The brazilian Photography.

Do you really think that the brazilian photography only consists of Sebastião Salgado?

This attitude is wrong, very wrong.

Salgado is one of the best photographers in the world, but Brazil has more grandiose photographers. Here is a short list:

Eustáquio Neves, Julio Bittencourt (winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2007), Boris Kossoy, Luiz Braga, Otto Stupakoff, Mário Cravo Neto, Nair Benedicto, Bob Wolfenson, Klaus Mitteldorf, Ella Dürst, J.R. Duran, Cláudia Andujar, Angelo Maciel, Luis Crispino, Paulo Vainer, Marcos Santilli, Roberto Cecato, Vania Toledo, Marcelo Tabach, Walter Firmo, Juca Martins, Rubens Mano, Gal Oppido, Clicio, Hélio Oiticica, Miguel Rio Branco, Thomas Susemihl, Ed Viggiani and Charles Steuck, a friend of mine, with a great capability.

One of the best books about the contemporary brazilian photography is this one:

"Die Dichte des Lichts: Zeitgenössische Brasilianische Fotografie - Density of Light: Contemporary Brazilian Photography - A Espessura da Luz: Fotografia Brasileira Contemporânea" by Paulo Herkenhoff (author) with photographs of Cláudia Andujar, Luiz Braga, Mário Cravo Neto, Hélio Oiticica, Miguel Rio Branco and others. The book was printed for the Frankfurter Buchmesse 1994 in Germany and is in german, english and portuguese.

http://www.amazon.com/Die-Dichte-Lichts-Zeitgenossische-brasilianische/dp/B0006F6PX0/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232377781&sr=1-16


The best brazilian publisher for art books is Cosac Naify.

The brazilian photo magazines:

Photo Magazine, Fotógraphos, Iris (Foto) - a revista da imagem, Paparazzi - arte fotográfica, Fotografe Melhor, Photo & Camera - explorer magazine, Fotografia Popular, Photos and Digital Photography - fotografia digital.

This site is a very good brazilian photo site: http://photos.uol.com.br/

monochromatic color.

I using the example of the color blue, but you can do it with each color you want.

The original 35mm-scan:

"in the stream", brasil, 2008


Photoshop CS: selective color, desaturate, photo filter: deep blue (density: 100%), curves and selective color:

"monochromatic blue 01", brasil, 2008


detail:

"monochromatic blue 02", brasil, 2008

I saw nothing.

"without a view", brasil, 2008/2009

mirante = portuguese for viewpoint

Grease and Photography!

It was a normal day in my life. I cooked fish sticks in my pan and ate them with potato salad as I watched the "gilmore girls".
The pan stood in the kitchen sink with the grease and water.
As I fetched an ice-cream out the refrigerator and saw the fantastic structure of the grease, which had a surrealistic touch, I had an idea.

I took 2 photo prints in the size 9x13cm and laid them into the grease. I thought that they would change a little bit, but nothing happened:


I ducked them and then I had the effect I wanted:

I shot a whole film with 36 frames. In 2008 I made a collage with some pictures in the size 9x13cm of this "bratenfett-session" or in other words of this "grease-session". I used thumbtacks to bracket them together:

"odyssey of the monoliths", brasil, 2008 _ inspired by Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey"

landscape architecture meets photography.

"urban topography"

"blue print"

"shrinking city"

"off-camp"

just painting with light, with low light.

"the affair with the light", germany, 2006

"nicht des lichts der sonne", germany, 2006

"es wird kein tag mehr sein", germany, 2006

"es wird nichts mehr sein", germany, 2006

"die stadt bedarf keiner sonne", germany, 2006

"ihre leuchte ist das wasser", germany, 2006

"ich sah einen neuen himmel", germany, 2006

The first picture I shot with a 1954s Agfa Silette on an Agfa XRG 200. Also i used a tripod and a cable release.

The last 6 pictures I shot with a Carena 35F, a simple fix-focus camera, on an expired Agfa Vista 400.

You don't need a very expensive camera for an extraordinary picture. You just need phantasy and a vivid imagination!

that's all!

create a sandwich!

what you need: 2 or more pictures (b/w and/or color - digital and/or analog-scans) and Photoshop or another software to edit pictures . that's all.

layer 1 (digital b/w-picture):

"the shot", germany, 2005


layer 2 (analog color-scan):

"armadillo", brasil, 2007


1.step: Photoshop CS: layer 2: opacity: 60%, transform and merge down:

2.step: Photoshop CS: crop:

3.step: Photoshop CS: selective color (neutrals, black, red and green) and curves:

"mimicry", brasil, 2008

insane camera-lens-combinations

The rangefinder cameras from FED and Zorki are Leica-Copies and have the same M39 LTM (Leica Thread Mount) like the old "Schraubleicas".
Old Zenit SLRs like the Zenit 3M have another M39 thread mount. It is a little bit different to the Leica M39.

If you screw a M39 Helios 44 2/58mm on a Fed or a Zorki, you won't get a sharp picture. It's just impossible to focalize.
Even so you can use this effect for special pictures, like this one with a FED 4 and a Helios 44 2/58mm:

"the creature merges in his surroundings", germany, 2006

If you screw a M39 LTM Jupiter 8 2/50mm on a Zenit 3M, you'll get a macro lens with an enlarge­ment fac­tor of 1:2,5. It works really fantastic.
Here an example shot with this camera-lens combination:

"light hole", brasil, 2007

I have these ideas from Alfred Klomp's brilliant homepage.

Serie "Rechteck" - Series "Rectangle"

"Nr.1", brasil, 2008

"Nr.2", brasil, 2008

The layers of "Nr.1" and "Nr.2" are two cartons for pocket-films (110):

Triptychon "panorama", brasil, 2008

"aus_schnitt", brasil, 2008

"am anfang war die 12", brasil, 2008

what you need: some photo prints (b/w and color - 10x15cm or smaller or larger), a camera, a scissors, a scalpel, a glue stick, a scotch tape, a pen and different cardboards.
that's all.

Serie "Kreis" - Series "Circle"

"groteskstripperin", brasil, 2008

"schwan in der iris", brasil, 2008

"adam + eva", brasil, 2008

triptychon "liebe", brasil, 2008


what you need: some photo prints (b/w and color - 10x15cm or smaller or larger), a lens hood, a scissors (or a scalpel), a glue stick, a scotch tape, a pen and different cardboards.

that's all.