("Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch List.")
Albert Einstein
"vista 99", brasil, 2007
30 April, 2009
"Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness,...
...but not by means of ruse."
("Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch List.")
Albert Einstein
"vista 99", brasil, 2007
("Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch List.")
Albert Einstein
"vista 99", brasil, 2007You see scenes. I see the light.
"writing in the air", germany, 2005
"juste une image", somewhere, sometime
"calderas", brasil, 200829 April, 2009
"Alguma coisa escapa...
...ao naufrágio das ilusões."
Machado de Assis, "Iaiá Garcia"
"sem título", alemanha/brasil, 2005/2008
Machado de Assis, "Iaiá Garcia"
"sem título", alemanha/brasil, 2005/200826 April, 2009
making-of "to be a camera-being"
Yesterday I've shown in a post the picture "to be a camera-being".
This picture seems like a photo-collage, but it is a sandwich from two photo-collages.
From the first collage I only used the figure at the left side. I cropped it and used the second collage as the back layer. Both collages are - like the collage "café brasil" - too large for my scanner. I put them together in Photoshop, but you can see the transitions very good.
"camera being", brasil, 2008
"over exposure", germany, 2006
This picture seems like a photo-collage, but it is a sandwich from two photo-collages.
From the first collage I only used the figure at the left side. I cropped it and used the second collage as the back layer. Both collages are - like the collage "café brasil" - too large for my scanner. I put them together in Photoshop, but you can see the transitions very good.
"camera being", brasil, 2008
"over exposure", germany, 2006
The result is the sandwich-photo-collage "to be a camera-being":
"to be a camera-being", brasil, 2008
"to be a camera-being", brasil, 2008"The truth is rarely pure...
...and never simple."
Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho"
"café brasil", brasil, 2008 (pictures: germany, 2006)
I'm sorry, but the photo-collage is too large for my scanner, the real size is 26,5x38,9cm.
Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho"
"café brasil", brasil, 2008 (pictures: germany, 2006)I'm sorry, but the photo-collage is too large for my scanner, the real size is 26,5x38,9cm.
25 April, 2009
21 April, 2009
just some tips!
book tips:
_roland barthes - "la chambre claire. note sur la photographie." - éditions de l’étoile, gallimard/le seuil, paris, 1980
_andreas feininger - "photographic seeing" - englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall, 1973
_"time-life - library of photography" (17+x volumes) - time-life books inc., alexandria, virginia, 1970s/1981
_"geschichte der photographie - von 1839 bis heute - the george eastman house collection" - benedikt taschen verlag, köln, 2000/2005
_"photographie des 20.jahrhunderts - museum ludwig köln" - benedikt taschen verlag, köln, 1996/2005
_peter k. burian & robert caputo - "national geographic photography field guide" - national geographic society, washington, d.c., 1999/2003
magazine tips:
_"photo magazine" - brasil
_"fotógraphos" - brasil
_"iris (foto) - a revista da imagem" - brasil
_"pdn - photo district news" - us of a
_"american photo" - us of a
_"outdoor photographer" - us of a
_"foto magazin" - germany
_"photo" - france
_"la fotografia actual" - spain
_roland barthes - "la chambre claire. note sur la photographie." - éditions de l’étoile, gallimard/le seuil, paris, 1980
_andreas feininger - "photographic seeing" - englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall, 1973
_"time-life - library of photography" (17+x volumes) - time-life books inc., alexandria, virginia, 1970s/1981
_"geschichte der photographie - von 1839 bis heute - the george eastman house collection" - benedikt taschen verlag, köln, 2000/2005
_"photographie des 20.jahrhunderts - museum ludwig köln" - benedikt taschen verlag, köln, 1996/2005
_peter k. burian & robert caputo - "national geographic photography field guide" - national geographic society, washington, d.c., 1999/2003
magazine tips:
_"photo magazine" - brasil
_"fotógraphos" - brasil
_"iris (foto) - a revista da imagem" - brasil
_"pdn - photo district news" - us of a
_"american photo" - us of a
_"outdoor photographer" - us of a
_"foto magazin" - germany
_"photo" - france
_"la fotografia actual" - spain
20 April, 2009
"A photograph is not created by a photographer. ...
... What they does is just to open a little window and capture it. The world then writes itself on the film. The act of the photographer is closer to reading than it is to writing. They are the readers of the world."
Ferdinando Scianna
"last breath", germany, 2005
Ferdinando Scianna
"last breath", germany, 2005
natives vs. tourists
The city of Heidelberg is one of the most attractive touristic hot spots in Germany. Of course tourists are very important for the city, but if you (you are now a habitant of Heidelberg) always are compelled to take care of the crazy tourists and their snapshot attitude, you'll get very bugged!
No, this nice lady isn't my mother and I wasn't a tourist, I was an observer!
My tool to shoot this scene was a Zenit ET by BELOMO with the magnificent Helios 44M - 7 MC 2/58mm lens on a Rossmann 200 film.
No, this nice lady isn't my mother and I wasn't a tourist, I was an observer!
My tool to shoot this scene was a Zenit ET by BELOMO with the magnificent Helios 44M - 7 MC 2/58mm lens on a Rossmann 200 film.
19 April, 2009
crashed films.
Sometimes a photo laboratory works really bad. And the results are very sad.
I've shown an example of a crashed film (a Kodak Portra 160VC) in an older post.
But the worst thing which happend to me, was that a laboratory developed two Ilford FP4+ films (it's a b/w-film) as C41 (it's just for color-films and a few special b/w-films). The result, you see scarcely anything on the negatives.
Here is an example scan from a "good" negative:
Yes it's a bike, my GT Ricochet. I used my Canon EOS 10 and the Canon 4-5.6/28-90mm lens.
I think, that the laboratory believe that all b/w-films are like the Ilford XP2 super 400 or like the Kodak BW400CN, because both films can be develop with C41. But even than the laboratory can do mistakes.
In this case I photographed on an old military cemetery in Hannover, Germany. It was winter and everywhere was snow. I used the Ilford XP2 super 400. The camera was the good old full mechanical Porst FX 4 (Praktica Nova 1b) with a Porst 2.8/55mm lens and a Sky-Filter.
I don't know what the laboratory did, but in this case it's the perfect thing which could happend. The scenario seems like after an atomic bomb catastrophe. The whole atmosphere gets a dramatic, depressive, disillusioned and morbid touch. I think it's a good picture against war!
Another film was an Agfa Portrait 160, okay here is only a part of the film trash:
Yes it's a girl. Here I used the Exa 1b with an Enna München Tele Ennalyt 3.5/135mm lens.
I've shown an example of a crashed film (a Kodak Portra 160VC) in an older post.
But the worst thing which happend to me, was that a laboratory developed two Ilford FP4+ films (it's a b/w-film) as C41 (it's just for color-films and a few special b/w-films). The result, you see scarcely anything on the negatives.
Here is an example scan from a "good" negative:
Yes it's a bike, my GT Ricochet. I used my Canon EOS 10 and the Canon 4-5.6/28-90mm lens. I think, that the laboratory believe that all b/w-films are like the Ilford XP2 super 400 or like the Kodak BW400CN, because both films can be develop with C41. But even than the laboratory can do mistakes.
In this case I photographed on an old military cemetery in Hannover, Germany. It was winter and everywhere was snow. I used the Ilford XP2 super 400. The camera was the good old full mechanical Porst FX 4 (Praktica Nova 1b) with a Porst 2.8/55mm lens and a Sky-Filter.
I don't know what the laboratory did, but in this case it's the perfect thing which could happend. The scenario seems like after an atomic bomb catastrophe. The whole atmosphere gets a dramatic, depressive, disillusioned and morbid touch. I think it's a good picture against war!
Another film was an Agfa Portrait 160, okay here is only a part of the film trash:
Yes it's a girl. Here I used the Exa 1b with an Enna München Tele Ennalyt 3.5/135mm lens.
18 April, 2009
The real toycamera is a Canomatic.
No, this is not about the real Canomatic by Canon, but about the Canomatics produced by the chinese factory Ouyama. A very good collection of these cameras has the Kamera-Museum Kurt Tauber!
They are fake-trash-copy-toy-cameras of the worst kind. But they work. The typical lens of the Canomatics isn't very sharp, rather like a Lensbaby, but the effect is a little bit different. Anyway, it's a kind of a soft focus lens.
I bought my Canomatic Meikai AR-4367, which seems like a very bad copy of a Minolta 5000 AF, on a flea market in Germany for 5 Euro.
The name Meikai was first used by the japanese camera manufacturer Tougodo, for example the Meikai ELX.
Now a picture with the fake Meikai AR-4367 MADE IN CHINA with an original Meikai MT-118 flash MADE IN JAPAN:
I use the camera for landscape impressions. It's not fine-art, but it makes unforgettable impressions:
"morgue 1", germany, 2006
"morgue 2", germany, 2006
"the obscured landscape", brasil, 2007
"the unpleasant landscape 1", brasil, 2007
"the unpleasant landscape 2", brasil, 2007
At Flickr is a group named you can't - canomatic. TAKE A LOOK, IT'S WORTH IT!
Here the "how to crash a meikai/canomatic camera!"- video ;))
They are fake-trash-copy-toy-cameras of the worst kind. But they work. The typical lens of the Canomatics isn't very sharp, rather like a Lensbaby, but the effect is a little bit different. Anyway, it's a kind of a soft focus lens.
I bought my Canomatic Meikai AR-4367, which seems like a very bad copy of a Minolta 5000 AF, on a flea market in Germany for 5 Euro.
The name Meikai was first used by the japanese camera manufacturer Tougodo, for example the Meikai ELX.
Now a picture with the fake Meikai AR-4367 MADE IN CHINA with an original Meikai MT-118 flash MADE IN JAPAN:
I use the camera for landscape impressions. It's not fine-art, but it makes unforgettable impressions: "morgue 1", germany, 2006
"morgue 2", germany, 2006
"the obscured landscape", brasil, 2007
"the unpleasant landscape 1", brasil, 2007
"the unpleasant landscape 2", brasil, 2007At Flickr is a group named you can't - canomatic. TAKE A LOOK, IT'S WORTH IT!
Here the "how to crash a meikai/canomatic camera!"- video ;))
Medium Format for beginners!
In fact I'm the typical 35mm-photographer. Medium Format is for me another world.
But of course I have some MF-cameras, not the best ones, but real camera icons.
The legendary Pouva Start (second version) and the state-of-the-art Zeiss Ikon Nettar 518/16 folding camera!
With the Zeiss Ikon I shot my first published photo:
"in the temple are drugs", germany, 2005 (film: Ilford Delta 100 pro - software: Photoshop 7)
It was published in the May 2006 edition of the German magazine Stadtkind - das hannovermagazin:
The Pouva Start I used for the first time in Brasil. I'd loaded it with an expired Kodak Portra 160VC. The bad-news-good-news-scenario: the photo laboratory crashed the film, but the result is very cool:
"playground", brasil, 2008
But of course I have some MF-cameras, not the best ones, but real camera icons.
The legendary Pouva Start (second version) and the state-of-the-art Zeiss Ikon Nettar 518/16 folding camera!
With the Zeiss Ikon I shot my first published photo:
"in the temple are drugs", germany, 2005 (film: Ilford Delta 100 pro - software: Photoshop 7)It was published in the May 2006 edition of the German magazine Stadtkind - das hannovermagazin:
The Pouva Start I used for the first time in Brasil. I'd loaded it with an expired Kodak Portra 160VC. The bad-news-good-news-scenario: the photo laboratory crashed the film, but the result is very cool:
"playground", brasil, 2008
The EXA 1c lives!
Some people think, that machines have souls. Okay, it's hard to believe, but why not?
I have a camera with a funny habit. She loves it to make double or multiple exposures. For no reason, without cause.
It is an EXA 1c. By the way I think the EXAs are the most beautiful SLRs ever made!
"cityscape²", germany, 2006
"landscape²", germany, 2006
"ueberschattung² II", germany, 2006
I have a camera with a funny habit. She loves it to make double or multiple exposures. For no reason, without cause.
It is an EXA 1c. By the way I think the EXAs are the most beautiful SLRs ever made!
"cityscape²", germany, 2006
"landscape²", germany, 2006
"ueberschattung² II", germany, 2006
16 April, 2009
a broken lens works!
As I bought my Ricoh TLS 401 on a flea market, the salesman gave me with the camera and the original lens two trash lenses. Both are "Auto Exaktar"-lenses, made in Korea.
The first lens is a 2.8/35mm and the second lens is a 2.8/135mm.
Both lenses work only with the f-stop 2.8, the apertures are simply dead. I have a few lenses and so I didn't need them.
Some days later I had an idea. I took a hammer an crashed the front lenses of both lenses. Why did I do this? I just wanted another effect! Now I call them "Special FX"-lenses.
Many people think, that you can't take a photo with a damaged lens, but it works.
Here are two example shots with the "Special FX"-lenses. The camera I used was a Porst FX 4 (Praktica Nova 1b).
"temporary failure", germany, 2006
"nothing compares to you", germany, 2006
Both pictures shot at heavy frontlighting.
EDIT 27.10.2010:
With the Exaktar SFX 135 at the Praktica LTL3:
"eat my shorts", brasil, 2010
EDIT 28.04.2012:
See this post in Portuguese at Queimando Filme!
The first lens is a 2.8/35mm and the second lens is a 2.8/135mm.
Both lenses work only with the f-stop 2.8, the apertures are simply dead. I have a few lenses and so I didn't need them.
Some days later I had an idea. I took a hammer an crashed the front lenses of both lenses. Why did I do this? I just wanted another effect! Now I call them "Special FX"-lenses.
Many people think, that you can't take a photo with a damaged lens, but it works.
Here are two example shots with the "Special FX"-lenses. The camera I used was a Porst FX 4 (Praktica Nova 1b).
"temporary failure", germany, 2006
"nothing compares to you", germany, 2006Both pictures shot at heavy frontlighting.
EDIT 27.10.2010:
With the Exaktar SFX 135 at the Praktica LTL3:
"eat my shorts", brasil, 2010EDIT 28.04.2012:
See this post in Portuguese at Queimando Filme!
"Hey, look at this nude. ...
... A friend saw this photo, and he fell in love with my model. He wanted to be introduced to her, and wouldn't take no for an answer. I said to him: 'Come round, she's at my place'. And I showed him [...] 'the girl': it was a plaster model of the Venus de Milo [...]. Do you think it's the camera that does that?"
Man Ray
"study I", germany, 2006
Man Ray
"study I", germany, 2006
15 April, 2009
"Denn Kunst ist nichts anderes als...
...Gestaltung mit beliebigem Material."
Kurt Schwitters
"exposição fotográfica", brasil, 2009
Kurt Schwitters
"exposição fotográfica", brasil, 2009
14 April, 2009
"Is photography an art? ...
... There's no point trying to find out if it's an art. Art is a thing of the past. We need something else. You've got to watch light at work. It's light that creates. I sit down in front of my sheet of photographic paper and I think."
Man Ray
"iris", brasil, 2008
Man Ray
"iris", brasil, 2008
"For there are two sorts of mind:...
...one that matters, and one that doesn't matter."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Idiot"
"analog, aber ana log nie", germany, 2005
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Idiot"
"analog, aber ana log nie", germany, 2005"All that we see or seem...
...Is but a dream within a dream?"
Edgar Allan Poe, "A Dream Within a Dream"
"faster than billie the kid", germany, 2006
Edgar Allan Poe, "A Dream Within a Dream"
"faster than billie the kid", germany, 2006