Gabon Portraits

Another very busy week with hardly any time for pictures. The only thing I have been able to accomplish in the last couple of weeks is to make a good start with the scanning of all the portraits I took in Gabon early 2006. The picture above shows only half of the total collection. All these people were involved in a process of drawing up a strategic process for a remote area in the southwest of Gabon. All photos were taken with the Rolleiflex 3.5E on Efke (Adox) 100, which in my opinion is unbeatable for portrait work. Natural light for all pictures, no tripod and just one negative for each sitter.

Selfpic-with-Rollei

To continue the previous posting on the Rollei TLR: I also love its unusual but comfortable haptics and the forlorn glance that goes with operating it ... ;-) Above is a rare selfpic-with-Rollei in some nondescript hotel room. Anno 2005.

Collection

My accountant asked me to provide him with an overview of all the camera material I have in my possession. I complied with the list shown above as a result. On the left hand side is the darkroom stuff and the accessory material (tripods, exposure meters, ...). The rest is around 25 cameras and 50 separate lenses, neatly grouped according to format (pano, square, oblong, digital), size of negative (small, medium, large) and type of camera (slr, tlr, rangefinder).

I don't regard this as a collection proper. It's all there to be used. I believe Keith Richards possesses 89 guitars, 20 of which he takes on any given tour. I'm obviously not Keith Richards but it is not unusual to use four different cameras on an assignment. More important even is that each of these cameras works differently as a conduit to creativity. A camera has to fit a particular project. Sometimes the connection is haphazard and grows over time. In other cases, the project's creative thrust suggests a specific combination of format, size of negative and type of camera from its very inception.

It's hard to single out a favourite camera but if I had to do it, it would be the Rollei TLR. I love its versatility. It combines a sizeable negative with eminent portability. It has a standard lens with which you can do almost anything. The Rolleinars expand its applicability to the macro realm. For those fortunate enough to own Mutars, you can switch to wide angle or moderate tele. And, very important, the Beattie Intenscreen is a joy to behold ...

Araki

I went to the Araki exhibition's final weekend at the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi. Even with 4000 images - many of them in grouped in wall-sized collages - and a great variety of themes and motives the show felt compact and coherent. Everywhere Araki's volcanic energy is in evidence. Like Winogrand his personal motto could be "I want to see how the world looks like photographed."

A couple of weeks ago Marko Hehl gave me a copy of a Japanese photo magazine dedicated to Araki. I featured a moving series of b&w photos recording his honeymoon with his wife Yoko ("Sentimental Journey") and her death many years after ("Winter Journey"). Again these pictures impressed me most of all at the Charleroi exhibition. Both journeys were shown on wall opposite each other and the result was a most subtle and poignant counterpoint between Eros and Thanatos. Some of the images in the earlier series (Yoko huddled in a boat, the lovemaking) look eerily prophetic, whilst the serene calm pervading the "Winter Journey" - with the cat slipping in and out of images as a messenger of another world - recaptures some of the contentment and passion of a long relationship.

Araki's other and better known work - the provocative nudes, the equally provocative food, the once more provocative flowers - claimed most of the wall space. I had a headache whilst visiting the exhibition so didn't any attention to the food pictures at all. The nudes raised a chuckle here and there. Actually they didn't strike me as provocative at all primarily because of the obvious pleasure with which Araki's models surrender themselves to his private phantasies. (Incidentally, the neighbourhood denizens thought otherwise as they attacked a large billboard outside the museum - featuring a naked woman with private parts barely hidden behind a feather - with paint buckets and a molotov cocktail). Anyway, whilst I was touring the exhibition, I did wonder a couple of times what some of these middle aged ladies where thinking when they were intently studying some of Araki's more daring phantasies ...

There was no catalogue. I'll have to buy his "Self, Life, Death", published by Phaidon.

CL to Joep

I finally sold the Leica CL. The camera has been on sale for a long time. I had a few would-be buyers, but for some reason none of them followed through. Just before the ski holidays, I was contacted by a Dutch photographer, Joep Jacobs. He was interested and asked me to call him back upon my return. We quickly agreed on the terms for an eventual sale, but Joep wanted to see the camera for himself before he decided. So he came down from Eindhoven and ended up buying what is indeed a very nice CL.

I never really caught on to this camera. Maybe a little too small for my hands. I found the viewfinder a bit cluttered too. And the shutter noise and mechanics is not exactly vintage Leica. But it's because I have plenty of alternatives that I can afford to be critical. It is in fact a very nice camera with a lot of strong points. If it were the only camera I had, I could live with it. The photo shown above is one of the few I have taken with the CL (Switzerland, July 2005).

Joep wants to equip the CL with the new 35mm Summicron Asph. He obviously likes quality: his workhorse camera is an ALPA SW12 ;-) A nice tool for a professional architectural photographer. We had a brief but pleasant conversation before we parted. Afterwards, I visited his website. Here and there, particularly in the landscape work, I had flashes of recognition: his eye seems to look very similar to mine. There's an interesting little essay in Q&A format under the "About" heading where Joep explains his photographic approach and his opinion about digital vs analog. I sympathise with a lot he is saying. Once more Leica proved to be a powerful "transitional object" in networking!

London revisited

Another in between posting. This is a Horizon-shot taken in London a couple of weeks ago. Now that the EU Capitals book is firmly taking shape, I am trying to improve on the weakest sections which, to my mind, are Madrid and London. So I took the Horizon, which is starting to look pretty beaten up, to London when I had the occasion. I shot one roll, but sadly there wasn't anything that improved upon what I already had. This was the best shot, I felt, but still it is not good enough. Now time is really running out. In a couple of weeks' time I am travelling to Bucharest for the very final chapter of this journey ...

Signs

I had hoped I would have more time to spend on this blog and other writing, but things are just not easing up. So then there's no other option to cut sleep and steal a few moments at 3am. For now just a snapshot I took a month ago during the break in a course I was teaching at Antwerp University. Despite the convenience of computers and beamers, I still love to scribble on the blackboard ...

Photo taken with Leica CM on Fuji Neopan 1600.

Fantastiznje

Just back from Switzerland where we spent a delightful week skiing with friends. We arrived on New Year's day in a horrible drizzle. But the next day, the snows came. The Swiss call it "der grosse Schnee", as it were some kind of mythical beast which is awaited in a mixture of awe and excitement. And snowing it did: some 50cm in 36 hours of uninterrupted precipitation.

That gave us ample time to prepare ourselves for the slopes. I did my first trials on skis in the little meadow adjacent to the chalet. I truly expected to have to start all over again, but lo and behold, I picked up where I had left it 27 years ago and went downhill relaxed and full of confidence. It was such a pleasant, nearly miraculous rediscovery of a skill that I thought I had lost long ago. It really made my week.

Accompanied by our friend photographer Hans Bol and his wife Joli, Witold and I spent two full days exploring the vast ski arena above Klosters, throwing ourselves with great gusto down the easier blue and somewhat more difficult red slopes.

Ann and Emma had no previous experience on skis and took lessons. By Friday they were going down the training slope quite gracefully. Ann thought it quite a feat for a 41-year old! On the Friday afternoon, Witold and I took Emma with us on some of the real slopes. Not as easy as it seemed for our little Emma! But she managed very well after a difficult start. All in all a great week, which really helped to recover from the hard work in 2006. Fully refreshed, we are ready for 2007.

The picture above was taken on the Friday afternoon on a little gondola that was hauling us up. Left is Emma, on the righthand side is Witold and I am in between. With the D80.