BRAVO 20

Image glut

2011-11-12T17:38:00.001+01:00

Installation by Erik Kessels at Foam Amsterdam (original link here)

Making the image glut tangible ... Erik Kessels filled the rooms of Foam Amsterdam with the number of printed pictures that are uploaded on Flickr every 24 hours. That's more than one million photos. What does this mean? Should it give us photographers pause? Time to hang the Leica in the willows and do something else? Maybe we have to consider this: billions of words have been written and yet this does not keep poets and writers from carving out niches of sense in this endless sea of words. Here, as a beacon in this oceanic space of non-sense, is a beautiful poem, with photographic overtones, by an artist I only recently discovered (originally published here).

Monte Bianco

2011-10-08T12:46:00.002+02:00

Here are some images taken over the summer in the Courmayeur area. It was actually the very first time I visited the Mont Blanc range. The Italian, southeastern side is a wonderful eldorado for mountain photographers. The cliffs rise 3000m high above the valley floors. It's very impressive.

The picture on the left is Mont Blanc de Courmayeur, 4765m, the highest summit on Italian soil. The mountain has its characteristic 'capuchon' announcing bad weather. On the right hand side we see the dark, precipitous profile of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, 3773m.

The picture in the middle is taken from the Vallone di Malatra, which branches of from the Italian Val Ferret. It's a wonderful, glacier-moulded valley that provides a splendid view on the chaotic east face of Grandes Jorasses, 4208m.

On the right we see the mysterious glacial expanses of the Testa del Rutor, 3486m. The photo is taken from the Colle d'Arp, 2570m, high above the enchanting Vallone di Youla, which descends towards the alpine village of La Thuile.

These are a few images of last summer's meager harvest. Very soon the weather would turn for the worst and this spell was to last for weeks. All pictures taken, as usual, with the 300mm lens on the Chamonix 4x5" on Fuji Acros 100, scanned on the Imacon 848 and duotoned in PhotoShop.

How Blurb does it

2011-06-26T16:48:00.000+02:00

Tantalising!
Your Blurb Book: Behind the Scenes from Blurb Books on Vimeo.

Nine eyes

2011-06-20T00:05:00.000+02:00

This is just a-ma-zing: 9-eyes.com.

Natura Naturans

2011-06-19T14:44:00.001+02:00

I've been very quietly working on what may turn into a new project. It's called 'Natura Naturans' and is Latin for 'nature doing what nature is supposed to do'. So I'm focusing on 'wild', disorganised snippets of nature. Not necessarily aesthetically pleasing, but confusing and messy. These are pockets where the processes of breakdown and fermentation occur. I believe some of the images I took during the trips to Rome and Venice the last couple of years put me in this direction. I also have the 'landscape' work of Ray Metzker in mind (although I'm not particularly fond of it). Above a small collection of images I took already in the fall of last year.

Sune Jonsson

2011-06-16T20:36:00.001+02:00

A discovery. I had never heard of this photographer before. But recently, whilst leafing through a Steidl catalogue I picked up at Paris Photo two years ago, I was struck by some of his pictures. Earlier this week I was in Lund, a sleepy university town in the south of Sweden, where I happened to bump into a catalogue of a 2009 exhibition of his work ("And time becomes a wondrous thing ...").

Jonsson (1930-2009) seems to have focused largely on the rural life of his native Västerbotten area in the north of Sweden. Most of the work shown in the book dates from the 1960s and 1970s. People lived extremely frugally. Life revolved around the work on the land, the family and faith. No television, hardly a radio. The stove, pets or musical instruments provided companionship and relaxation.

Jonsson mixes landscapes with very formal and at the same time very personal portraits of farmers and their families. The compositions are not fanciful, but strong and sturdy. Which does not mean they are not imaginative. There is a picture, for example of a farmer's wife sitting on a couch. Suddenly you realise her husband's face is reflected in the mirror above. Jonsson's restraint and classicism also betrays a certain grittiness, a tragic sense of fragility. Sometimes I had a flash of recognition and I could see a foreshadowing of Anders Petersen's extremely visceral style. There is also a connection with the equally personal Baltic approach of Vitas Luckus (my very first photo book, way back in the early 1980s), not that far away from Sweden after all.

In his work Jonsson manages to stay away from a saccharine rural romanticism and expose something very authentic, unadorned, tough and true about a simple life on the land. A great photographer.

Salgado in Alaska

2011-06-11T20:22:00.000+02:00

I picked up this slideshow by Salgado who is working on his next chapter of this Genesis project: Alaska. Quite marvelous. Pictures are accompanied by a quirky, but also personal interview. Réponses Photo dedicated an feature last year on Salgado's switch to digital. A Canon 1DsMk II. Likely he has moved onto the Leica S2 in the meantime.

Hans Bol's Paradise City

2011-06-11T14:17:00.000+02:00

Two weeks ago we went to Scheveningen, to visit the 'finissage' and a book launch of Hans Bol at the Museum Beelden aan Zee. The portfolio on display was Paradise City, a project on the marble quarries of Carrara Hans had been working on for over 20 years (!).

The exhibition was small - altogether around 20-25 pictures - but very very well done. It is always an enormous pleasure to study these fantastically detailed and lively prints from 6x17 negs up to 20x25. I am fairly familiar with this body of work - spanning hundreds of pictures - as Hans allowed me to browse the portfolio numerous times during the workshops we had in the past. But I was happy to find several pictures I hadn't seen before.

The big event, however, was the launch of Hans' new book, the second published under his own RectoVerso imprint (after Het Formaat van Waterland, from 2004). I know Hans has been planning this publication for a long time, thinking about a suitable book concept, making dummies, toying with different selections of his images. I think one difficulty he saw was the absence of an overarching narrative. When you are working on a project for so long it is not unusual to 'forget' almost what the original impetus behind it was. Some photographers start with only a vague inkling of what a project is about and allow the sense to emerge as they go. Others have a well-defined story in mind and they stick to that script no matter what happens. It seems to me that in Hans' case he started out with a fairly precise idea of what he wanted to do but as time moved on this got buried under many other layers of experience and meaning. Finally, he settled on an ecologically inspired story about a landscape that has been mutilated by crass commercial opportunism. As he writes in the introduction: "Initially I was mesmerized by the fantastic light of the quarries and became fascinated by the material and traces the quarry workings had left behind. Before long, I began the view the quarry itself as a sculpture in which coincidence plays a significant role (...) Eventually, influenced by the photography of the New Topographics, I also saw the immense damage the quarries had caused to the impressive quarries had caused to the impressive nature of the westen part of the Central Appenines. A silent beauty seems to go hand in hand with destruction of the landscape."

The book is gem. It is sized 24x30cm, portrait format. There is no dustjacket. On the inside small hand-made silver gelatine print of the cover image has been included in every copy of the 700 copy print run. The paper is a delicate matte, reminding us of the texture of the marble that is at the centre of the work. There is a variety of negative formats, including 4x5, 8x10, 8x20 and 6x17. Usually I dislike a mixture of formats but here the images have been so intelligently sequenced that, from a purely layout point of view, it absolutely works. But the design (by Dutch book designer Els Kerremans) also helps to bring the whole portfolio at a higher plane. The richness of resonances between the images opens up a very fundamental conceptual and philosophical space to reflect upon our human predicament here on this planet. For me the book is ultimately about the human species carving out (literally) a niche for dwelling. We do that in many ways, not only by building houses but also by developing a spoken and written language. A Faustian bargain comes into play as we may well perish in the process, as a result of shortsightedness or hubris. This, for me, is a meta-narrative that spans the various stories that Hans might have want to tell with this work.

In spirit the book connects very much to the very best, epic work of Koudelka. As in Limestone and Black Triangle we are witnessing a mute, primeval world with sordid traces of humanity written all over it. In Paradise City Hans plays very clearly on this notion of 'writing' through his pictures of various, illegible paint traces or inscriptions that can be found on the blocks of marble strewn haphazardly through the landscape. Another photographer that comes to mind is Depardon. About his Errance I wrote earlier: "What Depardon has mapped are habitats, nothing more and nothing less. It is about places that are inhabited, sometimes barely so. One gets the impression of looking at our planet from a great distance: not the enchantingly poetic image of the great blue sphere swimming in space, but a place that is not particularly beautiful, not particularly loathsome. It is just a place. This is the purity of gaze that Depardon was after. It's a perspective that is profoundly unsentimental, but deeply compassionate." I think this applies very well to Hans' Paradise City too.

I am happy to see this work finally in print. Clearly a major piece of work that ranks with the best. I hope it will open up new opportunities for Hans, an intelligent, creative, hardworking, very conscientious and modest photographer.

Valtournenche

2011-05-31T08:26:00.000+02:00

Two pictures I took in March during my brief visit to the Valtournenche. Both on 4x5 and the film is Quickload Acros. They show some of the plaques that adorn the tiny village square in rememberance of the valley's great mountain guides and climbers.

Another Blurb booklet

2011-05-15T00:40:00.001+02:00

I compiled a Blurb book with 53 pictures from the April study trip through Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland and France. I'm always having a ball putting together a booklet. Blurb is great and it is getting better all the time. The BookSmart software offers plenty of flexibility (more than I need, really) and they are offering always more features at the top end for demanding photographers. Their new ProLine with high quality papers (pearl and matte), custom end sheets and hardcover linens looks great.

I had around 28 rolls of 120 film to start with from which I scanned about 80 negatives. I lost one complete film due to light intrusion in the exposed roll. I had some problems with light leakage towards the end of some of the other rolls too. I am not sure why that is as I haven't had that problem before with the Bronica RF645. Apparently the film is not tightly enough wound. Maybe the fact that I have been shooting 220 format film for a long time and only recently switched to 120 again (taking care to adjust the position of the in-camera pressure plate) has something to do with it. I'll wrap my film in aluminium foil from now onwards to be on the safe side.

There was a mix of films, some of which I even hadn't used before, as the Kodak PX125. I was very pleased with the latter: a beautiful, very delicate emulsion that results in very low grain and beautiful tones. I'll certainly try that again. The chromogenic Ilford XP2 scans, on the other hand, very grainy. Works fine too if that is the effect you're after. The other emulsions - Tri-X, APX 100 - are somewhat in between. There was also a bunch of old Efke 100 (all my film was outdated by the way) which I thought didn't work that well for architecture. I think it's best used for portraits.

I had mixed results with the duotoning. I relied on the same toning as used for the mountain portraits with which it works very well. Here I had trouble with shadow parts that clogged as a result of the toning. So I had to tweak some images quite a bit. And I am not universally satisfied with the result.

Qua images I am reasonably content. The idea was to create a documentary record of the journey and I think that has worked well. I think the images are very solid. Fairly straightforward, sober but strong compositions, almost modernist in their simplicity. Many are very tightly composed, as I am wont to do these days. I've also tried to keep my vertical lines very straight, which gives an extra coherence to the images. What pleases me is the variety in perspectives that a single standard lens is able to provide. One hardly needs more. I used to like my 25mm Distagon on the Contax but now I find a 28 mm already impossibly wide. I believe I can do anything I want in the 35 mm to 75 mm range.

MUDAM

2011-04-30T16:22:00.000+02:00

First results from the study trip series are in. All were taken with the Bronica RF645 on a mixture of films. The two shots above were on Ilford chromogenic XP2. Depicted is the MUDAM, the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean on the Kirchberg Plateau in Luxemburg city. The building is a design by I.M. Pei, who won fame with, amonst others, his Louvre pyramid.

I am very happy with this first batch of pictures. The images are fairly grainy but pin sharp. They show a wonderful acutance and 3-dimensionality. The versatility of the Bronica with its standard lens is well demonstrated by the two pictures above. The first photo could have been taken with a modest wide-angle, say a 35mm, whilst the one below looks as if it has been taken with a 75mm.

I have started to compile a Blurb book to document our journey. More soon.

Winter at Plateau Rosa

2011-04-27T14:38:00.001+02:00

Mid-March I was briefly in Cervinia to discuss a potential collaboration with Giovanni Zannetti on the Matterhorn Project. Mr. Zannetti has produced two earlier books on the history of the mountain, more particularly focusing on the feats of the famous Carrel dynasty of mountain guides. It was guide Antonio Carrel who put me in contact with his client. Eventually the contact proved to be fruitful and Mr. Zannetti agreed to produce an essay for the book I'd like to see happening.

When I arrived on that Friday, I was lucky. The Mont Blanc massif had been an effective barrier against the bad weather moving in from the west. The Aosta valley was still sunny. So I took the opportunity to to take the 4x5" op to the Plan Maison ski station to take a picture of the mountain's wintery south-eastern face. Skies were clear but it was extremely windy. As a result most of the ski area was closed. The only option for me was to huddle behind a small chalet and take a picture from there. Despite the wind protection, I wasn't sure at all whether it would be a sharp image.

The result was worth the effort, I think. I am quite pleased with this image. It is quite sharp, for a start. And I like the compositional simplicity, the strong, almost lithographic contrast and the smooth tonal range which really connect it to a Sella-kind of aesthetics. Definitely one for the book.

The wealthy heart of Europe

2011-04-23T20:37:00.000+02:00

I just returned from a 10-day study trip in the context of my study of urban planning (a Masters of Human Settlements at KULeuven). We traversed the wealthy heart of Europe, visiting urbanistic and architectural projects in Luxemburg, Karlsruhe, Zürich, Luzern, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Nancy and Metz. What struck most was the amazingly quality of life in these places (with Mulhouse perhaps not meeting the lofty standards set by the other cities). There is no doubt that this part of the world must be the best place to live anywhere on this planet. If one wouldn't know better these cities could lead one to believe that the world really works. This experience of the good life was reinforced by an exceptional spell of sunny and balmy spring weather. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to get into some serious photography again. I took just the Bronica RF645 with its 65/4 lens and a mixed bag of 120 B&W roll films (including chromogenic Ilford, Efke 100, Kodak Pan 125, Tri-X 400, around 30 pieces in all). The purpose was simply to document our journey, keeping faithfully track of all the projects we visited. I was happy to experience how much energy I drew from this sustained effort to photograph.Taking pictures simply makes me happy! Because of such a long spell of inactivity I'd almost forgotten the feeling. The Bronica continues to feel like a wonderful camera. I didn't feel constrained at all by having only a single lens at my disposal. It's energising and relaxing at the same time. I am now looking forward to getting the films back, scanning them and bundling a nice selection together in a Blurb book.

Doing your thing

2011-03-05T15:17:00.000+01:00

And as an afterthought: I liked this little video testmonial on Blurb. Just a guy who continues to shoot with his trusted all-film Leicas. The kind of documentary photography people have been doing for ages. But he does it, in all modesty, very well. Inspiring.

Time to regroup ...

2011-03-05T15:08:00.002+01:00

It’s been a long while since I have been blogging on Bravo20. Soon I may be taking up the thread again more energetically. But let me pause for a minute on the many reasons why I dropped the ball for so long in photography.

First of all I think it is only natural that the intensity with which one pursues interests and passions periodically waxes and wanes over time. Over the last 30 years I have grown deep affections for books, music, mountains and photography. The intensity of these passions oscillates in cycles with different frequencies. My passion for mountains, for example, has a yearly cycle, with a first surge of interest around late February. This steadily builds up towards the summer and after our return from holiday it seems I’ve been able to stock up on alpine vitamins enough to allow the passion into hibernate a little. In music, it seems the frequency is much lower. 10-15 years ago we went to concerts very often but then this started to taper off. At a certain point in time I also thought that I had explored most of the interesting repertoire in classical music. However, the last 2-3 years the interest has been steadily growing, thanks partly to the rediscovery of vinyl and thanks to the listening diary have been keeping for about 6 months now. So lately we have been going more to concerts again and I find it hugely rewarding again. As regards photography, I have invested an enormous amount of time and passion over the last 8 years. It is not unnatural that at one point one has to pause to catch some breath. However, I also believe that those crisscrossing cycles of intensity also influence one another. It is no accident that I put together the Matterhorn Blurb-booklet early March, when those alpine bugs start to tickle again. And also the deep involvement in music has given me so much energy lately that I feel I have again some spare oomph to pull myself into creative photo mode again.

Another factor has been the frenzied speed with which photography and the supporting technology has evolved. I confess at being a gearhead. But I’ve always been ambivalent towards the digital wave. It really hasn’t captured my imagination. I found it mildly interesting until the full frame DSLR came on stage. That seemed a natural end point to me. But since, the race towards more pixels, higher ISOs etc has been relentlessy pushing on and it seems to me there is nothing new there anymore. I’m keeping an eye on the M9 and the Fuji X100 and that’s about it. Meanwhile, film has been pushed aside to a really peripheral position. For film-based photographers there is hardly any news out there. The market for new stuff and emulsions has come to (almost) complete stasis.

In terms of the practice of photography itself, that has been exploding in a most incredible way. Literally everyone is taking pictures now. Whilst there are tons of rubbish, there is a lot of very good work around too. And photo magazines and books are spreading the knowledge about esoteric techniques at lightning speed. Keith Carter used to be one of the very few photographers who would use the tilt-technique (with his Flexbody) to create this kind of dreamy, slightly surreal landscapes. Today everybody is doing it. Never mention the legions that are prowling the streets with their Holgas and Dianas. Alternative processes? Whip out your iPhone and download one of these apps. You want real sharpness? It used to be so that only big negs could give you that. Today a decent mid-market DSLR provides all the sharpness you want up to serious print sizes. In a way this has a sobering effect. There’s no way one can stand out of the crowd by relying on some sort of technologically-supported gimmick because in no time everyone is doing it. The same applies to photo subjects. Derelict cities? Old factories? Landscapes? Exotic locales? Small photography? Nightscapes? You name it. It is all being practiced massively by huge throngs of enthusiastic photographers. Don’t even think about being original ... So it really boils down now to the purity and depth of one’s photographic vision that one can develop. Only this will be able to put you aside from the snapshooting masses. In a way it is a very good thing, because that has always been the ultimate distinctive feature. But it is also a very tall order as a genuine vision (‘un regard d’auteur’, as the French say) takes years and tons of energy to develop. Ah oui, no pain no gain. And that is something that continues to intimidate me ...

Another factor has been my studies in urban planning/design. This has panned out in two ways. First I had to put a lot of time in. This was time I did not have for shooting. And then, more importantly, this study has given me a very different look on the city. It’s a much richer, more technical look also. And I’m still wondering exactly how to reflect that in my images. Today I find the EU Capitals project very naive. I couldn’t do that anymore. But it’s not yet clear what an alternative approach might. I think the important thing here is to break through this lethargy and start to do some shooting. Very soon I will do that. With my course mates I will go on a 10-day study trip to visit projects in France, Germany and Switzerland. I’ll try do some shooting there. And then at the end of May I am planning to go an a 3-day walk from Rome Fiumicino airport to the city centre. I’ve always found this a very interesting, suggestive peri-urban wasteland.

There’s maybe a final element playing out in my creative lull. It’s the lack of printing. Indeed, I have made very few prints of my own pictures over the last two years. It’s partly the hassle, partly the ability to see your pictures on a screen which keeps me from doing so. But seeing pictures on a screen is not the same as holding a print – even an inkjet print – in your hands. So, when I saw that 80x100 print that Bert did for me of one of my Matterhorn pictures (sold to a Swiss client) I suddenly got a jolt. Immediately I felt like grabbing a camera. Now, yesterday I received those Blurb booklets I ordered. And, wow, I’m impressed. They look very good with that premium lustre paper they are offering now. There still is a greenish cast over the black-and-white pictures but it’s tolerable I find. Importantly, I think the prints in the booklet communicate that kind of majesty and purity that I want to put in my pictures. You really can’t see that on a screen.

So it’s time to regroup. I’ll be making more Blurb books in the coming months. My Matterhorn website will go live. I’m going to submit more pictures to Millennium and I will start shooting again.

Matterhorn on Blurb

2011-02-27T20:10:00.003+01:00

Soon I will try to expand my Matterhorn portfolio. I took an afternoon to quickly put together a Blurb book (see on the right hand side of this page) with a selection of pictures of the mountain and its neighbours. It's far from the final thing, of course. More kind of a scrapbook. Certainly not for sale. In fact, there is one picture in there that looks unbelievably crappy. Not sure what I did wrong there. But it's too late now and it will have to wait until another iteration, likely in the fall. I have three more years to work on it! Will need to take pictures outside of the summer season too! That will be a challenge ...

Topophotography

2010-10-26T17:20:00.000+02:00

In the Master of Human Settlements Studio we are currently mapping the Aa river valley, south of the city. Last week I did a fieldtrip to the area, following the perimeter of the river, making sketches and taking pictures with the little Sony. The iSweep feature is very useful in this kind of work. This is moving towards genuine topophotography.

Vetta

2010-10-18T21:19:00.000+02:00

I sent in an image for a competition organised by the Gran Paradiso National Park. The theme centered around water reflections in the mountain world. Usually I am not into this kind of thing but I thought this 4x5" image, taken earlier this summer in Zermatt, was worthwhile.

End of summer

2010-09-27T10:07:00.002+02:00

When I left Switzerland last Friday, a cold front just started to pound the Alps. Effectively the end of summer. This is how the Matterhorn looks today, as seen through one of the Zermatter webcams. Intriguing image.

Matterhorn revisited

2010-09-27T09:55:00.003+02:00

Last week I was able to spend another few days in the vicinity of the Matterhorn, hoping to progress with my photo project. We had a couple of splendid late summer days, with limpid skies filled with delicate cloud arabesques, and warm, shimmering colours. Ideal for taking pictures! The idea was also to try and climb the mountain, but, despite the good weather, conditions were far from ideal. With a thin ice sheet on the rocks above 3800m the climb promised to be arduous ('auf biegen und brechen' as the locals say). My guide Martin Kopfsguter preferred to give it a try at some other time. Instead we climbed another 4000m peak in the area: the Lagginhorn. In addition, I was able to expose 27 4x5" negatives, which is a lot.

The picture above was taken with the iSweep panorama function on the little DSC-HX5. I must say I love these kinds of extreme panoramas. And all this with just an 180° sweep of the arm. Amazing ...

Power's Two Songs

2010-09-18T16:48:00.003+02:00

Here is an interesting Q&A with photographer Mark Power. He was one of the tutors (together with Carl De Keyser and David Hurn) at the Magnum workshop I followed last year in Brighton. Power does good work, slowly and meticulously. Everything on 4x5". I respect him for a very virtuosic but also very disciplined photographic vision. I think his 26 Different Endings is the kind of urban photo project that strikes just the right kind of balance between 'context' and 'autonomy'. Obviously, there is a lot of suburban tristesse in that work too, but the project has been so cleverly conceptualized that it opens interesting vistas beyond the pictures too. I look forward to his new book. Yes, indeed, I would love to be able to 'see sound' ...

Context

2010-09-18T16:33:00.005+02:00

One thing that triggered me lately was a comment by William Klein at the latest Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan:

At a press conference in Perpignan, the celebrated American photographer has called on photojournalists to add more context to their images, as, he says about the festival's screenings that they fell like a "festival of shantytown after shantytown."

I sympathise with that view. I feel it's not only true of photojournalism in the strict sense but it applies to a lot of street and urban photography as well. As regards the latter, we have seen so many pictures of non-places, of delapidated industrial buildings, of sterile suburbia that I wonder what the point is. The study of urbanism I am currently engaged in alerts me to the superficiality of a lot of these photo projects. Maybe I am very wrong to expect that photographers think contextually and conceptually about their work. Maybe photographers do one thing, and designers do something else altogether. But Klein's remark reveals that also in the photographic world there are nagging questions about what the purview of photography is and should be.

Dévoluy

2010-09-03T15:37:00.002+02:00

During the holidays we spent a week in a very quiet corner of the French Alps. The Dévoluy is wedged between het high peaks of the Ecrins in the East and the calcareous plateaus of the Vercors in the West, and it straddles the rigours of alpine abodes in the north and a more welcoming Mediterranean ambience in the south. Our ambition was to walk the full Tour du Dévoluy, but that didn't happen as several gites and hotels closed in the last two years so that it became very difficult to connect all the dots. So we limited ourselves to a 2-day circular trek and a few stand-alone walks. I just had the XPan with me, loaded with good old Reala. Meanwhile Fuji has ceased production. Which is a shame as I continue to love the delicate, earthy colours of that emulsion. Also the XPan continues to be a dream camera, handling superbly well and delivering dependable metering, dual format capability and very good optics. Above just a few of the snaps taken along the way.

Tagging the tour

2010-08-30T23:48:00.001+02:00

Here it is, the little tour I did in Turnhout, geotagged in the Sony DCH-HX5V.

iSweep and geotagging

2010-08-30T15:27:00.006+02:00

Digital apparel continues to develop apace. The pixel war continues with, for instance, compact cameras now moving significantly beyond 10 mp with new sensor technologies. And then there is a steady stream of more or less gimmicky add-ons. I am not keeping track of all these developments. However in the framework of my Matterhorn-project I have been interested by the possibility to geotag pictures, i.e. to add GPS-derived co-ordinates to images. Now this features is also becoming available in cheaper compact cameras. I capitulated for the 10.2 Mp Sony Cybershot DSC-HX5V when I noticed that it also offers the iSweep intelligent panorama function. It's crazy: you just move your arm with the camera in an 180° arc and the thing combines 100 exposures in a single 7152 x 1080 image (with Horizon-like distortion). As is obvious from on the pictures above, the stitching is not always perfect. It does take a little practice. But 90% of the panos without moving objects are perfect. Apparently the images are captured from the video feed, so it is not suitable for real, publication quality stuff. But for purely documentary purposes it's excellent. From October onwards I will start to work on an urban design studio in the framework of my Master of Human Settlements studies. The studio centers on Turnhout. One of the things I would like to do to jumpstart the studio work is to collect a database of pictures of the city and its surroundings. I think these very wide angle panoramas work very well to remind planners of the surroundings. This in combination with the geotagging functionality is awesome. Each image can be inserted into Google Maps or Google Earth or any other GIS mapping software. Anyway, that's the idea. Yesterday I went to Turnhout, made a short walk north of the city along the canal and captured around 50 panorama images. All of those have geodata as part of the exif-file. However, I have not been able to insert the pics in Google Maps yet (tried a few routes, via iPhoto on my Mac, Flickr and Panoramio, but no success so far). However, I am quite sure it can be done. This will also be very useful to document the Matterhorn project.

Peregrinations

2010-08-22T14:51:00.002+02:00

The image that was last posted on the blog - a white flag fluttering in an energetic Icelandic breeze - followed by a four month silence may have suggested that I moved on to other horizons. Well, not quite. But admittedly it has been very quiet. My creative energy was to a large extent focused on the studies I have started on urbanism. Easter was spent on an urban design studio in Venice, followed by two intense months of writing papers and preparing for exams. That brought us to the beginning of July. Wrapping up project work for the holidays from which we have returned just two weeks ago. There you have four months.

But it's certainly true that my drive to go out and take pictures has waned over the last couple of months. I've grown used to the cyclical rise and fall of creative energy. Or rather: to the modulations between different carriers of energy, be it words, music, images or ideas. And so recently I have been more into reading, writing and also exploring new musical repertoire. As a result, images receded a little in the background.

The holidays were a good opportunity to reconnect with my photographic endeavours. I had planned a week at the foot of the Matterhorn, to proceed with my 'portrait' project. And so I packed up my 4x5" camera and headed for Zermatt and Cervinia, rediscovering the joy of the slow peregrinations around this fabulous mountain. Despite some persistent cloud formations around the Cervino, I was able to take some good pictures. This time I focused on the well known and often photographed east and south sides of the mountain. That resulted in some good images. Very classic, but with a poise and quiet that suits me very well. I am starting to build up a significant portfolio now of Matterhorn pictures, but the final shape of the project is still unclear. However, I managed to secure the support of a number of key people in the Cervinia community, which will make it more easy, I hope, to find a place for the project when the commemoration is due, in 2015.

After the Matterhorn I caught up with the family for a week of walking in a quiet corner of the French Alps. I exchanged the 4x5" for the XPan loaded with Reala, to take some snaps along the way. After this relaxing week we headed to the Southwest of France for a week of rest and reading.

The other project that continues to loom large on my photographic horizon is the Hölderlin project. My studies in landscape urbanism and landscape architecture have led me onwards in the conceptualization of this project:an amalgamation of philosophical reflection, textual analysis, bodily movement, travelling, craftsmanship, photography, and engineering and design of physical infrastructure and landscape. The plan is now to use the thesis on landscape urbanism that I will write the coming academic year to document these ideas and to do a first survey of their interconnection. That work could be the basis for a much more encompassing research (including an 800km long walk) that could eventually result in a PhD. It is a fascinating project, linking our current predicament (environmental pressure, sprawling cities, large inequities, robber baron capitalism) to the basic datum of the landscape and our relationship to it, with an early Romantic German poet as mediator.

One implication of my studies is that I am starting to look in a different way at the world around us. Previously, quite a bit of my photographic work was centered on the urban environment. But I find it difficult now to find an appropriate stance that does justice at once to my increased conceptual knowledge about cities and the more intuitive response I have towards the city (which, in the light of this new knowledge, I tend to see as naive). It will take time to sort this out.

Surrender?

2010-05-04T10:22:00.002+02:00

Back to Iceland for a moment. A shot from Reykjavik harbour, last February. Bronica RF645 in a blistering, ice-cold wind.

Birth

2010-04-29T23:38:00.002+02:00

I spent the Easter holidays working on an urban design studio in Venice. A remarkable setting. One day we went on a field trip, inspecting the area between the Livenza and the Piave rivers. At a remarkable, secluded spot in the foothills of the Venetian Prealps the percolated water comes out of the rocks into the plain marking the birth of a river. The pictures I took there - Bronica RF645 with Tri-X 320 @ 800 - seem to be suitably 19th century in atmosphere.

Portraits at Hubermont

2010-03-22T10:58:00.002+01:00

A while ago we had a meeting with friends and colleagues in the Ardennes. I took some snapshots with the Contax RTS III and the Zeiss 85/1.4 on Ilford XP2.

Aurora

2010-03-11T20:35:00.003+01:00

Wonderful northern light when we were in Iceland a few weeks ago ... Taken on the Bronica RF645, Tri-X 320 @ 800asa, exposure time 30s.

Dreamland at Limerick

2010-03-10T22:54:00.003+01:00

Some of my Iceland pictures are shown for the first time, at the Limerick bookshop in Gent.
It is certainly one of the more stylish places to exhibit. The title of the exhibition refers to a book - "Dreamland - Self-help manual for a frightened nation" by Andri Snaer Magnason. The book paints a thought-provoking picture of Iceland's policy to sell their hydropower reserves to very energy intensive multinational companies.

I will have a second series of winterly pictures ready soon.

'Land at the foot of the mountain'

2010-01-29T20:17:00.001+01:00

My review of Koudelka's latest book: "Piedmont".

A rare interview with him here.

Bergportretten

2010-01-28T23:50:00.002+01:00

Inleiding van Luc Hoebeke ter gelegenheid van de opening van de tentoonstelling "Bergportretten" in Hubermont, Space for Development.

Als inleiding om u op weg te sturen bij het bekijken van deze foto’s wil ik een aantal elementen naar voor te brengen.

Interessant genoeg zijn wij hier in Hubermont en dat is zoiets als Waterloo: “über-Mont”, “über den berg”, we zitten hier bovenop de berg. En het is heel interessant om te zien dat de foto’s die we hier hebben “unter den berg” zijn. Dat is een terloopse connectie tussen wat hier gezien wordt en waar wij ons bevinden.

Maar de tweede connectie is belangrijker, want die gaat terug op de naam die hier gegeven is, namelijk ‘portretten van bergen’. Wat zijn portretten? Ik heb even de etymologie opgezocht. Portretten komt van het latijn: “protirare”. Dat wil zeggen “naar voor trekken”. Er moet dus iets van een voortrekker zijn om die foto’s te gaan nemen. Philippe heeft me ook verteld dat hij regelmatig een lichte telelens gebruikt om deze foto’s te maken. Dat is ook een geval van “naar voren trekken”.

Ik denk dat dat een vervlaamsing is, “portretten trekken”. Wellicht is het geen goed Nederlands. “Portretten trekken” is in feite tautologisch want in portret zit al trekken en dan komt er nog eens trekken bovenop.

Er zijn twee methodes om portretten te schilderen of laten we zeggen, te trekken. Dat is ook niet toevallig.

Eén methode, en dat is de methode voor de sukkelaars onder ons, niet de echte artisten, komt er op neer dat wij moeten trekken naar het atelier van de kunstenaar. In zijn atelier wordt dan ons portret gemaakt. We moeten ons voegen naar het atelier.

Er zijn echter enkele fortuinlijke mensen die zich kunnen permitteren dat de kunstenaar zich begeeft naar de plaats waar zij wonen en daar hun portret gaat trekken. Maar dat zijn dan majesteiten en meestal gebeurt dat ook voor een rijkelijk loon. Ik kom daar later op terug. Dus dit is dan duidelijk een tweede soort ‘portretten trekken’. Want de artiest is met al zijn bagage en gerief gaan lopen naar en gaan werken op de plaats waar de majesteit gezeten is.

Je ziet hier overal duidelijk portretten van majesteiten Ik vermoed dan ook dat de beloning die Philippe in ruil moet gekregen hebben geweldig moet geweest zijn. Dat moet wel als hij de moeite neemt om tot daar te gaan om hun portret te trekken. Ik denk dat daar iets van waar is, maar dat moet hij zelf maar uitleggen.

Er is iets echter iets bijzonders met die portretten. Philippe is binnengekomen en is onmiddellijk terug aan het werk gegaan. Hij heeft elke foto voorzien van een plaatje. En die kleine plaatjes hebben een naam. Wat betekent inderdaad dat die bergen, op twee na, een naam hebben. Dat betekent dat ze als majesteit ook gekend zijn. Dat is eigenaardig omdat bergen behoren tot de minerale wereld. En zeker de meeste van de portretten die we hier zien, zijn erg mineraal.

Als we dan even de volgorde nemen van het minerale naar het vegetale, verder naar het animale en dan naar het menselijke dan gebeurt er iets heel eigenaardigs. Het is immers typische menselijk dat wij in staat om namen te geven. Het is een eigenschap van de mens dat hij namen geeft.

Elk van deze bergen, die echt mineraal van oorsprong zijn, krijgen door de mens een naam en krijgen dus een menselijk aspect. Dat brengt ons in feite terug naar onze oorsprong want natuurlijk zijn wij ook gedeeltelijk mineraal. Er zit veel meer minerale materie in ons dan men normaal denkt. De mens is niets anders dan het stof der sterren. Het is goed dat we dat stof der sterren van tijd tot tijd ook aan den lijve ondervinden. Door die naamgeving worden we immers plots bewust van onze minerale status. En zo gaan we nogmaals door de cyclus: een stuk steen krijgt een naam en vanuit de naam wordt dat dan een majesteitelijk portret, wat dan weer iets menselijks heeft.

Tot slot geef ik u drie vragen mee.

Bij portretten is de relatie tussen wat geportretteerd wordt en de voorgrond respectievelijk de achtergrond heel typisch. In veel gevallen is er geen voorgrond in een portret. De achtergrond is vaak neutraal. Herinner u wanneer klasfoto’s of foto’s voor een identiteitskaart worden getrokken: dan krijg je een wit doek achter je, een achtergrond die juist gemaakt is om geen aandacht te trekken.

De relatie tussen portretvoorgrond en -achtergrond in deze werken is een eerste kijkraadsel dat ik u meegeef. Hoe werken voorgrond, achtergrond en portret in deze werken? Dat is de moeite waard om eens naar te kijken. Ik denk dat zal tonen dat de titel van deze foto’s “bergportretten” ook echt goed gekozen is. Er gebeurt hier iets anders dan in de meeste foto’s die ons van bergen worden voorgeschoteld. En dat heeft volgens mij te maken met de relatie portret, voorgrond en achtergrond. Dat is een interessant perspectief om naar te kijken.

Een tweede aspect betreft het volgende: één van de moeilijkheden waar de portrettist mee te maken heeft, is natuurlijk de verwachting van diegene die geportretteerd wordt. En je weet dat in de geschiedenis van het portretten maken de portrettist in vele gevallen de realiteit wat verbetert. In de schilderkunst gebruikt men allerlei schildertrucjes om die realiteit te verbeteren. In de fotografie gebruikt men dan fotografietrucjes. Wat zijn de trucjes die gebruikt worden in deze foto’s om die potretten reëler te maken dan de realiteit? Je moet als fotograaf natuurlijk dienstbaar zijn ten aanzien van zijne majesteit en dus moet je natuurlijk het voorkomen iets beter voorstellen dan in de werkelijkheid. Dus kijk eens naar wat voor trucjes er gebruikt zijn om dat hier waar te maken als portrettist.

Tot slot merken we dat er een paar foto’s van dezelfde berg. Wanneer dat gebeurt, ontstaat er een relatie ontstaat tussen diegene die het portret maakt en diegene die geprotretteerd wordt. Het is dus interessant om te kijken of je dat kan terugvinden in deze foto’s. Wat zou het eerste portret geweest zijn en wat zou later genomen zijn en hoe is die relatie met die majesteit ontwikkeld gedurende het portretteren? De beste manier om een relatie met zo’n landschap te ondergaan en te vormen is er te voet in te lopen. De voeten zijn de beste manier om een relatie aan te gaan met dat soort van majesteiten die we hier zien. Hoe langer men met de voeten bezig is, hoe interessanter de relatie wordt met het geportretteerde.

Ik raad u aan dit ook even te bekijken en tevens te gissen de volgorde van fotografie wanneer één berg twee of drie keer gefotografeerd is want dan kan je iets terugvinden van die relatie.

Dat zijn de 3 wenken die ik meegeef.

En hopelijk kunnen we dan ook als we aan tafel zitten, beginnen portretten van elkaar te trekken.

Matterhorn 2015

2009-12-12T12:50:00.004+01:00

There's a placeholder website up now for the Matterhorn project. I plan to expand it in the coming year.

Portraits ready for launch

2009-11-11T13:08:00.002+01:00

Saturday will be a first private viewing of the Mountain Portrait portfolio at Hubermont Center for Development.

Mountain portraits

2009-11-08T11:45:00.003+01:00

Soon an exhibition of my mountain portraits will open at Hubermont, Center for Development in Hubermont, near La Roche, in the Belgian Ardennes. I selected 24 images, had them printed by Hans Bol at 80x100cm and glassless framed. It's the first time these pictures are shown. The portfolio hasn't still settled yet. It is more heterogeneous than I would wish. But the mountain portraits will be a running theme in my work in the years to come so I expect it to constantly evolve. Luc Hoebeke will give an introductory talk to the exhibition. I am curious to see how they will be received.

DR

2009-10-21T12:03:00.004+02:00

Nice little portrait of a young friend of ours (I just love those freckles). It's one of the first shots with the Dual Range (DR) Summicron 50/2 mounted on an M2. Beautiful combo that opens up the realm of close focus pictures for Leica shooters. It has a big reputation, and it shows. That wonderful lively sharpness of the Leitz glass ... I am also getting more enthusiastic about this Ilford XP2 emulsion which combines great ease of use with marvelous tones and grain.

selfpic with pic

2009-10-01T12:29:00.002+02:00

Still pleased with my large format prints of the Mountain Portraits. I'm preparing a second batch for Hans to put through his 11990 ...

Printing large

2009-09-29T10:04:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I was at Hans Bol's place, close to Nijmegen, to produce a first batch of large format prints (80x100 cm) of 'mountain portraits' for an exhibition to be held later this fall at Hubermont Centre for Development. I scanned the 4x5" negatives on my Imacon and Hans printed via Imageprint RIP on his Epson 11990 on Ilford Smooth Pearl paper. We did a test on a matte stock as well but I preferred the greater snap and depth of the satin paper. It's significantly cheaper too. It's great to see these big images roll out of the printer. I am happy with the quality of the scans. The Imacon was certainly a good investment. 4x5" remains a fantastic medium and seeing these kinds of results it certainly is a boost to my motivation to continue to carry these heavy cameras high up in the Alps ...

Iceland Viewbooks

2009-09-06T23:39:00.002+02:00

I almost through with scanning of the Iceland portfolio. The two viewbooks above collect some of the best images. I am still splitting images by format (square vs 645) but will very likely put them together in some way. I'm experimenting a little in a Blurb booklet. And I need to start making some prints on the Epson 3800.

Shower

2009-09-05T13:49:00.002+02:00

Typically in Iceland there is as much to see in the sky as on the land. The diaphanous light sculpts the always moving cloudscapes in translucent vistas. A rain shower is pencilled on the horizon.

Tern attack

2009-09-03T09:44:00.003+02:00

Hundreds of arctic terns are resting on the black lava beaches of Vik in the south of Iceland. When they are approached, they swarm in panick, swooping into the intruders as if in a simulated attack ...

This negative was taken with the Bronica 645 and subsequently cropped to the square format.

Outdoors

2009-08-30T14:16:00.000+02:00

But often camping out is real fun too !

Boring ... !

2009-08-29T16:45:00.001+02:00

At times all this overwhelming natural beauty is just too much for the teenage crowd. Give them Netlog, MSN, Stardoll and Tribal Wars any time! But another waterfall ... Jeez!

Skogafoss

2009-08-29T00:24:00.002+02:00

Yet another "foss". We've seen quite a few of them on our Iceland trip. Skogafoss is one of the best as you can get down to the very base of the waterfall (and take an energetic shower if you like). We were lucky: no crowds. Only a few scattered visitors. I took my Bronica behind my back as close as I could to the thundering mass of water. The drops on the lens created a halo effect not unlike a Holga.

Tri-X pushed

2009-08-25T00:07:00.006+02:00

Meanwhile I have my 6x4.5 negs back from the lab. I am very satisfied by the very scrupulous handling of the material by Photostudio 13 in Stuttgart. They are doing a superb job.

This is 320 Tri-X which has been pushed one good stop to 800 asa. Hence there is an increase in grain and a decrease in contrast. I had good results with that last year in Rome and I thought it would work well in Iceland too. It is now clear that I will have two very different sets of images: the clean, square negs on chromogenic film and the more gritty stuff on the pushed Tri-X. Not sure whether I will be able to weave them in a single portfolio that makes sense.

Above is an image taken on the Faeroer islands where we spent a couple of days on our way to Iceland. We had pretty sombre weather, with lots of rain and very low cloud cover. On the picture is a salmon farm in a cold, foggy fjord in the northern archipelago. The muted tones and the grain work well here. Again it's a very simple, sober image that connects with the other images I'd like to collate in a portfolio.

[Oops, I notice lots of artefacts in the jpg. Not sure why that is ... I'll post another copy of the image when I have a handle on this problem]

Vatna

2009-08-17T01:04:00.003+02:00

One of the mighty glacier tongues descending from the Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glaciated area. I have been interested for quite a while in the work of Axel Hütte and this picture comes close to a number of images in the former part of his "North-South" project.

Quiet

2009-08-16T12:37:00.002+02:00

A quiet morning, after a rainy night. I took this shot virtually from out of the tent. We were standing close to a lagoon on the southwest coast of Iceland. It was dead still. Only two ducks disturbed the perfect mirroring of the sky in the water. Again, the superachromat shines.

Heap

2009-08-16T09:22:00.001+02:00

Talk about sober, graphic images. In some way, although it's a man-made structure, this heap of gravel captures something of the essence of the Icelandic landscape. Taken with the SWC on Ilford XP2, post-processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Dettifoss II

2009-08-15T16:36:00.002+02:00

Another picture of Dettifoss, this time only suggesting the mighty falls by the cloud of spray hanging above the precipice. Again an Hasselblad image.

I have taken to using the Nik Software Silver Efex Pro which provides a range of ready-to-use filters to apply to B&W images. In addition it builds on the U Point technology that was introduced by Nikon Capture Pro NX. It seems to be powerful and easy to use. I have as yet only played around with the standard filters though.

Back from Iceland

2009-08-10T22:50:00.004+02:00

We're back from Iceland. It was a good trip, covering more than 3000km on the island. The weather was predictably variable, with a good dose of rain and cool (to very cool) temperatures. I love the radical purity of this land. Its ruthless minerality attracts me enormously, feels even (despite the barrenness) a bit like home. We did a lot of the must-see sights - lots of falls, cliffs, canyons and desertlike highlands. Perhaps a little bit too much of "places to go" instead of "places to be". But we've got a good grasp now of the general layout of the island and we know where to go for deeper, more serious explorations.

In terms of photo opportunities I can't complain. I shot around 600 medium format frames, 60% of which with the 6x4.5 Bronica (on 220 rolls of 320 Tri-X, pushed to 800 asa) and the rest with the Hasselblad set (on chromogenic B&W emulsions, both Fuji and Ilford). The C41 stuff has already been developed and at first sight the results are promising. But the project will come out differently from what I first thought. Rather than a family travelogue I think it will be a more sober, more graphic collection of images.

Above is the first scan of the series. It's somewhat a cliché picture of Dettifoss, one of Iceland's key attractions, but I like it nevertheless. We rose at 6am that morning in order to be at the falls before the throngs. That worked out fine. We had the whole spot almost to ourselves. I love the rough, crayon-like texture of the image. The Ilford XP2 delivers a surprisingly attractive grain. The picture was taken with the 250mm Superachromat tele at a shutter speed of 1/2 s (with a handheld 8x neutral gray filter in front of the lens). More to come in the next couple of days.

Dent d'Hérens

2009-07-17T02:42:00.003+02:00

Last posting before I leave for Iceland. Above is a picture of a Matterhorn neighbour, the Dent d'Hérens, a wild 4000m peak whose north face invites comparison with much bigger peaks in the Himalayas. An Eiffel tower would reach only one third up the face. I am very happy with this image which brings out the uncompromising savagery of this environment with great power. A big print will surely make an impression.

So now on to Iceland. First to Denmark by car, then onwards by boat to the Faeroer and the east coast of Iceland. Quite an adventure, also for the family. I have lots of photo material with me with a full Hasselblad kit (a 500 C/M borrowed from Johan, a Flexbody and an SWC and 4 lenses: 60mm Distagon, 100mm Planar, 160mm Tessar, 250mm Sonnar SA. Then also the Bronica RF 645. A Pola 600 shooter with 30 packs of film. And a Leica CM. My intention is to make a visual travelogue much the same way I did on our road trip through France and Italy last year. We'll see.

Magritte Matterhorn

2009-07-15T00:02:00.002+02:00

A very different view of the Matterhorn, taken from Trockener Steg. The image has an almost surreal quality as the summit part of the mountain seems to have dissolved into thin air. It was the very last sheet of film I exposed on the journey. Trockener Steg in itself would be an interesting focus for a photo project. It's a diabolically ugly high altitude cable car station. The architecture is inspired by military barracks (Swiss are very good at that). The whole environment inspires Fritz Lang-like visual phantasmas ...

High altitude

2009-07-12T10:47:00.003+02:00

Some pictures - cropped to pano - taken with a Bessa L plus 25mm Snapshot-Skopar I had taken with me on the trip. Gives an idea of the ambience of the terrain we have been surveying, all with a heavy pack with a view camera, 40 sheets of film, 3 lenses, Sekonic handheld light meter, Quickload cassette ... . On the picture below I am working the Canham DLC45 with crampons on my boots. Picture in the middle was taken at the summit of the Breithorn, over 4000m.

Matterhorn rediscovered

2009-07-11T12:03:00.003+02:00

Last week I was in the Swiss Alps on a teambuilding event. At the same time I took the opportunity to (sort of) kickstart a photo project I have had in mind for a long time: photographing the Matterhorn from all possible sides. I started to photograph mountains in 4x5” about three years ago. They’re not landscapes, they’re mountain portraits. First I took a series in the Brenta Dolomites. Then came the Italian side of the Alpes Maritimes. Both are wild, mineral sanctuaries. Last year I tentatively started to map out the terrain around the Matterhorn.

In 2015 it will be exactly 150 years since this iconic mountain has been climbed for the first time, by Edward Whymper and his party, four of which fell tragically to death during the descent. The event concluded the Golden Age of alpinism, a 20-year period during which mostly British climbers conquered all the major peaks in the Alps. By 2014 I would like to be ready with a photobook on the most photographed mountain in the world. However, by adopting the methods of the pioneers of alpine photography I hope to recreate something of the original magic surrounding this mountain for our age.

Taking 4x5” for a project like this is a pain: it’s heavy and cumbersome, provides limited flexibility in terms of film and focal lengths, and in a windy mountain environment the risk of unsharpness is considerable with a bellows camera. But each time I see the negatives I know for sure it is worthwhile.

One happy observation is that, although this is without a shade of a doubt the most often photographed mountain, there are many unfamiliar views that haven't been captured nearly as often as the stereotype Schwarzsee/Gornergrat perspective. I'm hoping to be able to collect as much as 30 very different pictures of this complex mountain.

Above is an uncleaned shot from the northwest face of the mountain, shot from a spot at approx. 3200m altitude (I have exact GPS co-ordinates of all my photo locations). It beautifully shows three of the four main ridges on the mountain: the classic Hörnli-ridge on the left, the Italian "Lion" ridge on the right and the awesome Zmutt-ridge right in front.

It's scanned with the 848 which performs beautifully. The level of detail is dazzling. I think this photo captures well the atmosphere that I'm after. This has nothing to do with the chocolate wrapper image of the Matterhorn, but it is a cold, epic image of a very impressive geological phenomenon.

Gastrophoto

2009-06-22T09:42:00.002+02:00

Ann is working on a cookbook for MS patients as a final thesis in her Nutrition study. And I'm getting to do the pictures (ably assisted by Witold). All taken with the Olympus 420.

848

2009-06-17T09:15:00.003+02:00

Finally, the Imacon 848 scanner has arrived. I bought it 6 months ago, from a service lab in Nantes, France. But it took me until last weekend to free up the 2 days necessary to go down to France and pick it up. It's quite a drive. However, the 848 is now safely standing on my desk, looking like one of these stately, slightly menacing monoliths on Easter Island. And it works. Did a few test scans of 24x36 and 6x6 negatives and the results are encouraging. Above is a section from a negative shown on the blog just a few postings ago. Left is a scan with the V700, right is the Imacon scan. The difference is quite obvious. It gives me reason to believe that this has been a good investment in supporting film-based photographic work.

Perfect day

2009-06-15T23:05:00.002+02:00

How often do you have one of these perfect days, when the temperature is just right, the sky stretches benignly and luminously above our heads and a faint breeze caresses life on earth? These memorable days are rare, very rare. A couple of weeks ago we had one of those. I couldn't fully savour it as I was confined to a sealed, aircoed meeting room somewhere in London. However, the way back to the station and the train ride was enough to lift my spirits. These pictures I took with the little Olympus E-420 from a Eurostar in motion.

Judgment Day

2009-06-13T12:00:00.002+02:00

Here is another one from the Paris roll, shot in front of the Notre Dame with the SWC on Fuji 400CN.

Eiffel

2009-06-06T21:43:00.003+02:00

I found a undeveloped roll of Fuji CN400 somewhere lying around in my office. Turned out to be a series of shots from a 1-day trip to Paris, late August last year. The other roll was ruined last year in the lab. This family shot was taken with the Hassie SWC on, obviously, a high terrace of the Eiffel Tower. Great lens, this Biogon!

Flex

2009-06-03T23:51:00.002+02:00

A shot from Sunday with the Hasselblad Flexbody and a Tessar 160mm on Fuji 400CN (a chromogenic Fuji emulsion only available on the UK market). It's taken in the park adjacent to Arenberg Castle, just a 10 minute walk from our house.

I haven't worked a lot with the Flexbody up to now but nevertheless I am quite attached to it. It's a great tool when judiciously applied.

Pola

2009-06-01T18:32:00.002+02:00

Shot these out of my office window in just the space of a few minutes, earlier this week.
From a small stock of completely outdated and overcooked pola I found in a cupboard.

Back on stream

2009-05-31T20:51:00.002+02:00

Yes, the photo business is coming back on stream. I've checked my photo gear, made an inventory of my stock of film (around 15.000 exposures, from 24X36 to 8x10"), did a few test shots with some old pola sheets on the 4x5". I'm thinking off shooting the whole Iceland trip in Pola 600.

Reboot ?

2009-05-10T22:19:00.003+02:00

I have been bogged down in work for the last six months. Didn't seem to have the energy to really get on top of things. And so taking pictures fell by the wayside. At one point you simply let it go. There's no use in trying to save appearances. And so I didn't touch a camera, bought just one photo book ("Le Don" by Giorgia Fiorio) and hardly any photo gear (switched my Lumix LX3 for an Olympus E-420 with a 25/2.8 pancake lens) and sadly dropped of many of my photo friends' radar screens. I secretly hoped the long break would allow we to shed baggage and start with a clean slate. Well, it seems things are slowly picking up again. Last week I went to the exhibition "Leuven Anders" by two former club friends (Peter Mockers and Patrick De Baets). It was rather inspiring to see how well they had done. And this weekend Ann and I had planned a weekend away with just the two of us. I took the 5D for which I had a Canon 28mm/1.8 which I'd never used before. Whether this is the start of something new remains to be seen. I'm not seeing or feeling differently. The snaps are in my familiar style. We'll see.

Yes, butt ...

2009-01-31T18:38:00.001+01:00

Ok, I agree, this may be an unhealthy infatuation of mine ...

Timeless Rome

2009-01-21T02:40:00.000+01:00

Some more pics from Rome. And there's more ...

New Rome

2009-01-16T14:02:00.001+01:00

The "modern" Rome. Decidedly less uplifting than the old Rome ...

3d prize!

2009-01-14T11:09:00.003+01:00

I was surprised yesterday when I leafed through the recent issue of French magazine Réponses Photo: suddenly I hit upon a double page with three of my own pictures! Apparently I had won 3d prize in the Réponses Photo/Riedisheim/Epson photo competition "Visions d'Europe". I had been completely unaware of it. The prize comes with an Epson R1900 printer and with an opportunity to exhibit at the Semain de Photo, late March, at Riedisheim (Mulhouse). The jury received 150 portfolios, selected 20 photographers for the finals and awarded three prizes. First prize was for Jacques Delplan, another Belgian, and second for Anthony Ceccarelli from France. The jury on the Capitals portfolio: "An elephant in Budapest, a swan in the snows of Bratislava, a lady looking wistfully across the frozen sea at Helsinki. Philippe has travelled through Europe with his panoramic Horizon 220 and brought back a series of mellow and intriguing images, where space and melancholy meet to a create a beautiful atmosphere. A very accomplished, silent road movie ..."

Old Rome

2009-01-11T10:42:00.003+01:00

Personally I am more interested in the vestiges of classical antiquity than in the Baroque and Renaissance Rome. There's something undefinably weighty and solemn about them. Even in Athens, where more than in Rome the remnants are confined to an archeological archipelago (with the Parthenon in the centre), they dominate the spirit of the city. It's amazing we can still walk around in vestiges of human civilisation of thousands of years ago. And if you think about it, it wasn't that much different from today. Just read the letters of Pliny the Younger and you'll notice that top-level Romans were just as mobile, culturally sophisticated and business-savvy as we are.

The Bronica is a very versatile tool: with the iso dial on 800 and the ability to take shots up to 1/10s out of hand, you can shoot inconspicuously in museums. The bad weather makes is a mixed blessing: the light is soft and diffuse and the reflections of rain and puddles creates depth in pictures.

Urbs Roma

2009-01-10T00:10:00.004+01:00

Between Xmas and the new year we went to Rome. Not one of our best outings. It was cold and rainy best part of the time, the city was chock full of people, graffiti and grime everywhere and the B&B in Albano was much further (or longer) from town than anticipated. Nevertheless, we were able to keep a cheerful mood most of the time. After all the city does have some fabulous things on display.

All I took as a camera was the Bronica RF645. Not even the LX-3 in my pocket. Just the Bronica and a good stock of 220 rolls Tri-X 320. One roll yields 32 exposures, almost as if one is shooting 35mm. And it's a nice, compact camera - with just a standard lens - to work with. I wasn't particularly tuned to taking pictures. I took about 200 shots, but honestly without much conviction. Or at least without wanting to make things complicated. I just shot stuff I liked pretty much straight on.

Negs have been developed and I have been surprised by what I see. There is quite a bit that I like. Simple things, nothing out of the ordinary, but to me interesting in a way. The negatives are a little more contrasty than I am used to, which I like. Maybe it's the warm winter light (when the sun was, on rare occasions, out), maybe it's just that the negatives have been slightly underdeveloped (I exposed at 800 iso, but stupidly forgot to notify the lab so they developed at the standard 400 iso). Anyway, there's quite a bit of material I can work with. Together with negatives from previous visits to Rome I can compile a nice portfolio.

It's weird. Often you do your very best only to find that the negs are just right for the bin. In Rome I shot on automatic pilot and the result is more than promising. What's the trick?

Marko's exhibition: Ever - Present - Past

2008-12-24T17:25:00.003+01:00

From the website of the Neue Sächsische Galerie, Chemnitz:

Ever - Present - Past
Willie Anne Wright, Craig J. Barber, Edward Levinson
Drei Positionen internationaler Camera-Obscura-Fotografie
Fotografieren ohne Linse. Einfache Technik. Langsames Einfangen des fotografischen Bildes. Natürliche Weichheit der Bilder. Diese Fotografie erscheint in ihren Wesensmerkmalen als das Gegenstück zur gängigen Fotografie und das macht ihren besonderen Charme aus. Sie verweigert sich dem Zeitgeist ohne auf die Gegenwart verzichten zu müssen.

Das Prinzip der Camera Obscura lernten wir von keinem geringeren als Leonardo da Vinci, der uns in seinem Buch “Codex Atlantikus” die Funktion erklärte. Völlig ohne Objektiv entstehen die Bilder auf dem Film nur durch ein winziges Loch in der Kameravorderseite. Jedes dieser Bilder ist einzigartig, da der Prozess nicht vollständig kontrolliert werden kann. Es kommt ganz auf die Erfahrung des Fotografen im Umgang mit seiner Camera Obscura an. Viele Fotografen wissen, dass diese Kamera die Fähigkeit hat, Dinge zu sehen, die uns verborgen sind.

Die Fotografenszene zur Camera Obscura oder pinhole camera ist klein und international gut vernetzt. So gelang es, für die Ausstellung in der NSG sehr unterschiedliche und renommierte Künstler zu gewinnen.

Willie Anne Wright’s Hauptthema ist die Geschichte ihres Landes (die Südstaaten der USA) sowie der Verlust jeglicher Identität nach der Niederlage der Südstaaten im Sezessionskrieg (1861-1865). Für viele von uns ist die Tatsache leider unbekannt, dass dieser Krieg immer noch einen kulturellen wie auch gesellschaftlichen Bruch in den USA von heute darstellt.
www.willieannewright.com

Craig J. Barber war mit 18 Jahren Soldat im Vietnamkrieg. Sein langer seelischer Heilungsprozess begann mit der Fotoserie “Ghost in the Landscape”. Dafür begab er sich zurück nach Vietnam, an die Plätze an denen er damals kämpfte und lebte. Er lernte seine ehemaligen Feinde als Freunde schätzen und fing an, diese Erlebnisse zu verarbeiten. All seine weiteren Fotoserien tragen ebenfalls diesen sehr persönlichen Charakter.
www.craigbarber.com

Edward Levinson kommt ursprünglich aus den USA, aber seine Bestimmung ist Japan. Für ihn ist Japan die Erfüllung seiner künstlerischen und poetischen Träume. Die Vielfalt seiner Bilder reicht von der Natur- bis zur Street-Fotografie.
www.edophoto.com

Mit dieser Ausstellung eröffnet die NSG eine Ausstellungsreihe für junge Kuratoren, die sich mit ihren besonderen künstlerischen und thematischen Interessen vorstellen. Verantwortlich für diese Ausstellung in Konzeption und Realisierung ist Marko Hehl: kensai@arcor.de

Zu den drei Künstlern sind Kataloge und verschiedene Postkarten erhältlich.

Dresden by twilight

2008-12-24T17:09:00.004+01:00

After a long break, I'm doing an attempt to restart the blog. I've been completely out of photography the last couple of weeks. Fully wrapped up in work. Tired, certainly. And all my passions - music, reading, mountains - have always moved asynchronically up and down in intensity like meshed sine waves. But such a dip in photography is new.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I was in Dresden and Chemnitz, visiting my friend Marko Hehl who did a great job putting together (as curator) an exhibition at the Neue Sächsische Galerie, in his hometown Chemnitz. It felt a little uncomfortable, walking through Dresden with the Hexar RF and the Noctilux after not having touched a camera for six weeks.

Soon we will be off to Rome. I'm taking the Bronica RF 645 and some Tri-X. That's all.

Margins

2008-11-27T21:14:00.004+01:00

I'm fully absorbed by my work these days. Shuttling up and down to London, to Brussels. Spending an awful lot of time on trains these days. Mostly I don't even have camera with me. The job is all-absorbing. Photography is in the margins only. Two weeks ago I went to Paris Photo. An impressive show in terms of sheer size. But, surprisingly perhaps, with Japan as a guest country I was less enthralled than with Italy last year. Lots of Araki, and then other, not very striking contemporary stuff (Yamamoto, amongst others; I really don't like it). I didn't see much of the classics (there was some Hosoe, some Fukase, some Moriyama but not much). There was no discovery as with Raffaella Mariniello last year. I bought one book from one of the five or six Japanese publishers present at the fair. The workmanship of their productions is always quite marvelous.

I was happy to meet Hans Bol and his wife in Paris. I also bumped into Chae, a Korean photographer who was on the Magnum course.

Other things that happened in the past two weeks: I submitted a new batch of 12 framed pictures for exhibition in the EU Commission headquarters (Berlaymont) in Brussels. I sent in a portfolio of 10 pictures to Réponses Photo for a competition under the banner of "Visions d'Europe". And I compiled a book (15 spreads) that will be printed by Spectrum Photo in Brighton. It was actually part of the Magnum workshop: every participant receives a book with work produced in that week. But I didn't like my photos from the workshop so I filled it with Pakistan images. We'll see. I also received a batch of Blurb holiday albums that have been printed with a disgusting green cast. I hope they are willing to take back the order of 6 books.

I didn't do any shooting lately. Just 3 (120) rolls of snaps in Paris. I used chromogenic Fuji film but the lab put it erroneously in D76 so the negatives came out all underexposed and with a garish colour cast. There is not much to save. The picture above is one of the best (taken with the SWC).

Another lesson, from K.V.

2008-11-11T10:29:00.002+01:00

Another lesson, this time from South African composer Kevin Volans:

Show your wound but allow yourself to be healed. Feldman made it clear that what mattered was NOT A METHOD OF COMPOSITION, BUT AN ATTITUDE TOWARDS MUSIC. I understand this as involving a feeling (love) for material ("know thy instrument"), an awareness that everything depends on the context (no universal rules for all situations), and a sensitivity to image.  If there are to be no fixed laws of composition, no formal concepts, then musical discussion (even of technique) needs be via imagery - metaphor. There is a popular song of the thirties called Dancing in the Dark. It struck me that this gives a neat description of what I regard as an ideal approach to composition. It's very specific. If you dance in the dark, you know exactly WHAT you are doing. WHERE you are and where you are going is less clear. Obviously, some skill is required (in the thirties one danced with a partner and hopefully there were other dancers on the floor). There is a difference between dancing in the dark and stumbling in the dark. WHY you are dancing is an existential question. I can't think of any good justification for it - one dances for the joy of it and for establishing a relationship with an unseen partner. Only when you make a mistake or when someone turns on the lights does it become a social question. Turning on the lights makes what you are doing public. It also makes you aware of what others are doing. Obviously this has its value, but it carries with it the temptation to compete with others from the point of view of style, at the expense of sensation. You no longer do something for how it feels, but for how it looks.  The struggle to grasp the reality of what you are doing in the dark is easily deflected into competitive display in the bright light of the marketplace.

Lesson from S.G.

2008-11-11T10:16:00.002+01:00

I picked up these lines by female composer Sofia Gubaidulina:

“To my mind the ideal relationship to tradition and to new compositional techniques is the one in which the artist has mastered both the old and the new, though in a way which makes it seem that he is taking note of neither the one nor the other. There are composers who construct their works very consciously; I am one of those who ‘cultivate’ them. And for this reason everything I have assimilated forms as it were the roots of a tree, and the work its branches and leaves. One can indeed describe them as being new, but they are leaves nonetheless. Seen in this way they are always traditional and old. Dmitri Shostakovich and Anton Webern have had the greatest influence on my work. Although my music bears no apparent traces of it, these two composers taught me the most important lesson of all - to be myself.”

They reminded me of the conversations I had with L.C.

Urbs Roma

2008-11-09T22:52:00.003+01:00

A few pictures from Rome, last Sunday. I just had a few hours to take some shots. I had a 220 roll of Tri-X (pushed to 800 iso) on the Bronica 6x4,5 and borrowed an additional role of the new TMax 400 from Lorenzo. I will be back in Rome with the family for Christmas.

A day with L.C.

2008-11-09T22:25:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I spent a day with Lorenzo C. I took my little Blurb book, a set of 65 very small square pictures to play around with, and a stack of photo books to discuss ("Dog Days Bogotha by Soth, "Errance" by Depardon, "Nage Libre" by Wendelski, "Temps Brassé" by Janssens, "Go Away Closer" by Singh, "Eden" by Jodice). We also took time to look and discuss his own work. I savoured every minute of our discussion. Lorenzo is a wonderful mentor: very serious, open, generous, honest, uncompromising, deeply reflective, articulate, and a great photographic craftsman.

Regarding my own work he is learning me to be less tied up about my "projects", to find a way to create a space in which I can work freely and playfully. Or, if it's part of my deepest impulses to define the parameters within which I work, he is learning me to relinquish control at a meta-level. If I am sensitive to it, the essence of my photographic endeavors will emerge through the prism of the different projects I am and will be working on. I just need to take time and let it happen.

Lorenzo's own work is very powerful. His 250-picture slideshow - a result of 10 years of photography - is confrontational but redeeming. Its scope is epic, almost biblical. The pictures breath timelessness. It is almost impossible to say they have been taken in the 20th century. Age-old themes and questions echo throughout his work. Viewing the slideshow is akin to reading a Dostojevski novel in a single sitting. I don't know many photographers who would be able to create such a powerful body of work.

Picture above was taken on the Saturday evening: Lorenzo and Gilda.

Taken with the Bronica RF645 with Tri-X 320 @ 800 asa.

Gilda Louise by L.C.

2008-11-01T11:43:00.001+01:00

Just this week a new series of pictures by Lorenzo Castore was published on the web: "Gilda Louise".

Meeting Lorenzo

2008-11-01T11:20:00.005+01:00

Tonight I will travel to Rome to meet Lorenzo Castore, whom I met last year at the TPW photo workshop in Sant'Anna in Camprena. Although stylistically he has a very different approach (and although he is quite a few years younger than myself), I consider him to be a true mentor in photographic matters (and beyond). He embodies a tough, Nietzschean kind of wisdom that strikes a deep chord in me. I regularly reread his epilogue to his book "Paradiso" which, with its uncompromising force and thruthfulness, always leaves me impressed and inspired.

I dug up my notebook from the course last year and it is sprinkled with delightful quotes from Lorenzo. Here are some:

"Every moment has its moment. Moving should not become an obsession. Otherwise it becomes a style. We get stuck."

"Blurry pictures work but you should be very very aware that being straight and simple is often much harder and it communicates better. You should always ask yourself why you are doing this."

"Often nothing is better than something in a picture."

"If we have one thing to say, we are really lucky."

"If we take pictures, we don't know why. But when we look at the contact sheets, then starts a series of 'why's?'"

"If you are satisfied with what you do, then there is no point in me coming to you and saying 'you have to run naked in the woods' or some such thing."

"Stomach is the most important part of the body. Not the mind, because it is too conceptual. Not the heart, because it is too sentimental. We don't want to be cheesy, we don't want to be too conceptual. So there is only the stomach. There is no other way to rollercoaster."

"Rock-and-roll street photography: it is a matter of being there, in the situation, paying attention to all there is."

"Producing things that look pretty is a way to protect yourself. It is very safe."

"I'm against something that looks nice. It hasn't to be bad. But it has to be the minimal thing for what you want to say."

"Anything that is decorative is not necessary."

"There is big difference between something decorative and something metaphorical (with extra meaning and energy)."

"Energy is generated by two poles that fight with one another."

"You should not only pay attention to moments with strong emotions. Sometimes it is also nice to take a picture in the quiet moments. Then there is the opportunity for real concentration."

"I'd like to think when I walk around that there is a piece of me in everything."

"The discipline for this week is the discipline to do what you really like to do ... It's a duty for life, not only for this week."

Back from Brighton

2008-11-01T11:11:00.003+01:00

Meanwhile it's been a week since I returned from Brighton. My project came eventually to naught. I didn't have the time to dig deeply enough and maybe it was doomed from the very start. But it's not a big deal.

Looking back at the workshop, I realise that I "know" by now what can be learned at such events. As I wrote to Marko right after my return: "First, one needs to find a personal voice and there are no recipes for that. Even the best photographer in the world cannot help (although Lorenzo did a great job last year in bringing his students as far as he possibly could). It is basically a matter of honesty and perseverance. And then there is no substitute for exposing yourself to the outside world. In other words, one has to shoot and to shoot an awful lot. This week we had the opportunity to study contact sheets of big names such Winogrand, Friedlander, Carter-Bresson etc and it is clear that 98% of what these guys shoot is for the bin. But they shoot an awful lot and they do it all the time. That makes a difference. That's how you shoot a real body of work.

Anyway, it's important to keep in mind Lorenzo's words about being free and playful in what one does. You know, I put together a little booklet on Blurb with holiday pictures from our last summer trip. I did it just for the fun of it. And, guess what, both Carl De Keyzer and Mark Power found the holiday book better than the Capitals. The Capitals is a big subject but the pictures are not always up to their lofty ambitions. The work is too uneven and too forced and systematic. The holiday album, on the other hand, is just what it is: a modest travelogue of a family going on holiday. But I believe that the booklet as a whole transcends this simple origin. I certainly made me think. "

Above a small set of pictures that capture bits of the atmosphere in Brighton. All of them taken with the Mamiya 6, the 50mm wide angle and Fuji 160 NPC.

Magnum personnel

2008-10-23T00:06:00.002+02:00

Snapshots from the three lead photographers on the course: Carl De Keyser, David Hurn and Mark Power (l to r).

Sea Life

2008-10-22T23:43:00.002+02:00

In my quest for biodiversity in Brighton I ended up in the Aquarium today. I'm not getting very far yet with my project. It's going in various, non-compatible directions. Maybe the marine component will bring me a step further. If not it was fun to hang around in this empty Victorian contraption.

In Brighton

2008-10-20T22:37:00.003+02:00

Time flies. I'm sorry to see that the blog has languished over the past few weeks. Yesterday I arrived in Brighton for the start of the Magnum workshop. The aim of the masterclass is to develop a personal project under guidance of three Magnum photographers (Mark Power, Carl De Keyser and veteran David Hurn, who replaces Donovan Wylie who is stuck in Baghdad). In the runup to the workshop had been fretting about which kind of project to focus on. Difficult when one has no idea about the local conditions. I decided to make use of an opportunity to weave in the photo assignment into a new scenario project for UK Government we are starting just now. The planning project looks at long-term developments in land use (up to 2060) and aims to find out what government could in the short-to-medium term to avoid having to deal with serious conflicts and constraints. So 'land use' looked like an interesting starting point. It became even more interesting when I consulted the website of the City Council and learned there was as sustainability conference that focused on Brighton's bid to become the UK's first Urban Biosphere Reserve. The 'Biosphere Reserve' is a label developed and patronised by UNESCO that has been granted to wilderness areas and national parks around the world. But so far there hasn't been a city that has claimed the label. Apparently Brighton has the ambition to become one of the forerunners here. I contacted the City Council and ecologist Matthew Thomas was helpful in pointing out useful sites to visit in the city that demonstrated Brighton's potential as a biosphere reserve. I also asked him for a number of contacts to people that are driving the project with ideas of tangible initiatives. He willingly obliged. Another useful input was a conversation I had last Saturday with Prof. Erik Swyngedouw, a Flemish planner and political scientist who is teaching at Manchester University and who has edited a collection of scholarly essays on the theme of "In the Nature of Cities" (Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism). That conversation opened a useful critical perspective on the received opposition between "rural" and "urban". These were pieces of the puzzle that created a very promising canvas for a photo assignment. I felt I could do something with this.

So yesterday morning we started with a round of introductions. A very international crowd, coming from all corners of the EU (including Finland, Poland, Crete, Romania) and beyond (Mexico, South Africa, Korea). A few photography students, a number of professionals earning their daily bread with pictures and then a surprisingly large number of people like me who are coming to the field from the periphery (including 3 lawyers and a pilot). All of them seemed seriously, honestly committed to photography.

Another surprising observation is that quite a few people are still dedicated to film. A Polish computer animator started out with digital photography but returned to film because he found digital reminded him too much of the fake worlds he was working with day in day out. There were other people that are really struggling with digital. From my point of view this is a confirmation that my own concerns are justified. (For the time being I remain dedicated to film and I have sealed this commitment by recently buying a second-hand Imacon 848 scanner).

A final observation that struck is that many people did not come with a well thought-out project. A number of people are going to focus on social themes (homelessness, autism). Nobody else thought of the Biosphere thing. Quite a few came with an open mind, declaring to be receptive to the surprises offered by the city. They were planning to wander around and see what struck their eye. That is more or less the approach I used in the Capitals project, but with that experience I am doubtful about the real merits of the approach. Today I tend to think there is need for just a bit more conceptual bones to carry the meat. In the afternoon I had the opportunity to talk for 45 minutes with Mark Power, whose "26 Different Endings" I find very seductive in its combination of rigour, simplicity and conceptual depth. The rigour and simplicity come from taking a purely formal starting point (the edges of the London A-Z atlas). But despite its simplicity the idea is generative in a photographic and conceptual sense. Photographic because walking on that "edge of the map" creates a vast space of visual opportunities. Conceptually it is interesting because it raises all kinds of questions about how we as human beings deal with mapped space, about borders and their arbitrariness, about the nature of the peri-urban. There's also an element of irony mixed in the whole setup.

Mark looked at my Capitals book. I also offered him to look at a Blurb book of holiday pictures I recently made. The Blurb book is a first experiment with the medium of printing-on-demand. In the weeks after our return from summer holidays, driving 4500 km through Italy and France, I put together a 100 page family album relying on Blurb's Booksmart application. I had around 1000 negatives to choose from and arranged a selection of them as a chronological travelogue, documenting the places we visited and the people we met. It is a varied mix of landscapes, candid portraits, and street-like pics dynamically sequenced as square full bleed pages, double page spreads, and classical 2:3 pictures in portrait and landscape mode. The book turned out to be quite attractive. The family loved it (finally I produced something that was also of and for them). The printing quality is not up to the standards of the Capitals book, but it is acceptable. So Mark looked at both books and found the travelogue more interesting than the Capitals book. He found the latter to contain very strong images, but despite the formal unity of the panoramic format, he found it wanting in deeper coherence ("it is a bit woolly at the edges"). I tend to agree with him. The graphical elements on the lefthand side of the pages he found slightly distracting (I don't agree with him). The holiday album he found unpretentious in concept but very well done, strongly sequenced in parts and very atmospheric. Both books showed potential and he surmised that I might have the qualities to succeed as a professional photographer. Although I consider it very encouraging to hear this from a Magnum member, I'd like to take it with a grain of salt. Mark Power is a conceptual photographer. He loves ideas. And he thinks the quality of ideas is going to become more important in the future to succeed as a photographer. Today there are so many people that can take wonderful pictures. The difference will be increasinly made by the ideas underlying them, the stories that go with them. This is first and foremost a tactical, "commercial" judgment. It tells something about what will be needed in the future to stand out from the crowd as a photographer. But I don't think it tells us something fundamental about photography. I continue to believe that utterly compelling pictures will continue to be made without a concept, a story or an idea in the back. And those that will be made with a story in mind will only survive if they transcend the boundaries of the narrative (take any great reportage-style photographer from the 50s or 60s: who cares what stories they were documenting? The pictures continue to haunt us but the stories have withered away). So back to Mark's assessment about my abilities: he notices that I can use a camera and that I approach my photo projects conceptually. Yes, I can cook up a good story if I'm in the mood (Hölderlin, 3o°E, the European survey) but does that make me a better photographer? I very much doubt it.

Anyway, we closed the day yesterday with a presentation by David Hurn, the veteran photographer who has been working as a photographer for 53 years and has been with Magnum since 1967 (when I was two years old). David retold his career with much candor and humour, illustrated with a series of delightful pictures. His work is in the tradition of the great humanist reportage photographers of the past decades. He reminds me most of Erwitt and Ronis. There's the humour, the empathy and a very keen compositional eye particularly when dealing with crowds or groups of people. David not only talked about the pictures but also about being in the photography business. From his talk it was clear how tactical (I won't say "commercial") he applied his craft, without betraying his principles or stylistic choices. The discussion finally turned towards the future of photography, with the pervasiveness of images, of image capturing devices, the loss of memory (we're not going to be able to rummage through our old contact sheets in 50 years time).

After the talk I went back to my hotel. I was pretty exhausted, had a headache and looked forward to my bed.

Ouch! Magnum!

2008-10-01T00:39:00.003+02:00

Oops! Received word today that I was selected, together with 21 other photographers, for the 5-day Magnum workshop in Brighton, end of October. Quite a surprise as the selection was on portfolio only. One has to assume that lots of people put in their bid for a place on a masterclass like this. The workshop will be guided by Carl De Keyser, Donovan Wylie and Mark Power, three inspiring photographers with whom I have a real affinity. Particularly Power's work I find very much leaning towards my own tastes. His is a very disciplined approach to documentary photography. Anyway, great news and now I need to think about what project I would like to develop over these five days in Brighton and surroundings ...

Tangled Banks

2008-09-28T22:41:00.002+02:00

I'm reading Rebecca Solnit's "Storming the Gates of Paradise - Landscapes for Politics", a collection of 40 essays with an activist perspective on place, space, land and landscape.

In "Tangled Banks and Clear-Cut Examples" she explores the parallels between the pinup calendar and the kind of conventional nature photography that fills calendars and coffee table books. She writes: "Both are usually portrayed in a kind of photography that calls attention not to its own status as representation, but to what is represented, and like much such 'realism' wishes to function as a transparent window onto what is supposed to be presented: the real. Yet what one sees through these windows is a vision of perfection from which death, time, decay, action have been excluded as flaws. Both are souped-up, sleek, flawless, passive; in both the orthodoxy of beauty has produced a curious homogeneity of visual reference to pleasures that are not altogether visual. The chaos of thought and action has been replaced with a stale vision of delight ..."

In another online column, she asks "how will we get back what we've lost if we are too busy to notice it's gone missing?" And she goes on: "The four horsemen of my apocalypse are called 'Efficiency', 'Convenience', 'Profitability' and 'Security' ... These marauding horsemen are deployed by technophiles, advertisers and profiteers to assault the nameless pleasures and meanings that knit together our lives and expand our horizons."

These two short quotes summarise what has been going on the last couple of years in photography. Just as the industry and their army of acolytes (reviewers) convinced us 15 years ago that the CD format was in every way superior to the vinyl disc, we are now told that digital images trump film in every way. Well, just as we can now verify with our own ears that the delicate movements of a miniature diamond needle in a plastic groove generate more dynamics and a vastly more truthful and humane aural experience, I am quite sure that in 15 years time connoisseurs will feast on the subtle qualities of emulsion-based images: the naturalness, the honesty, the waywardness, the micro-unpredictability emerging from the irregular crystals in the film.

Some may think that debate of digital vs analogue has been dead and buried, but I think it is not. The debate has to be kept alive because we are, for the sake of convenience, throwing away the baby with the bath water. And indeed, "how will we get back what we have lost if we are too busy to notice it's gone missing?"

It is heartening, therefore, that Jean-Christophe Béchet from the French magazine Réponses Photo (October issue, p. 168) argues for a little pause from the digital rush, a little slowing down in order to take the opportunity to dig up our old stuff and be surprised by the quality of the materials, mechanics and finishing, the clear viewfinder, the pleasure of looking at a nice, luminous chrome.

A few pages further a reader extolls the virtues of having unclassified boxes full of negatives: it's like having an unkempt memory garden in which you can stroll, follow unexpected leads, or decline invitations to explore. Digital files have a chimeric existence. They can never quite enter our lives.

These calls won't, of course, stop the digital tsunami. Digital aficionados will smile at so much vaporous quaintness. But for us, who still are standing with two or at least one feet in the old world, it may strengthen our resolve to hold on to our analogue assets and to keep them alive.

'kina fever

2008-09-24T22:48:00.002+02:00

Today I spent the day at the Photokina fair in Cologne. In an odd kind of way these buzzy shows always have a faintly depressing, nauseating effect on me. One does see a lot of bad photography on a day like this. The marketing hubbub surrounding the new introductions borders on the infantile. One has to wade through an ocean of trivia to find an occasional piece of genuine interest. And the king-size Krakauer Wurst doesn’t help ...

Anyway the big theme, it seems to me, is the conflation of medium-end digital markets. The full frame 15 to 20 Mpixel DSLR is becoming a standard for the semi-professional user, closing the gap with the digital back/medium format segment that starts out at 16 Mpixel. The new Leica S2 (now on display but likely available only summer 2009!) promises to bring high end DSLR even more firmly into medium format territory. So a ferocious competitive battle is breaking loose for the lucrative market of the advanced amateur/semi-pro/mainstream professional photographer. Nikon, Canon, Sony, Leica, Hasselblad, Phase One and Mamiya will vie for critical mass in their market shares. Personally I am not tempted. I spent some time today at the Hasselblad booth, looking at the HD3-31 and the CFV-II back. I like the latter’s concept – a 16 Mp back with a sizeable sensor to fit the good old Hassy bodies and lenses – but in practice I must say it has “compromise” written all over it. The 1,5x elongation factor is one big minus. And there are all kinds of fiddly issues – related to hardware and software – that seems to make it rather cumbersome to operate. With the SWC there is even more fiddling as the synchronisation between shutter and button is not 100% (hence the notice on the website that this is combo is not recommended for critical applications). But maybe that’s just a matter of getting used to. Question is, of course, to what extent a 16 Mp back @ 8000 euro, even taking into account the bigger sensor, is still competitive when 3000 euro DSLRs are routinely pushing the 20Mp limit. Then, as regards the H3, I’ve never taken a liking to the Hasselblad H-series and that didn’t change today. I don’t like the plastic, the grey colour, the general shape and design of the thing. Nice viewfinder, though. But there is no doubt that the H3 does not have the appeal for me of a well-crafted instrument such as the Alpa, Linhof of Arca-Swiss, all of which I had the pleasure of fondling today.

I didn’t pay any attention today to the new crop of DSLRs, not even to the 5D Mk II. True, the 22 Mp and the ruggedised body are a selling point, but I couldn’t care less about the Live View and the Video functionality and the other tiddlybits. From my point of view a good example of the trivialisation of photography. Some people now claim that moving images are going to compete much more with still images. Well, so be it. I wish the videographers good luck. From my point of view they are two very different media and I see no reason for conflating the technologies in a single package (because, even if I were interested in both still and moving images, it would be for very different reasons and would require very different technological solutions as well).

But that’s not all. My mindset when I went in this morning was one of being quite open to digital. We’re getting used to the idea after all. But now, having in the space of a few hours seen maybe hundreds of prints from digital cameras, my belief in the merits of film has once more been strengthened. There is an awful lot that is downright shamefully bad in digital, there is a lot that is good too and there is some that is spectacular (in its resolution, colour and tone), but at the end of the day it simply is something different. The images have a different feel. It may be stupefyingly accomplished but very often there is no real life to it. That is what I could not help but noticing today. My recent musical experience serves me very well to articulate this difference: today we have very sophisticated digital sound recordings. Bit rates have ratcheted up to 20, to 24 bits. We have SACD. Sound engineers are able to capture a symphony orchestra at full throttle with uncanny precision. One can listen in awe and STILL not forget for a moment that one is listening to an sound recording. Compare that to the visceral effect of a vinyl disc. Purely technically it is less than perfect but the instrumental timbres and the voices shine with a naturalness, character and radiance that is simply captivating. And so it comes that one can be fully engrossed listening to an old LP, as a matter of course forgetting the hiss, pops and clicks. I find the same is very much true when comparing film to digital. Film is not perfect, objectively less sharp, but in some unfathomable way it has a life that cannot be captured by digital. And it becomes even more complicated when one takes into account that a part of the magic remains after scanning a negative. There is not a shade of doubt in my mind that the most impressive exhibition I saw today was devoted to individual and group portraits from the American Civil War. These were 130 year old collodion plates, scanned, restored and printed in big formats! Amazing! Such a wonderful, lively detail! Nothing digital I have seen today comes even close.

So this tells me to continue to rely on the hybrid solution. I have every possible analogue camera I’d want to use (from 24x36 up to 20x25) and there are plenty of interesting emulsions around. However, if I take the hybrid route really seriously I will need to invest in a better scanner. That market is completely stagnant. Photokina had nothing new to offer on that account. There is the Nikon LS9000 at 2500 euro or the Hasselblad X1 at around 10.000 euro and nothing in between. In terms of printing it seems options are increasing with HP and also Canon successfully challenging Epson in the large format, professional end of the spectrum. I’ve heard very good things today about the HP 3200 from Stephen Johnson who was at the Hahnemühle booth. In media, there is a profusion of papers to satisfy every taste. For me, the Ilford Baryta Gold looks like a very nice stock but other manufacturers have competitive offers. So, yes, for me there is future in film. It was a good day at Photokina today ...

Mapas

2008-09-14T10:32:00.002+02:00

Last Sunday we went to see "Mapas Abiertos", a photo exhibition in Brussels featuring contemporary Latin-American photography. It was an excellent show, featuring a fascinating mix of styles and approaches in more than 200 photographs. A lot of it was very contemporary, but in contrast to a lot of European and American photography it felt very vibrant and alive. A refreshing change from the sterile, ultra-conceptual mess we've been forcefed for so many years now. The exhibition was developed along three lines: alternative identities, alternative scenarios and alternative histories. In other words, the show hovered around the central theme of deconstruction of self, time and place.

Latin America harbours violent societies and it shows. There is something very much "in your face", occasionally spilling over into the truly apocalyptic, about these pictures. On the other side, there is a feel for the theatrical, the mannerist, the surreal and the exquisitely aesthetic. A fascinating combination.

Shots

2008-09-14T10:16:00.002+02:00

I was surprised to see one of my images printed in the latest issue of "Shots" magazine. I had sent in a small batch for their nr. 100 issue but none of the images were published. It was Marko who drew my attention to "Shots". Definitely one of the most interesting magazines out there. It's being edited and published quarterly by one individual (Russel Joslin), printed on cheap paper, features only B&W pictures. Pages are 90% pictures, 10% text (one or two interviews in an issue). No ads at all. The magazine is fully supported by reader subscriptions (and it's cheap: $40 for a one year subscription in Europe and that includes postage). A unique undertaking and, as one could read their nr. 100 issue, one that takes a lot of commitment of the publisher to keep going.

The current issue is devoted to the theme of "Dreams" and one of my grainy, washed out pictures has been printed on page 35. Quite a (pleasant) surprise to suddenly see one of your pictures printed when you don't expect it.

Magnum

2008-09-14T10:10:00.002+02:00

It's a long shot but I have applied for a Magnum Workshop with Carl De Keyser, Mark Power and Donovan Wylie. It's a five day session in October, in Brighton, UK. 22 "advanced" photographers will be admitted (amateur and pro). We'll see. Below is my motivation letter. Not sure whether it is convincing at all. Maybe they find it a lot of conceptual gobbledigook. We'll see. It's not a big deal if it doesn't happen.

I am a self-taught semi-professional photographer. Mentors that have guided my photographic development are Hans Bol (Holland, large format) and Lorenzo Castore (VU).
I am represented by Millennium Images in London. Occasionally I accept commercial assignments. However, 90% of my energy and time is going to my free work.

In this work my focus has firmly gravitated towards “Europe”, which interests me as a 1) geographic datum, 2) a cultural space, 3) a canvas for the unfolding of historical processes, and 4) as a political experiment. In other words, my photographic work on Europe is guided by 4 key themes: space, power, faith and history. These themes run as threads through five different photographic projects. One of these projects is completed, two are at various stages of completion and two will be tackled in the (near) future.

A first project focused on the 27 Capitals of the European Union. This was a stylised study, in B&W panorama pictures, of the power matrix in which European society is embedded. This project is completed and has been featured in a self-published book.

A second project focuses on the eastern Mediterranean basin. In the spirit of Mimmo Jodice, I am exploring the multilayered vestiges of Europe's early history.

A third project surveys the northwestern frontier – Ireland and Iceland - of the European cultural space (working title: “Thule”). Here I am focusing particularly on the tension between the timelessness of these ancient spaces and the impact of societies leapfrogging from an agricultural to a postindustrial logic in just a few decades.

In October I will travel to Serbia to start off a fourth project that will focus on the Balkans and Turkey (working title: “U.S.E. - Uncertain States of Europe”). This will be an attempt to come to grips with the (lost) history and the faith-based fault lines running through these societies.

Finally, I am planning to travel along the 30th eastern parallel (working title: “30E”) to photograph five great metropolises (Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Istanbul and Cairo) and three great cultural spheres (Slavic, Ottoman and Islamic) forming the eastern frontier of Europe.

I have a single, overriding goal in my photographic development and that is to be able to go to quicker and deeper to the essence. This is less about technical challenges (although there is still plenty to learn at that level as well) as about taking a riskier, a more truthful approach to my photography. I would like to be able to shift more organically, intuitively and less driven by conceptual considerations between different technical approaches and vocabularies, within a given project and when switching between projects. I believe this Magnum Masterclass will be a good opportunity to help me pushing the envelope in my craft.

Slow

2008-09-14T09:57:00.002+02:00

It's been going very slow on the blog. I've been preoccupied with other stuff, notably music. Having spent a few days in splendid isolation in my father's music room in their house in France, I came back from holiday with a renewed appetite for music. Here, at our place, I'd gotten into the habit to listen more casually. Which is not a good thing. So, I'm instilling some new discipline into the listening (a new pair of speakers helps ...).

On the photo side, there hasn't been happening much. Above is another portrait taken a few weeks ago with the 5D and the 35/1.4.

Nephew & nieces

2008-08-29T08:57:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we had nephew and nieces on a visit. They willingly submit to the photo ordeal. I had one of them assisting with a reflector. Taken with the 5D and the 35/1.4. Kids pictures is certainly one of the areas where it's nice to be able to rely on digital capture ...

Photobook Roundup

2008-08-27T00:54:00.004+02:00

The blog has been a little slow. Not that there's nothing going on - I've been scanning holiday negs like hell - but I just didn't seem to be able to settle down to write something. I notice my friend Marko has given a roundup on his blog of his newly acquired photobooks. Good idea. Let's do that too.

I haven't been buying a lot of photobooks this year but over the summer things have gotten more interesting. I am trying to focus on small books, as this is what I like best. So here is a list of the really interesting stuff:

Stephan Vanfleteren/"Flandrien": a small volume, measuring 14x14 cm. Vanfleteren published this in 2005, well before his impressive "Belgicum", and the book is now in its third printing. Despite its modest size, this study of Belgian cycling culture does not fail to impress. There's the typical Vanfleterian mix of tough, darkly etched, heroic portraits of cycling icons and poignant images of the popular culture surrounding this sportfest. The book has been designed by Studio Luc Derycke and, compared to "Belgicum", they did a better job here in mixing different formats into a coherent whole. (Despite my misgivings, "Belgicum" was awarded the Plantin-Moretus price this year for "best designed book").

Photo Poche "Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt": a volume from the well-known series published by Actes Sud and curated by Robert Delpire. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know Vanden Eeckhoudt, a Belgian photographer who lives in Paris. Another master of the decisive moment. His focus is on the surreal, comic but also poignant situations that emerge when the animal and the human worlds collide. There is some astonishing work in this book.

André Kertesz/"The Early Years": marvelous little volume (13x13), published in 2005, that shows the early Hungarian prints of Kertesz. The pictures are beautifully rendered, very small, as contact prints, which just increases their fascination. Another proof that small can be very beautiful indeed. Almost the perfect photobook. One doesn't have to ask for more.

André Kertesz/"The Polaroids": this slightly larger volume (16x18) surveys Kertesz' largely unpublished work on Polaroid from the last years of his life. All pictures were taken in his New York apartment, mostly carefully arranged still lifes with glass objects and a few portraits. Stupendous work, that shows that at 85 his creative vision was as fresh as ever. The book contains a good introduction, surveying the key stages in his life and his approach to Polaroid.

Arno Fischer/"Der Garten": another Polaroid body of work from an ageing master. Arno Fischer was born in 1927 and spent the last 30 years of his work shooting in the garden of his farmhouse with an SX 70. The result is a lavishly produced book published by Hatje Cantz. However, I miss the intimacy of the Kertesz book. Fischer's work is laid out as a series of tryptichs, creating an aura of monumentality which does not square with the deliberately modest nature of his photographic approach. That being said, it is always a pleasure to surrender once more to the magic of Polaroid.

Patti Smith/"Land 250": it is slightly ironic that we have a flurry of beautiful Polaroid books now that the medium is fading into oblivion. Patti Smith, the well-known rock icon, has been building a collection of black and white Pola pictures over the years. Her vision harks back to the pictorialist tradition, with soft, sumptuous, low contrast images of interiors, gravestones, parks and gardens. Each image is accompanied by a caption in Smith's own neat but rather baroque handwriting, reinforcing the book's spirit of quiet nostalgia. Perhaps not greatest work but the book is really beautifully produced by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain.

Vittoria Sella/"Dal Caucasio al Himalaya 1889-1909": I am keeping an eye on interesting bits of alpine photography. This volume I found on an antique market in Italy whilst on holiday. It's a sizeable volume, published by the Touring Club Italiano, accompanied by a separate folder with five huge foldout panoramas. Definitely a must-have for Sella afficionados. The book itself surveys well-known terrain but I discovered some new images and there's a very interesting epilogue with pictures of his studio, archives etc. Very instructive.

Raymond Meeks/"A Clearing": another collector's item published by Nazraeli Press. A first edition of just 500 copies. Each copy is numbered and comes with an original print tucked in the back. The book has obviously been produced to the highest standards (printed in China, though). In an age of an ever widening flood of publications I think this is the future of photobook publishing: small editions showing superb craftsmanship in photography, book design and printing. Meek's work is definitely interesting and in a way similar to Smith conjures up the spirit of the early days of photography. This book is a very large volume (42 x 29, roughly) and the layout echoes Masao Yamamoto's "é" (also with Nazraeli). It's extreme in its use of white space around the pictures. I am not sure I like it. This is a book that needs some time to sink in.

Robert Frank/"The Americans": Frank published the original version of his seminal book just 50 years ago and Steidl published a commemorative version. It's a must have in every photobook library. I am not sure it is the best introduction to Frank's work, though. Personally I think it is a bit uneven. Some of the pictures have lost a little of their freshness, I find. But Steidl did a great job in reprinting this work in a very handsome and handy volume (just 21 cm wide).

Joakim Eskildsen/"The Roma Journeys": an impressive piece of work (over 400 pages!) of a still young Finnish photographer, student of Pentti Sammalaahti. Eskildsen has travelled around Europe, Russia and India to retrace the Roma people's whereabouts. It's a mix of largely colour and some panoramic black-and-white. For once the colours put the B&W in the shadow. They glow with such earthy force and celestial delicacy that it makes one want to go on looking for ever (all taken on film! Pentax 6x7). Maybe it's too beautiful. Just as one can indulge in just the rich sound of a symphony orchestra without really listening to a piece of music, the surface opulence detracts from the deeper substance of the images. Or maybe not. It's definitely a feast to the eyes. Eskildsen's website is recommended as it allows to retrace this photographer's development from its earliest beginnings. Very good and very honest. I look forward to spending more time with this book.

Marc Wendelski/"Nage Libre": another book from a young, Belgian photographer. This is a very fine book that would warrant a more extensive discussion. It's a varied collection of pictures - portraits, a mix of urban landscapes - taken at different locales. The approach straddles new topography, Düsseldorf school and the surrealists. The simplicity comes from the uniformity in format (all square), a very clever use of colour palette (a clinical whitish-greyish dominates throughout the book) and very often very simple, precise compositions.

Three portraits

2008-08-18T22:56:00.001+02:00

Three portraits of the kids, on vacation. Pictures of Emma taken with the Noctilux wide open. Photo of Witold with the Zeiss 85/1.4 on the Contax RTSIII. Adox 100 film.

The arrow

2008-08-17T11:42:00.004+02:00

This is a great picture taken by my son Witold. I threw him the challenge of capturing a picture of a dart in mid-air. It is a shot that would be very difficult to take on film. You might shoot a whole roll without having an idea of whether you really succeeded in capturing the image as intended. This was done with the 5D and a manual (!) Zeiss 85/1.4 wide open (!). I love the blurry contours of the tree in the background and the cruel definiteness of the arrow hurling towards its inevitable, static, zero-kinetic-energy goal.

Finally on photo-eye

2008-08-16T22:49:00.003+02:00

I got a mail today from Marko Hehl who sighted my Capitals book in the webshop of photo-eye, probably the most prominent photo book store in the world. That's really very cool! They even added a very nice "booktease" to give customers an idea what they will get.

I sent photo-eye an inspection copy ages ago and corresponded with their store manager Melanie McWorther. But the interaction was erratic and we never seemed quite able to close the deal. So now the book is finally online (in addition to Kowasa and via topophotography.eu of course).

Distribution of the Capitals book requires constant attention. Last week I was able to leave a few copies at Limerick, a very nice bookshop in Ghent. With the Réponses Photo review a few orders have come in via the website. But I still have hundreds of copies in stock ...

Mongolia revisited

2008-08-10T14:13:00.002+02:00

I put together another small Viewbook presentation. This is a small set of images from Mongolia, taken in 2002-2003. It was my very first photographic project, at the very start of what proves to be an enduring obsession. Went through all the negs and rescanned those that I consider still worthwhile. It's not a big harvest but then again. I think the colour works well in this series. I started this series with a Canon EF-M and a standard zoom as my only camera but switched to the Contax Aria and 25mm and 135mm primes. Reala in the box throughout.

Viewbook

2008-08-06T22:30:00.002+02:00

A first experiment in working with Viewbook. Makes it easy to upload presentations of pictures to the blog, for example. Looks pretty neat!

Feline slumber

2008-08-06T12:37:00.003+02:00

A restful moment during the holidays, cat on lap. One of the few worthwhile images to come out of the 5D, with the Planar 50/1.4 wide open.

Pic

2008-08-05T19:26:00.003+02:00

The Pic de Midi du Bigorre is a veritable feat of engineering. The cable car swoops daringly to a wonderful vista over the whole Pyrenees-chain at almost 3000m. On clear nights one is supposed to be able to see the Biarritz lighthouse at the Atlantic coast to the West and the lights of Barcelona on the Mediterranean shores to the East: 400 km apart, 1% of the circumference of the Earth. The summit of the Pic is completely occupied by a extensive complex of astronomical observatories: a wonderfully playful ensemble of cupolas and antennas.

We drove down in sunny weather to the Pyrenees but as we approached the mountains, the weather turned and we were up at the Col de Tourmalet in a spectacularly dense mist. Down in La Mongie we couldn't even find the cable car station. Eventually we managed to go up. The effect of breaking through the cloud cover around 2500m to see the observatory gleaming on the summit like Klingor's castle was breathtaking. On the summit we had the most enchanting vista over an endless "mer de nuages" stretching tens of kilometers away. Only the highest peaksof the chain were visible.

This picture was taken whilst waiting for the cable car down. It is taken with the XPan and cropped to a 2:3 ratio.

Holiday triptych

2008-08-02T16:52:00.003+02:00

Rather less colourful than the Swedish batch from the previous posting, this holiday triptych ...