" id="id_e59d_926f_951d_82a9" target="_blank">blog</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="http://erickimphotography.com/blog/downloads/" id="id_88e2_fa64_e9f2_900e" target="_blank">downloads</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">- <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekizz/" id="id_2410_d22f_a6b7_de6d" target="_blank">his photos</a></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-43824698623894764442015-08-19T18:39:00.001+02:002015-08-20T10:19:49.124+02:00Tango In the Night: Street Photography from Marseille<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recently came back from a six day visit to Marseille, in the South of France. Before going there, I did not really know what to expect. Films and books tend to paint a negative image of the city, and whenever the praises of the French Mediterranean are sung, Marseille is seldom mentioned. I basically only knew that it was old (the Greeks and the Romans had been there) and the second largest city in France. And that it was considered to lie "just outside of Africa."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I found the city charming, with plenty to see and do, and with nice places to hang out. It's a very cosmopolitan city, owing much of its charm and character to the many inhabitants that stem from North Africa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I took a fairly large number of photos, most of them of people. I found most</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> folks easygoing - I was seldom rebuked for taking pictures of people, in fact, often enough people would volunteer to have their photo taken. One lady, on noticing that I was going to photograph her, laughed and said "Ain't I beautiful?", before posing for the camera. A young man (depicted here on the right) first thought I was a policeman, but then we chatted for a while and he let me take this photo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">One of my favourite hang-outs was around the old Fort Jean, at the mouth of the Old Port, and the adjacent (stunning) MUCEM museum complex. Here, locals like to hang out, to swim, sunbathe, fish or snorkel; while the youngsters made a sport of jumping off the fortress' ramparts into the sea. So it's not by accident that I shot many photos around that place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I took other photos of Marseille as well, not just people photographs, but at this point I don't yet know if I will put them up. Meanwhile, though, here is the set entitled "<a href="http://gheedon.com/People/World/Marseille/" id="id_bb97_432c_f25b_4171" target="_blank">Tango In the Night and Other Tales of Marseille</a>". Enjoy.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-85496542310728730352015-08-10T09:23:00.001+02:002015-08-10T09:44:56.435+02:00The Singer On the Couch....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" id="id_37a6_757a_e8fc_5f4c" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxcuaHjYtKESkCV7vDQNHnSJ8btIvmqMsx7Orto827Az-9fs_jGL67iFmNNQAQOWkvfp9jCoBeKAGF22NkyJM6Ud36R8yVmc5faxHpYRaK_yF7bmbyMp46nREiCJueSF8lBYmhMWRUMkQc/" style="height: auto; width: 718px;" title="" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recently uploaded the second part of the street photography project I have been pursuing this summer (<a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/07/summer-streets-berlin-street-photography.html" id="id_399b_a4b3_9227_8826" target="_blank">read the blog entry here</a>). After the initial set of colour images, I now put uploaded a collection of photos in black and white which I entitled 'The Singer On the Couch and Other Berlin Tales'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">On any given day, I decide before heading out whether I will shoot in colour or</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> in black & white. I seldom mix and match during an outing, the reason being that I find it takes a certain mindset for either option (the same for choosing between shooting in analog or digital). While in winter I generally use black and white, in summer I like to vary. I love shooting in colour, but shooting in black and white in sunny weather has its own rewards as you get to play with light and shadows and stark contrasts. Some of the images in the set hark back to last winter, but the majority was shot this summer. They reflect the joys of summer, the feeling of being alive that people exude during this all too brief season in our part of the world. Sometimes the scenes are serene, sometimes playful, sometimes even silly; but always joyful - something which I find black and white photos are able to bring better to the forefront than colour photographs do, possibly because colours tend to distract or infuse emotions of their own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Again, I tried to select photos that go beyond being more snapshots, taking into account factors like framing, grouping, use of light and darkness, but also context, which for me is as important as the subject being photographed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I used three cameras for this project, the inobtrusive and reliable Fujifilm X30, thr more flexible Fujifilm X-T10 with a zoom lens as well as 27mm and 35mm lens, the latter having become my favourite lens. I also used the Leica X2 for a few shots, but mainly I keep that camera for the colour sessions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/Streets2015/" id="id_294c_6758_bd45_32af" target="_blank">The Singer on the Couch and Other Tales of Berlin</a> (Black and White Street Photography)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/SummerStreets/" id="id_f0f8_e680_f4aa_69fa" target="_blank">Scenes of Summer (Colour Street Photography)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin" id="id_3fcb_91a5_bf3e_7d19" target="_blank">more Berlin street photography</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People" id="id_f4a_e3ad_fb0b_cf60" target="_blank">more people photographs</a> </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-10043866832150013202015-07-31T15:31:00.001+02:002015-08-04T18:37:17.252+02:00Summer Scenes: Berlin Street Photography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I </span><a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/07/analog-and-digital-or-identity-crisis.html" id="id_23a5_580b_faee_d60d" style="font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank">recently blogged</a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> about the fact that for the time being I'm concentrating on digital photography rather than analog as I used to. Earlier this year I posted architectural photographs from Berlin and London shot mostly with the Fujifilm X30, which was the first project I undertook with the new digital camera. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have now also uploaded a of new set of images which I took as part of a second project that I embarked on with digital cameras, namely street photography. This is the first set for this project, and it <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/SummerStreets/" id="id_95cf_4ff0_43c5_54c8" target="_blank">features colour photographs which were taken this summer,</a> mostly using the Leica X2 camera, but also a Fujifilm X30 and more recently a Fujifilm X-T10. I'm quite enamoured with the Leica's colour output, I must say, which is why it seemed to me the best choice when heading out on sunny days (although I do wish the camera came with a view finder!). Although Fujifilm cameras do a great job too with colours, I find I use them mostly for black and white.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The project is ongoing, as is summer, so the set may yet change. I'm also putting together a second set with black and white photos which will be up later this summer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I hadn't really attempted street photography in Europe recently. When travelling in India and China, I enjoyed photographing people, be it candid shots or casual portraits. Asians in general, and Indians in particular, are very relaxed about being photographed. It's usually a matter of 'you shoot me, I shoot you' attitude, which is all about sharing. Not so in Europe, and particularly in Germany. Germans have this thing what they call 'the right to your own image.' They like to cite that to you like a mantra whenever you mention that you photograph strangers. I blame Karl May for that. Karl May is that 19th century German author who wrote novels about the American West (and other exotic locales) without ever having set foot there. He claimed in his novels that Native Americans did not want to be photographed as they believed that it robbed them of their soul (May had a lot of BS theories about Native Americans). Germans, who basically grow up on Karl May, seem to have internalised this philosophy: if you (a stranger) take their image, you rob them of a part of them. At least that's my theory as to why so many people tell me off, give me the finger, hide their faces or give me the evil eye when I aim the camera in their general direction (ok, I may be a bit harsh here on the Germans, maybe all Westerners have internalized this Karl May philosophy). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So, to cut a long story short, street photography in Berlin is mostly about stealth. Sometimes some folk consent to begin photographed if you ask nicely, but in general it is best to remain inconspicuous when shooting in the street</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">. This is one of the strengths of the Leica X2 of course, it is small and silent</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">. Using the Leica however presents the challenge of using a fixed 27mm </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">lens, meaning you have to get close to your subject. That's one skill I'm still working on, one deep breath at a time....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This set, then, is a representation of a typical urban summer: locals enjoying the elusive sun or coping with the heat, tired tourists trying to put a brave face on things, street people trying to cope with life etc. When selecting the photos for the set, I looked out for two things: that the picture is interesting in itself (or because of its subject), and that somehow it goes beyond being a mere snapshot. I hope I succeeded. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Enjoy... and have a good summer :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/Berlin/SummerStreets/" id="id_7dbf_c109_251a_aa97" target="_blank">Berlin Scenes of Summer</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People" id="id_36bc_51fe_73b0_15e5" target="_blank">more portrait and street photography sets</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-43417626763761560032015-07-12T09:51:00.001+02:002015-07-31T15:00:48.303+02:00Analog and Digital, or an Identity Crisis of Sorts <div style="text-align: center;"><font face="Verdana"><img id="id_1e47_6dde_4f6b_a0a9" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VyDjIVrnisk/VaIcnNV3ivI/AAAAAAAABdc/405ohBW_LTo/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">I was an early embracer of digital photography. I bought my first digital photo camera in the mid-90s, and a digital Sony video camera not long after. Around that time, the camera which I had been using for over a decade, a Canon AE-1, broke. I never replaced it with an equivalent. For years all I carried around with me was the video camera which I used both for video and for photographs (and it did take very good photos, even if the resolution is laughable by today's standards). Then in 2004 I became aware of a cheap plastic medium format camera, a Holga, and the pictures I saw online and in print which had taken with that camera just blew me away. This was at a time when digital photography had really taken off, and the craze to put one's each and every snapshot online, no matter what the quality, was already beginning. In the midst of exchangeable digital photographs, the square, imperfect Holga pics with their tell-tale vignettes and fuzzy edges stood out like a sore thumb (this was long before Instagram and the like began aping the 'toy camera' look with their filters). I got myself a Holga, and after a bit of a learning curve, learnt to produce the images I wanted and liked. I branched out, of sorts, by using other types of lo-tech cameras, such as the Diana+, an old Soviet-made Lubitel, as well as pinhole and panorama Holgas. For eight years I never looked back. Medium format film and manual automatic cameras had become 'my thing', my style. I participated in several exhibitions (with large format reproductions), had my work published in print and online, and of course kept feeding my web site. Although I favoured a type of cameras often called 'toy cameras', I decided to take them seriously, and in my (biased) view, managed to produce exceptional looking results that held their own in the company of photos taken with pro-level cameras - much as many other users of lo-tech cameras also did.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">In 2012 I took up Polaroid photography. Impossible Project were finally producing film stock that was usable - decent colours, great black and white. The Holgas took a back seat as I delved into instant photography, using a couple of second-hand Polaroid cameras and the not quite cheap Impossible Project films. Again I had found a medium which suited my taste, producing images that were often imperfect but produced individual, and for me, great, results. Instant photography also offered the added advantage of producing physical images, and as such were a great medium for sharing with other people. And I found that approaching people to take their photograph with a Polaroid was a lot easier than with a regular camera, especially if you offered people to give them a copy as well - a trick I put to good use when <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2014/11/i-wonder-if-i-know-it-now-india.html" id="id_2294_399d_8ede_476" target="_blank">travelling in India</a> for example. I've been using Polaroid cameras now for three years, and again managed to produce a fair number of images I'm proud of.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">However, there were shortcomings as well. Instant film is not cheap - 20 euros for 8 exposures is a lot of money. If I add up the money I spent on film during those three years, I come up with a sum that would have purchased me a pro camera. I also found other problems with the film, especially colour film. It doesn't perform well when it's too hot or too cold. It's not a film to take on flights as the security x-ray machines at airports cause discolouration. And I also found that too often, the film was faulty and produced less than ideal results. It also seemed that the colour films got worse as new versions were released, while black and white film decidedly improved. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Another shortcoming of the lo-tech cameras I was using, both the Holgas and Polaroids, is that they have a limited range in terms of the light conditions they are suited for. Berlin winters tend to be long and above all, grey, and I found myself unable to use either type of cameras for long stretches of those winter months. So in November of last year, for the first time in 20 years, I went out and bought a digital camera. When I started looking for a model that would suit my style and taste, I was aiming for an unobtrusive camera which is easy to use in manual, or semi-manual mode, and that produces great results out of the box, i.e. without any major tweaking required in a photo editor. I liked what I saw online of the Fujifilm cameras (both the look and feel of the cameras as well as the output, which had a decided analog mood to it), and for a while played with the idea of getting a X100 model, but then decided against a fixed lens model and bought a X30 instead. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">It took me a while to get back into digital photography. Actually, I'm not quite sure I'm there yet. I still very much use the approach I took with the analog cameras. I refuse to take series of hundreds of pics of the same motif in the hope that one image turns out right. I still want every take to be 'the one'. If not on the first take, then at least on the second one... I also use the view finder rather than the display (another reason I chose the Fuji), and many of the photos I took in winter were in black and white. I enjoy being able to shoot at night, indoors and on dark days. I enjoy not having to scan the images or the negatives (scanning negatives is really time consuming). The wide-angle end of the lens comes in handy for architectural photographs, and the zoom for street photography. I don't have to worry beforehand which kind of film to load, I can switch between colour and b&w as I see fit. So, plenty of good reasons to like digital.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">And yet...</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">There is a saying that it isn't the camera that takes good pictures, but the photographer. That's a statement I very much agree with. However, I also feel that the type of camera you use says as much about your style, and your identity as a photographer, as the motives you choose. My style had long been to incorporate the lo-tech cameras' imperfections into my work. The blurry edges of the Holga cameras, the light leaks, the not-always-spot-on framing, the scratches and patches on the instant film photos, all added to what I was trying to convey. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">Susan Sontag once wrote that photography always attempts, but always fails, to capture reality. What I had liked about the kind of analog equipment which I had been using was that these cameras did not even bother to try capturing reality. They were all about producing a disjointed, unreal, sometimes surreal, reproduction of the world around us. That's what I liked and that's what I embraced. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">And now I'm using these digital cameras (I recently also purchased a used Leica X2 camera with, yes, a fixed lens), that produce technically great images. Yes, I could choose filters on the camera that ape the Holga and the Polaroids - but how daft would that be? In other words, faced with cameras that produce (technically) perfect results (or as perfect as you can get for the amount of money which I could afford to pay for them) and offer possibilities not present in a low-tech, I was thrown back to the question: how do I see myself as a photographer?</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">My work always had two foci. One was portrait and street photography, the other urban/architectural. As I mentioned above, the new cameras offered new possibilities in both these areas. My first real project with the Fujifilm involved shooting buildings and working out urban geometries. It is a motif I had already pursued with a Polaroid camera, but the Fuji allowed me to use a different approach and produced different results (<a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2015/04/urban-geometry-perspectives-and-planes.html" id="id_2023_7516_a12e_ec51" target="_blank">read the blog entry here</a>), and I'm very happy with that series. So far so good. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">It's a bit of a different matter when it comes to street photography. Both the Holga and the Polaroids produce very iconoclastic images when using them for street photography, or indeed portrait photography, images which are not in the same vein as the iconic photographs we know from the likes of the Cartier-Bresson (Polaroid is not particularly well suited for street photography but is great for casual portraits with willing subjects, but the same applies to these kind of images). What the digital cameras (and smartphone apps) do well is to emulate the style of the classic street photography cameras, notably the Leica. All the cameras offer more or less convincing black and white filters and settings that offer a close approximation of classic analog b&w photography. Sometimes they even do the same with colour photography. Again, so far so good. But, as I mentioned earlier, my style had never been about classic photography. Nor is it about to become about high-tech, sophisticated digital photography - HDR for example is a no-go for me. If, as I mentioned above, my style has always been about imperfections, what am I doing using near perfect cameras...?</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">So why am I writing all this? Foremost, I guess, to explain where I am, now. When you look at my current output on <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gheedon/" id="id_cca_95f1_24b3_3832" target="_blank">flickr</a> this is what you see: photographs which are still very much of the type I like, but not necessarily in a style I consider mine. Some photos I like a lot, others I find adequate. I find none of them outstanding (and in case you're wondering, yes I think I shot a few outstanding photos, especially with the medium format cameras).</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">So, in other words, I'm at a crossroads. I can chuck the digital cameras and go back to analog, or I can dig deeper into digital and find something that makes those photos mine. I can do both, of course, but not at the same time. A particular camera requires a particular frame of mind, and mixing these vastly different types of cameras hasn't worked for me when I tried. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">At this point, I don't know where the road takes me. For a while at least, I'll keep using the digital cameras, taking advantage of the possibilities which digital cameras offer while trying to find something in digital photography that I can own. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">However, I also stocked up on Impossible Project's new generation of instant films.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">And I have a pile of Fujifilm 120 films lying around which I stocked up on before they went out of production last year.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">So we shall see, shan't we. Stay tuned. </font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-32956101287392413002015-06-20T10:02:00.003+02:002015-08-02T10:56:19.073+02:00Art Objects/Subjects<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" id="id_82cd_a5cd_c9e7_ee15" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PkNeYZ_aFSFU-Q-LkbvxBeYpN5NZJ3-HyQwAVzs0uv5fGWcpCaHFv53pKjk7QhsdZCoVcP3vb1CEtcSpGUUzKrip2RMYqc5vWei2UxPlBOeUJ4pMrAhWAPSosr1D9LgdH6udR56ygtaQ/" style="height: auto; width: 718px;" title="" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recently posted <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/World/ArtObjetsSubjects/" id="id_5e7d_b4ea_b827_42fa" target="_blank">a new series of photographs</a>, the bulk of which I shot in Luxembourg's Modern Art Museum (Mudam) while visiting an exhibition entitled <i>Flux</i>, a series of sculptures and installations by Canadian artist David Altmejd. I've also added a few images which I captured at the ℅ Berlin, in the exhibition <i>Genesis </i>which features photographs by <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sebastião Salgado.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I called the new set 'Art Objects/Subjects', as the focus of the images is not the exhibitions themselves, but rather the visitors, the spectators of the shows' art work (and those who observe the spectators). The set is, in short, an observation on how we observe and experience art - which of course includes the practice of snapping photos left, right and center (guilty as charged).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">All photos were shot with the Fujifilm X30 camera. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Updated 31 July 2015: I added four photos taken at the <i>Geo Ego</i> exhibition in Berlin's Czech Centre, an exhibition by Czech artists working in geometric abstraction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People/World/ArtObjetsSubjects/" id="id_f6ec_39d8_2a1c_dca7" target="_blank">Art Objects/Subjects</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/People" id="id_cfb5_2088_412b_cd42" target="_blank">More portrait photography</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.mudam.lu/en/expositions/details/exposition/david-altmejd-3/" id="id_4a0e_c2d7_fe3d_ae44" target="_blank">David Altmejd at Mudam Luxembourg</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.co-berlin.org/en/sebastiao-salgado" id="id_6c49_a010_29b8_92f9" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sebastião Salgado</span> at ℅ Berlin</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <a href="http://berlin.czechcentres.cz/programm/event-details/geo-ego/" target="_blank">GEO EGO at the Czech Centre in Berlin</a></span> (in German and Czech)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-34669680393283240822015-05-04T19:34:00.001+02:002015-05-04T19:34:35.193+02:00Brighton by Instax<div><img id="id_f6ef_5deb_335d_8541" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVTFnOdWZlTh6xLIm6xwCTxxf_BVJsnug4bpf_pkixypA02giOIeU1MdM6MsEgmfNo95ERlv9Im0sQRFZD8Y8otleUdxMQY_p87HFkPQb4VO_-6H2cWr_GIWTcc05-7la1kYpF_7y4XToK/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><font face="Verdana">Sometime last year, I bought a Fujifilm Instax Mini camera, the Neo 90 Classic. Although the camera in itself comes with a number of seductive features (double exposure, timer...), the small, if not to say tiny, size of the photos made me look upon the camera as not much more than a gimmick. As such, I used it for taking snapshots and souvenirs. I did take it with me to Brighton earlier this year, however, and as I quite like some of the resulting shots, I decided to post them. </font><div><font face="Verdana">Much like its big brother, the Instax Wide camera, it is very good at rendering colours and for shooting in low-light situations. The images are not quite as sharp though, which in some instances actually works towards their advantage. Anyway, it proves that a camera designed for the Instagram age, i.e. for capturing food, pets, selfies and party guests, has indeed a few surprises up its sleeve...</font></div><div><font face="Verdana">So, here it is, <a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/InstantColours/Brighton/" id="id_5573_ff1c_1f54_bf6b" target="_blank">Brighton by Instax Min</a>i. Enjoy...</font><div><br></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-16458538323536638202015-04-26T11:06:00.001+02:002015-08-02T06:41:08.822+02:00Urban Geometry: Perspectives and Planes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last summer, I put together a series of <a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/UrbanGeometry/" id="id_8a4d_71ae_99a9_777e" target="_blank">Polaroid photos which focused on the geometry of Berlin's (post-)modern architecture</a>. Throughout this winter, I undertook a similar project with the Fujifilm X30 camera, again capturing 20th and 21st century architecture in Berlin, the result of which I recently uploaded in a new set entitled <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/digital/GreyLines/" id="id_d636_14b9_1e44_822c" target="_blank">Urban Geometry: Perspectives and Planes</a>.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Although they have a common theme, the two sets are still very much different. These differences are defined by the medium (analog instant vs. digital), by the format (square vs. mostly 16:9 ratio) and most importantly, by the respective camera's lens and the approach that it allows. Using the Polaroid SX-70, I worked with the camera's fixed lense to focus on excerpts of buildings. The X30's zoom range, however, allowed me to capture buildings in their entirety, or even sets of buildings as depicted in the photo above. It also allowed me to zoom in on particular details if required. This, coupled with the chosen 16:9 ratio, led the focus away from the representation of the geometrical <i>shapes</i> of things. Instead, what came to the foreground were the <i>lines</i>, be they frames, pillars, beams or decorative patterns, horizontal or perpendicular or anything in between. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now I've said this elsewhere, but Berlin's architecture is basically an angular,</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> rectangular one, and you are hard pressed to find other shapes and forms - but they do exist. There are some great Bauhaus buildings around which make much use of curves (such as the Shell House), and even in the past years, some architects have managed to slip unusual designs by the stern gaze of Berlin's conservative building authorities who so love their rectangular designs and orderly structures. The federal government buildings near the central train station consist of a weird amalgam of geometrical shapes of all sorts. And close by, in the model "Hansaviertel" neighbourhood, whose buildings date back to the 1950s, renowned architects such as Oscar Niemeyer forfitted traditional shapes and arrangements for more daring ones. In other words, the buildings I photographed for this project oftentimes go beyond the rectangular and angular. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The buildings I concentrated on mostly date from the last 70 years. This includes public and office buildings as well as private housings and a couple of industrial buildings (one of which dates back to the late 19th century). The pictures feature buildings by architects such as Mies van der Rohe, Renzo Piano, Oscar Niemeyer, Walter Gropius, Hans Kollhoff and Hans Scharoun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">All photos are in black and white, and as mentioned above, have been taken with the Fujifilm X30 camera.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/digital/GreyLines/" id="id_f7f9_ec0c_8a9a_2d6d" target="_blank">Urban Geometry: Perspectives and Planes</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/UrbanGeometry/" id="id_277a_284_bd82_8e2c" target="_blank">Urban Geometry (Polaroids)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/" id="id_69ce_e11e_ecca_ee43" target="_blank">more urban Berlin photography</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/LondonPanoramas/" id="id_8410_4b61_346b_c77e" target="_blank">New Horizons: wide-angle urban London photographs</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-73050178410201866482015-04-02T12:22:00.001+02:002015-04-02T12:23:00.023+02:00Instant Lab Portraits: From Digital to Analog and Back Again<div style="text-align: center;"><img id="id_253f_e814_1fa9_f62f" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TnpcnkoJmAM/VR0YgB-HeGI/AAAAAAAABbc/v0QLwi8J_Y8/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" alt="" title="" style="width: 683px; height: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">A couple of years ago, Impossible Project, the makers of polaroid-compatible instant film, began producing a device they call the Instant Lab, which allows you to transfer digital images from a smartphone or tablet to instant film prints. Some call the device a printer, but Impossible Project calls it a camera, and I tend to agree with the latter. Now, Impossible Project are not the only ones manufacturing these type of devices, there exist similar ones by Fujifilm and Lomography which produce prints using Fujifilm Instax Mini film. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">The success of these devices (as well as on demand print books etc.), and the increasing demand for instant film cameras overall, obviously points to a demand for a return to tangible, physical images; not as a replacement of but existing alongside the possibilities which the digital age has to offer in terms of capturing and presenting photos. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana">As interesting as that may be, I am more intrigued by another facet of this: the continuous blurring of the lines between analog and digital. Analog photos obviously also exist in the digital sphere, they are scanned (from a negative or a positive) then presented and shared online. The physical copy of the image may not even exist beyond the negative. When scanning analog photos, the results are <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">sometimes digitally manipulated, and even if not, the very act of scanning oftentimes alters the image. Additionally, viewing a photo on a backlit screen is a very different experience from viewing a print. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In other words, photos shot on analog equipment already lead a hermaphrodite type of existence. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now the Instant Lab actually keeps blurring the distinction even more. Transferring a digital image to the instant film is not a copy/paste process, the result is never a 1:1 transfer. Depending on the film used, or the exposure time, or a number of other variables, the result is different in one way or another from the original. You can even do double exposures. Like any camera, you need to get the hang of it to produce optimum results. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And of course, all that happens after you manipulate a photo on the smartphone, sometimes more, sometimes less so.</span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And finally, of course, you scan the physical picture and the process has come full circle. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Verdana">I have been using the Instant Lab since 2013, and presented a good number of results on my site. I have now put together </font></span><a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/il_portraits/" id="id_dd06_e854_b009_35b" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">a set that showcases all the portrait and street photography images</font></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Verdana"> that I put through the Instant Lab. The set includes straight transfers of iPhone photos to instant film, but it also includes double exposures done with the instant lab as well as copies of manipulations I did with the pics and the iPhone. It even includes an image I created when I accidentally cracked the screen of my iPhone. </font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The interesting aspect is that the device allows for a different range of images than is possible with standard Polaroid cameras. Besides the aforementioned image manipulations, this includes photos taken in situations for which the Polaroid cameras are not well suited for, interiors (if you don't like flash) or street photography (Polaroid cameras tend to be a bit too obvious for discrete shots) for example. Some results are due to accidents: my instant lab has recently developed a flaw, damaging the exposure. Strangely enough, the damage often works in favour of the image, somehow accentuating the subject in the photo (Impossible Project has offered to replace the device, I should add).</span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Verdana">Links:</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/il_portraits/" id="id_983c_2275_eb45_3d3c" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">Instant Lab Portraits</font></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/People" id="id_5407_d346_65b9_8426" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">More portrait works</font></a></div><a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/" id="id_b2bb_f2ca_bc75_4f8d" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">More instant film photos</font></a><div><a href="https://www.the-impossible-project.com/instantlab/" id="id_4217_b9ef_c3be_2a6e" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">Instant Lab by Impossible Project</font></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-25848998230107949522015-01-10T11:13:00.001+01:002015-04-26T11:40:15.617+02:00Wide-Angle Urban Poetry, Vol. 2: London & Brighton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">For the second year running I spent New Year's in Brighton, and same as last year I followed that vacation up with a stay in London. And same as last year, I brought back a number of photographs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last year I had taken the analog Lomo Belair panoramic camera with me. This year I decided to go digital and took the Fujifilm X30. I took it primarily because I was expecting bad weather and low light, which normally hampers the use of lo-fi analog cameras. However, luckily bad weather wasn't the norm, so that I ended up with a number of splendid colour photographs as well as black and white ones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm particularly happy with many of the photos which I brought back from </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">London, especially the ones which I shot in and around the Barbican. I visited the Barbican Centre to see an exhibition, <i>Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age</i>; a show which I thought quite brilliant, both for the theme and for the large number of exceptional photos on display. At the same time, the Barbican complex is in itself a highly photogenic urban jungle, bordering on the ever growing architectural frenzy (some would say mess) that is London's East End. Certainly it was no coincidence that the Barbican was putting on a show with this kind of theme, and so it was not necessarily a coincidence either that I ended up with a number of shots reflecting the theme of the show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The photographs which I took this year with the Fujifilm X30 in many ways compliment the panoramic pictures which I took last year with the Belair camera, so I combined the two in a common set, adding also a number of Polaroids which fit the theme of urban panoramas, as well as a couple of 'Holgaramas' from 2008, and a collage which I did in 2004 of Saint Paul's as seen from the Tate Modern. Altogether they also illustrate how fast London's skyline keeps changing, for better and for worse. Additionally, the photos illustrate another facet of London which I always found fascinating: here, the various epochs of London's long history do not so much co-exist side by side, but seem to pile up on top of each other. The picture above is a good example as it shows tiers of buildings from various centuries, combining the medieval church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate with buildings from the 19th, 20th and 21st century high rises into a very crowded skyline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/LondonPanoramas/" id="id_bec0_1566_7f00_4405" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wide-Angle Urban Poetry: London Panoramas</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2014/03/wide-angle-urban-poetry.html" target="_blank">Wide-Angle Urban Poetry: Berlin (blog entry)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/UK/Brighton2/index.html" id="id_5939_d272_2d4_c6a5" target="_blank">Brighton in Winter</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/UK/index.html" id="id_e75e_3adf_8ef8_e520" target="_blank">More UK photographs</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.timeout.com/london/art/constructing-worlds-photography-and-architecture-in-the-modern-age" id="id_c670_9299_6c9e_3473" target="_blank">Review of the Constructing World exhibition in Time Out London</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-67600631540947877432014-12-25T10:52:00.000+01:002014-12-25T11:14:51.752+01:00Signs of the Times<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last year I published a set of instant photos entitled <i>Fragments: Signs of the Times</i>, which I just updated <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: left;">with a selection of photos taken throughout 2014. <i>Fragments</i> is </span>a collection of images depicting public art, graffiti, posters and other symbols (both permanent and temporary) which epitomise Berlin at a certain instant in time. The permanent structures tend to reflect much of Berlin's late 20th century history, especially its division, as they symbolise, and sometimes directly address, the tastes, affiliations and beliefs typical of West and East Berlin respectively - not just pre- but also post-fall-of-the-wall. The more temporary displays - graffiti, posters etc. - on the other hand reflect moods, tastes and opinions of the moment in time when the pictures were taken - current then, but history a couple of weeks, months, years down the line.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">All the photos except one were taken with Polaroid cameras and a variety of Impossible Project films, both colour and black and white. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Polaroids/Fragments/" id="id_ee15_cf04_80bd_fc61" target="_blank">[Click here to view]</a></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-74894659501655026002014-12-14T10:42:00.001+01:002014-12-14T10:54:48.092+01:00Berlin Digital<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's been a while since I posted any exclusively digital sets, obviously because I have more than ever been concentrating on analog photography for the past two years. I still enjoy shooting on the iPhone, though, and recently I put together two collections of images which I shot around Berlin on the iPhone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The first one is called Angular Designs and is basically a collection of architectural photographs focusing on the indeed very angular approach to designing buildings in Berlin. Whether it's down to regulations, cost restrictions or architects' lack of imagination, many if not most of the buildimgs built from the middle of the 20th century until today rely heavily on a purely angular form. Curves are a stylistic element found few and far between, and although notable exceptions exist - Sony Center, Haus der Kulturen etc. - there doesn't seem to be as much architectural diversity found in Berlin as in other cities - nor as much extravagance. Which doesn't mean that it has to be all boring. It isn't... but you get the feeling that with all the building going on, there should be so many more buildings with a distinctive 'wow' effect factor. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Put that down to Prussian bureaucracy and desire for order, going so far as to actually stipulate the ratio of glass to stone that can exist in a building's façade...</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-lv8tfgIJU1k/VI1bk8LB5PI/AAAAAAAABY8/n8OjHO2C45I/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="id_9cc9_1d42_3358_6826" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-lv8tfgIJU1k/VI1bk8LB5PI/AAAAAAAABY8/n8OjHO2C45I/%25255BUNSET%25255D.png" style="display: block; height: auto; width: 411px;" title="" width="200" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I guess if I want to put together a collection of curves and round shapes in architecture, I will need to look abroad mostly.....</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The second set I added is simply a collection of black and white photos from the last four years or so. Some of the photos are presented as they were taken, but on a number of them, I also applied a fair amount of post-processing using various apps on the iPhone. The set also includes a short series of night shots which I entitled Night Hawks, a theme I may want to explore further in the near future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/digital/AngularDesigns/" id="id_bc3c_6cd6_cdfa_e82f" target="_blank">Angular Designs</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/digital/Berlin3/" id="id_195a_7dbd_a882_de4d" target="_blank">Berlin in Black And White</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/" id="id_8f16_c7ca_6029_58f0">Places</a> > <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/" id="id_4595_1fd5_fb83_80a9">Berlin</a> > <a href="http://gheedon.com/Urban/Berlin/digital/" id="id_478e_104f_477d_7d47" target="_blank">Berlin Digital</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-46151049253944587382014-12-14T10:05:00.001+01:002014-12-14T10:57:07.808+01:00India Travelogue Updates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="" id="id_331c_2e5f_f988_7e9f" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1EAhKV16TmMykDpeTxERTi3CMwXcoP3cXsxI0BveDC6jCfJIpiGkbcWiJUd4N8uwxWlm9mhkr0vLxwpxQS14wxbTHwlZYiUzRVF8ZVYSzSJt2RiZ3jNwoOLdT4hO7bDoX2AyUZdl-nbF/" style="font-family: Verdana; height: auto; width: 718px;" title="" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have updated the <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/India/index.html" id="id_25f2_604b_3247_9f9c">Travelogue section on India</a>, with sets of <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/India/Odisha/index.html" id="id_d33c_3488_ca18_a8da" target="_blank">new images from Odisha</a>, including the video posted in the previous blog post; <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/India/Mumbai/Idols/index.html" id="id_f0d1_4842_2525_2c29" target="_blank"><i>Idols by the Sea</i></a>, a set on the last day of the Durga Pujas on Juhu Beach in Mumbai, and an expanded section on <a href="http://gheedon.com/Travelogues/India/Kolkata/index.html" id="id_a3da_ff08_f854_6505" target="_blank">Kolkata</a>. The sets include a number of the Holga and Polaroid shots from those sets I posted earlier, but there are also a number of iPhone shots as well, as ever most of them taken using the trusted Hipstamatic app. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This should be the last posting on India then, at least for a while..., ;)</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-33816741227953155402014-12-10T07:32:00.002+01:002014-12-10T07:32:49.912+01:00Station to Station - video<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/114055917">Station to Station - By Train Through Odisha</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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I shot this video on the iPhone while taking a train ride from Puri, in the Indian state of Odisha, to Kolkata in West Bengal. I left Puri a day before the cyclone Hudhud struck the area, on one of the last trains out of there.<br />
In Kolkata, I edited the movie in iMovie on the iPhone, often while stuck in a car in traffic. As soundtrack I used the track 'Longing' by the Indian band Indian Ocean.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-65453654891141189882014-12-09T07:57:00.001+01:002014-12-09T08:01:59.005+01:00Urban Geometry<img id="id_65dc_e324_b34f_15b" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-FX8cp9O2YebARS0ivkUR2eLKBwfADPMuXZfasEE8twex84c1z_nU76_8vGTJhlZfisff3l-B-_W5w6-Fy2HI6uOJ3FAS_NGhDVtITR_dSQIUOLVwO-n-pg1PX2zsdtIXbVSi7LJ58NW/" alt="" title="" style="width: 718px; height: auto;"><font face="Verdana"><b>Urban Geometry</b> is the title of a new set which I've recently added to the Polaroid section of the site. In it, I explore the geometry found in modern architecture and urban development. I shot these images chiefly in Berlin over the course of 2014.</font><div><font face="Verdana"> </font><div><a href="http://gheedon.com/Polaroids/UrbanGeometry/" id="id_fba9_9d28_aad7_a942" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">Click here to view.</font></a></div><div><br></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-55520379683554768912014-11-30T10:19:00.002+01:002014-11-30T10:33:24.588+01:00Holga Panoramas From India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">For my last trip to India back in October, I packed a new camera, a Holga 120Pan, i.e. the panoramic version of the Holga camera which shoots 6x12, 180° images. I didn't have a chance to try out the camera beforehand, so I didn't know what to expect, especially after having had mixed results with my first attempts using my other panoramic camera, the Belair 6-12 (<a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2014/02/brighton-by-belair.html" target="_blank">read the blog entry here</a>). However, after having finally developed and scanned the films, I must say that the camera exceeded my expectations. Granted, the light conditions were pretty much excellent in India, but the results are technically very good: no vignette, only a bit of darkening towards the left and right border of the exposure, and with the Holga's trademark blurring toward the edges, which adds to the magic of the images. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I shot one black and white Ilford ISO 400 film and for the rest a mix of Kodak and Fuji ISO 160 colour films. I shot the black and white film at my initial destination, Mumbai, while I used the colour films for the rest of the trip, chiefly in and around the city of Bhubaneswar, which is in Odisha, a state on the East coast of India. Additionally there are a few images from Chandannagar, which is close to Kolkata and which used to be a French colony. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I finally uploaded a selection of the photos to the Holga section of the site, <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Holga/India/India2014/" target="_blank">click here to view</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Also, I put together a selection of the best portrait pictures from the trip, taken with the various cameras I had taken along - the Holga, the SX-70 and the iPhone. This set can be found in the People section under the banner <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/India2014/" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black;">I </span>Wonder If I Know Him Now.</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13032684200960867285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6364138313626036838.post-20021463464261246752014-11-01T18:35:00.001+01:002014-11-03T19:38:21.208+01:00I Wonder If I Know Him Now: India Revisited<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicsYOup3dta7VT3ShOWBBaUqIxz2apx1NtukDmpL0_7_r26pPzotuHAfJaT5rh5U-_In4uf-ki3L1JsKZSKGDjfiQ6H7bhQQcpZXXZZsEnkmxanliYqrZgq_86lYNBvrVzd7n0HAF5u4wz/s1600/page26-1008-full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicsYOup3dta7VT3ShOWBBaUqIxz2apx1NtukDmpL0_7_r26pPzotuHAfJaT5rh5U-_In4uf-ki3L1JsKZSKGDjfiQ6H7bhQQcpZXXZZsEnkmxanliYqrZgq_86lYNBvrVzd7n0HAF5u4wz/s1600/page26-1008-full.jpg" height="320" width="267" id="id_de41_1182_d3c7_a3e1" style="width: 267px; height: 320px;"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This past October I returned to India for what was my tenth trip to that country. While revisiting familiar places, I also spend time in a corner of India which I haven't been to before, namely Odisha, or Orissa as it was formerly called. This western state lays claim to some of the oldest temples in all of India, if not the world - temples up to 2000 years old; but for all that, it is not really a tourist destination - at least not a place where western tourists flock to. As such I saw but three westerners during my stay in Bhubaneswar, and while Puri and its beaches attract a number of backpackers, they are vastly outnumbered by the Indian tourists and pilgrims. Puri is home to the large 12th century Jaganath temple, one of India's four holy pilgrim sites. Bhubaneswar is home to a range of temples, some of them dating back to BC, including the imposing Lingaraj temple with its 54m high tower. Other holy places nearby are the caves at Khandagiri and Udayagiri, hewn out of the rock by Jain priests in the second century BC, and a more recent Buddhist pagoda in Dhauri, honouring the warrior-king turned pacifist Buddhist, Ashoka. The largest temple in the vicinity is the Sun Temple in Kornarak, dating back to the 13th century.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Odisha is not as spectacular as Rajasthan is, the northern state I visited on my</span></span><br>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> last two trips to India. Rajasthan boasts glamorous palaces and colourful cities which Odisha doesn't have. Odisha certainly has magnificent landscapes, but in the end, to me as an outsider at least, the region seems to be very much about the holy places, and thus about religion and spirituality. Obviously, India is by nature a very spiritual country, or should I say, Indians are a very spiritual people. Not all, of course, but many, even those who are not outright religious, consider themselves to be spiritual. This is reflected in their outlook, their customs big and small, their food, their adornments (which are never just adornments but always symbols of something), and not to mention the many religious festivals held throughout the year. Odisha, with its high concentration of temples and pilgrims, and it's lack of worldly attractions, seems very much like an epicenter of this spirituality; and indeed, there was not a single person from Orissa who I met who didn't, by word or by deed, displayed their affinity towards, or veneration of, all things religious and spiritual. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Religion is not something I generally think highly of. I believe it is at the root of most evil perpetrated in the world, as it constitutes the greatest single cause of hatred and intolerance; and certainly India had and still has its fair share of strife caused by religious intolerance. Yet it is very hard not to be charmed by the outlook on life which rises out of the beliefs of many of the Indians whom I met over the years. For starters, their attitude is generally a very inclusive one, at least with regard to visitors (whether or not the same tolerance that is granted outsiders is shown to members of one's own family or close friends is a different discussion). It's also very life affirming and optimistic. And it even produces effects that you wouldn't normally think - such as the fact (as some people claim) that the preponderant veneration of the goddess Kali in the city Kolkata leads to women in Kolkata being generally more empowered than in other parts of India.</span></span><br>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This makes India a good place to visit as the people you meet are open and welcoming, tolerant of one's quirks and differences, curious in a good way and ready to become friends. I've stated this in previous posts, but to me, visiting India is more about meeting people than it is about seeing great sights. And this time, even more than on previous visits, that fact is reflected in the photos I took. Yes, I also photographed temples and other sights and aspects, but 90% of the photos I took are portraits. Indians in general are happy to be photographed, all you need is ask. I asked pilgrims and priests, families on the beach, passers-by on the street. Sometimes, I didn't even need to ask as some, mainly youngsters, happily volunteered. The result is an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">On the last two visits to India I had chiefly taken colour polaroid films with me, but each time I was unhappy with the resulting exposures as most of them were discoloured - whether by the heat or by the airport x-ray machines, I don't know, but I found the resulting red discolouration more than just a bit distracting (see my earlier post <a href="http://gheedon.blogspot.de/2013/01/india-revisited.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Thus, this time around, I packed but one colour film and seven black and white films, including Impossible Project's new Pigeonhole film with its round border, which I found perfect for portrait photography. This decision paid off as I came back with many more worthwhile polaroids than I did on previous trips. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I put together a selection of the best instant </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">photographs, focusing on the portraits, under the title: </span></span><a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Polaroids/India2014/" id="id_41f4_3c58_dbc8_17e2" style="font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank">I Wonder If I Know Him Now: Faces of India 2014</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I h</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ave yet to develop a series of Holga films which will follow later, which, together with a selection of digital photos, will focus on other aspects of the visit.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Polaroids/India2014/" id="id_c7d8_53c5_8734_9634" target="_blank">I Wonder If I Know Him Now: Faces of India 2014</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/Travelogues/India/index.html" target="_blank">more of my photos from India</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">- <a href="http://www.gheedon.com/People/World/index.html" target="_blank">more portraits from around the world</a></span></span></div>
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</span></span> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally: the title of this blog post and of the set is based on a poem by the Kolkatan writer and artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore" target="_blank">Rabindranath Tagore</a>:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><u>I wonder if I know him</u></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I wonder if I know him</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In whose speech is my voice,</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In whose movement is my being,</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Whose skill is in my lines,</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Whose melody is in my songs</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In joy and sorrow.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I thought he was chained within me,</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Contained by tears and laughter,</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Work and play.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span> </span><br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought he was my very self</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coming to an end with my death.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why then in a flood of joy do I feel him</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the sight and touch of my beloved?<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span> <br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This ‘I’ beyond self I found</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">On the shores of the shining sea.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Therefore I know</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This ‘I’ is not imprisoned within my bounds.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span> <br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Losing myself, I find him</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Beyond the borders of time and space.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Through the Ages</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I come to know his Shining Self</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In the life of the seeker,</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">
</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In the voice of the poet.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span> <br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">From the dark clouds pour the rains.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I sit and think:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Bearing so many forms, so many names,</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I come down, crossing the threshold</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Of countless births and deaths.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span> <br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The Supreme undivided, complete in himself,</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Embracing past and present,</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Dwells in Man.</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Within Him I shall find myself –</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The ‘I’ that reaches everywhere.</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br>
</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>(Translated by William Radice)</i></span></div>
</span></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</blockquote>
</header></div>
</div>
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