Eight Minutes Old

After the two recent posts on my current photo series ‘Quadrants’, today I’d like to show you a single picture again. It is related to the series, though, as is was shot in the German city of Frankfurt and shows the city’s skyscrapers, too. In the following, I will discuss its composition. It is always interesting to see which details I find in my own photos that I did not realize when I pressed the trigger.

I very much like the composition of this shot. Lots of diagonal lines, triangles and plain areas. The center of the picture is defined by the head of a street lantern, attracting the eye. The dark lantern’s post divides the picture with a diagonal line in a harmonic ratio. The lantern is surrounded, or better: framed, by the two tall buildings. The perspective and distortion of the architecture gives you a feeling of their height. In addition to the buildings, the lantern head is framed to the bottom by a short airplane trail. That  condensation trail spreads between the left building and the lantern post, touching neither of them. Actually, no element of the photo is in front of another one, giving it a lighter feel, I think.

The geometry of the picture is beautifully emphasized by the black and white. The graduation is mild but there is enough contrast in every part of the photo. The sky is not over-exposed but shows a slight gradient, becoming lighter to the right. I just realized that the airplane is heading for that lighter part. Guess that helps creating the mood of the picture.

Tags: Frankfurt, urban, Airplanes, Architecture, black and white, Buildings, Composition, Condensation Trails, EF 24mm f/2.8, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Geometry, Germany, red filter, Skyscrapers , Sky, Windows

It is relaxing to look at a lot of classical photography. In the web, it is always about the most-recent camera models, the most trendy style and the most impressive photoshopping techniques. This noise suddenly vanishes when one enters the photo exhibition “Licht Gestalten”. The show in the Rheinisches Landes Museum in Bonn shows photography by Konrad Rufus Müller, from the years 1960 to 2010. They all are black and white, analogue and Müller himself printed them in his Darkroom. Even today he still works with his 1975 analogue medium format camera. And only with available light. Still he is successful and his photos are published in many important magazines.

Konrad Rufus Müller shoots portraits. Mostly German politicians. There is a reason why he often is called “the chancellor-photographer”. Since the first one, Konrad Adenauer, he has took the portraits of every single chancellor in Germany. And those of other politicians and well-known persons. Short texts in the exhibition tell the stories behind some of the photos. From those one can learn that contacts and recommendations are essential in this field. Furthermore, Müller meets his subjects at eye-level. He is neither stunned by their power, nor does he try to expose them in a bad way. He does not call himself a journalist, but a Artist (he studies painting), a chronicler maybe. The exhibition thus not only shows his portraits, but also still lifes and landscapes.

The presentation of the photos is structured alphabetical, according to the subjects’ names , not chronological. With Konrad Rufus Müller’s photography this works very well. Like the technology he uses, his stile has remained similar over the years, it seems. The exhibition is very enjoyable and interesting. It shows, that it is not of importance to follow every trend. The true photo artist better finds his or her own way, sticking to it.

The exhibition „Konrad Rufus Müller. LICHT GESTALTEN - Fotografien von 1960 – 2010“ is on display until Mai 30 2010 in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn. There is a catalogue including many more photographs by Konrad Rufus Müller, over 400 in total, for 58 Euros.

Tags: available light, Konrad Rufus Müller, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Analog, Artists, Art, black and white, Bonn, Exhibition, Film Photography, Germany, Museum, Photo Exhibition, Photographers, Photography, Politics, Portrait

Finally, Bishop Mixa, one of the most conservative catholic bishops in Germany, is resigning from his position. Now, the pope only has to accept his request. His opinions and his behavior reflects most of the radical religious believes there are in today’s catholic church. He…

• … compared the number of abortions with the Holocaust. Compared to six million killed Jews, nine million embryos were killed in the recent decades.
• … thinks that the German government is making birth machines out of women, by supporting them to work in their jobs again after having children.
• … stated that in the Palestinian areas occupied by Israel there is a “Ghetto-like situation” which is “almost racism”.
• … would like to see the Christian creation as described in the Bible being taught in school biology classes.
• … declared that the sexual revolution is in part responsible for the cases of child molesting in the catholic church.
• … said that an atheist society would be “the hell on earth”.
• … falls to the wrong statement that communism and fascism were atheist systems, and that they have shown the inhumanity of atheism.
• … is of the opinion that people are commercially and morally exploited due to god-less behaviors in today’s society.
• … has beaten children in a care home in his past, and first denied this. Finally, he tried to relativise this, saying it was common behavior at that time.
• … is faced with the accusation of defalcation of money from a catholic orphanage foundation.

And this list could probably be extended even more. So, I think you understand that I will be very happy if he and his unacceptable statements will really vanish from the public.

This time, I will not only present and discuss one photo. No, you can enjoy a bunch of them at the same time. The reasons for this are manifold, but the crucial factor was that Marc from Take Out Photo announced his new Monthly Special: Concept.

After I have already missed last month’s special on masking (even though I did use masks for my faked UFO photos), I better participate early this month. The topic Concept is great. I prefer these more abstract ideas over technical processes. Furthermore, working in a conceptual manner is what makes a photographer an artist. There are way too many people out in the web who chase after ‘the perfect shot’. But in my opinion, true beauty lies in a series of pictures that are build around a concept. Only then they can communicate s meaning in the spaces between the individual shots. The interplay of pictures activates our mind, making us wonder: what is the reason to take these photos, why in this way, what is the motivation … what is the concept?

By now most of you know my Touristscopes series, which is highly conceptual. I don’t want to bore you with them again. Luckily for me (and you), I am currently going through my stacks of negatives, putting together a portfolio. It will feature some of my conceptual photographic works. I will create a webpage with them, where I can present several series, instead on focussing on single photos. But that will take a lot more time to finish. In the meantime I start by presenting my newest conceptual series. It is called ‘Quadrants’ (that might change in the future). Before I go on, explaining my motivation and, yes, the concept, I guess it is best to show you some pictures first.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Guys, well, I am back in Germany now. After some warm Days in Sydney, Australia (including some hours at the sun-filled beaches of Manly and Bondi ) I have returned, just to find Europe freezing under a carpet of snow. The return flight on the 22nd of December was good timing: Right after the first cold weekend with closed airports, but before increased security at airports. So everything went smoothly, although the 22nd was my ‘longest day’ so far: it had 34 hours instead of 24, because of the time-difference of 10 hours. We got up at 3 in the morning in Sydney and arrived after noon here in Bonn.

Well, then there was Christmas, which we more or less did not notice at all: jet-lag and coming from 30 degrees Celsius at a palm-lined beach is not the best preparation. And now there is Snow everywhere, and the temperatures remain freezing for the last and probably also the next week. This actually slows down my film-processing. I’ll explain why:

All in all I shot 34 rolls of black and white film in Australia (well, and in Singapore). In Sydney I finally ran out of film, I had packed 30 rolls, so I had to buy some. Quite expensive over there… Anyway, now they all have to be developed. I prefer to do this on my own, in the bathroom-lab. But I can only process two at a time. It would take me weeks to develop all of them, especially because of the time they take to dry when it is cold. So I decided do send them to a good lab for processing. The first 10 are on their way already. But I am afraid of sending the others right now. The frost can not be good for them. So I am forced to wait for warmer days.

Oh, before I forget it: Happy New Year to everybody. The last one was extremely busy, with me finishing my last exam, helping to organize the TDGBonn conference (and attending it), writing my thesis, giving a talk about it and becoming a PhD Student. I married my wonderful wife, who also finished her studies in fall, and we went to Australia. I would not have expected so much to happen in only one year. But it is a good feeling to look back at it. And it somehow fits that it was the International Year of Astronomy. For me, it also was a personal year of astronomy.

Of course there is more to do. Right now I finally write the paper about my work. This is my first priority right now. I gave a first draft to my professor yesterday, so I can spend some time on other tings over the weekend. And there are new projects planned. I am eager to tell you about them, but I better wait until everything is settled.

Tags: Bondi, Manly, Sydney, TDGBonn, Beach, black and white, Bonn, Christmas, Developer, Europe, Film Photography, Flight, Germany, Happy new year, IYA, Photography, Singapore, Travel, University of Bonn, Winter

Professor Michael Schulz of Bonn  University is going to marry. I think this is nice, I married just some weeks ago and it was wonderful, I don’t have any regrets. But why write about this personal decision of some professor don’t know? Well, I am not the only one writing about this in Germany.

The reason: Schulz is professor for Catholic Theology. Expert for Dogmatic*. Even dean of the catholic-theological faculty and he became a member of the commission on catholic theology of the Vatican some month ago. That is why he has to live in ‘priestly celibacy’. But now love was stronger.

He therefore loses his position as a priest in the catholic church (he was immediately suspended by cardinal Karl Lehman, of his Mainz diocese). But there is more to come: The cologne archbishop cardinal Joachim Meisner, responsible for the faculty in Bonn, will notify Andreas Pinkwart, the minister for scientific affairs of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia, that the professor made a ’severe or annoying violation’ of the priestly moral conduct. This forces the minister to replace the professor. Because of a contract (German) between Prussia and the Holy See, dated to 1929. Obviously nobody cared to replace it in the past 80 years!

Luckily for the professor, he will keep his job, because as a federal employee he can not be fired. But he will not be allowed to teach catholic theology, so the university has to find him another position. They are thinking about philosophy. I am not sure, but I think I get it right when I say that the university now has to pay another professor to replace him. I agree that nobody should loose his or her job because of the highly private decision to marry and not stick to the silly celibacy-stuff. But I don’t accept that the church can demand his removal from a state-run university forcing it to probably have extra costs. It can not be that in the 21st century our state is so strongly influenced by the church, via an ancient contract. The minister for science is told by the church what to do! Because of a decision by a professor concerning his private life. Ridiculous.

It is time to effectively separate church and state in Germany.

*: Funny what kind of professorships there are. To me this seems to be the complete opposite to science, both paid by the state to teach at the same university, but maybe I miss something here …

Tags: Preußenkonkordat, Professor Michael Schulz, Bonn, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Cardinal Karl Lehman, Catholic Church, Catholic Theology, Catholic, Celibacy, Church, Cologne, Germany, Priest, Prussia, Religion, Sceptic, University of Bonn, Vatican

Today and tomorrow (1st and 2nd of August) you have the chance to visit the so called Physikshow (Physics-Show). It is planned and performed by Students from the University of Bonn. By now, it has a several year-long tradition and is very successful, for example they have already been invited to make a show in Berlin.

Due to the Moon-Exhibition in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne the students created a special moon-program: “2009 Mond-Odyssee”. Following an exciting story, entertaining physical experiments are shown for young and old. The show takes place in the foyer of the museum, the admission is free, so you do not have to visit the Moon-Exhibition. But I would suggest you to do this, because it is very fascinating and shows many great pictures. It is especially interesting as it is one of the rather few events in the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) that approach it not only from a scientific, but also from an artistic side.

In short:

Physikshow zur Mond-Ausstellung: 2009 Mond-Odyssee (in German)

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of August

At 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00

In the foyer “Stiftersaal” of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Obenmarspforten, near the Cologne town-hall)

Admission: for free, but only 5 minutes before the show starts.

The Moon-Exhibition

The exhibition starts with paintings, the oldest exhibits date from the Middle Ages. It shows the evolution of the artistic depiction of the moon with time, ending with contemporary positions. On display are mainly Paintings (amongst others by Albrecht Dürer and Caspar David Friedrich), but sculptures, photographs, models of the Moon and even scientific tools are present, too. While the Moon in the early paintings primarily acts as a source of light and is itself depicted as a simple disc, this changes with the advent of capable telescopes. Precise drawings of the moon’s surface are produced, then the invention of photography generates even more exact maps.

For me, the current photo-artistic positions on the topic “Moon” are the most enthralling: One are Sharon Harper’s “Moon Studies and Star Scratches” (Represented by the Gallery Stefan Röpke, you can see more pictures online). This work plays with large-format multi- and long-time-exposures of the night sky and the full or crescent moon. In a separate room there is an impressive ultra-wide panorama “photo”, showing a fairy-tale like journey to the moon and the moon-culture discovered there. It is part of an installation with the title “Moon-Prophecies”, created by the British artist-duo Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. The project also has a website, where you can have a look at the panorama in parts (the one in the museum is actually many meters wide).

The exhibition still runs for about two weeks until August 16. So don’t hesitate, go visit it!

From today, Thursday (June 25) till Saturday (June 27), there is the “SternenZelt” (Star-Tent) on the Muensterplatz in Bonn (open from 10a.m.-8p.m., Saturday until 10p.m.). As a part of the “International Year of Astronomy” (IYA), scientists and research institutes from our region present astronomy, answer questions and show some of their work to the general public. Everybody is invited to come, it is free and I’ll be there this morning, so if I am in the mood I’ll write something about this later. The announcement an information on the “SternenZelt”-website is in German, but as science is mainly done in English I’m sure everybody will be happy to answer your questions in English, too.

UPDATE: I’ve been there for six hours. It was very nice, the tent is not too big but there are plenty of interesting people, presentations and experiments. We had some English-speaking guests, too. I must admit it was almost easier for me to describe radio-astronomy in English than in German.

I was at the booth of the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, there were also four from the University (The Observatory on the “Hoher List”, one on galaxies, one from the physics department on cosmic rays and one from the Geodesy showing the potateo-like form of our earth and explaining how this can be measured). Furthermore, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the German Museum Bonn, the “Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt and some amateur astronomers (observing spots on the sun) were present. And lots of interested people, ranging from small children to elderly people. Even though this only was the first day, I think it is not too early to say this event is a success.

Tags: Astronomy, Bonn, Germany, IYA, Radio Astronomy, Radio Telescope, Star Gazer, Star, University of Bonn

Even though I feel like having a writer’s block, I have to write this down, and forcing me to write looks like the easiest way out, too.

We usually have lunch at a nearby canteen of a big telecommunications-company. Today, there was a group of people sitting nearby and behaving so utterly “German”. While eating, they were complaining about the food, the cook and the fact that all their complains are ignored. They were writing letters and hoping the chef to be fired. Because the fried potatoes were in part too dark (others were not dark enough). This went on for a quarter of an hour. They even complained about the chocolate-covered strawberry that was offered for free today. They do not need a free strawberry, but the food should be better.
I mean, what do they expect for 4 Euros? The food isn’t bad, they should have a look at the students’ canteen… They were feeling way to important and I could not stop to grin. On the other hand, maybe they need to have something to complain about. I am opposed of stereotypes, but this urge to complain is really common in Germany, I’m afraid.
Finally they changed their topic and I learned that the Iranian Election, a Persian TV station in the US, the media in general, the opening of China to capitalistic endeavours and Adolf Hitler’s propaganda and election was planned, organized and financed by a secret group of elitist people that ruled our world for hundreds of years. Uff.
I was happy I had finished eating by then. This wasn’t funny anymore, but one more reason to avoid the business world.

Fnord.

As promised in my review of the MAGNUM’S first exhibition, this is my review of the William Eggleston exhibition “Democratic Camera – Photographs and Video, 1961 - 2008” in the „Haus der Kunst“ in Munich. I’ll focus on the photographs.

The show is curated by Elisabeth Sussmann and Thomas Waski. It was previously on display at the Whitney museum of American Art in New York, which organized the show in association with the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany.

The exhibition in Munich spreads through several halls on the first floor of the building. Starting with early works in black and white it shows the influence Henry Cartier-Bresson had on Eggleston, especially through his book “The decisive moment”.
Egglestons pictures quickly change to color. Using the dye-transfer process that then was offered by Kodak, he was able to produce vibrant colors. Quite a contrast to black and white, but I like that. He really has an eye for colors, tones and how to arrange them in the frame. But his photos are not posed, they are found and exhibit an snapshot-like style. Still, there is more to them. They interact with what is outside of the frame and hint at a story that the viewer makes up in his mind, often involving a feeling of insecure ness and impending danger or violence, thing for example of the boy in a glowing red sweater besides a road in front of a dark sky (plate 80).
There are many different types of pictures in this show, not only the truncated details or people most often associated with Eggleston’s work, but also landscapes. I didn’t find the latter as impressive as the former, but there are some exceptions, like plate 75: A field full of yellow and lavender flowers on a hill, spread to the horizon where the picture ends in a strip of blue sky. There is more to this one than simple flower photography: A fence runs through the field and all but the foreground is blurred due to a shallow depth of field, the colors are extreme, but not implausible.

Today, the vibrant colors produced by the expensive (up to 1000 dollars a print at that time) are fading. Not the colors themselves, the prints are of high quality and I assume the light is dim because of conservation concerns. But their perception fades, as today everybody can get a high saturation by playing around in photoshop. If it were not for Eggleston’s unique style, they would not stand out among today’s flickr-flood for many. As the dye-transfer process was discontinued by Kodak in the 1990s, even Eggleston had to change the printing process.

The building of the “Haus der Kunst” itself (see the photo), erected by the Nazis and inaugurated with an exhibition on “Degenerate Art”, does have a repulsive atmosphere to me. Also, the light was not perfect for a photo exhibition, too dim for my taste. Having been there on a Saturday afternoon, there were lots of visitors and sometimes I had the feeling of being pushed to move on to the next panel, not physically though. But the rooms are big and so the only spots where it really became cramped were in front of some of the more famous pictures.

The catalog is comparably expensive with 49 Euros (or 65 Dollars at the Whitney Museum of American Art), but is worth the money. What you get are not only the more than 200 pictures on display, It also features extensive texts (in English) about Eggelstons photographic career and influences (“I can’t fly, but I can make experiments” by Thomas Weski), an essay about his video works from the 1970s (“The Boat to Canton” by Elisabeth Sussman), and several texts more. Finally, there is an biography over 9 pages including some private black and white photos showing William Eggleston (written by Adam Welch), a list of past exhibitions and a bibliography. The print quality is very well, but again, the book is heavy so be prepared to carry it around with you.
Interestingly, for some of the photos no date of creation could be found. One example is the untitled picture of plate 55 showing two bottles of Ketchup and a pepper caster standing on a counter  in front of a red and white wall with a big window with a poster of a burger. It is from the Los Alamos series, which was produces in the years 1965-1968 and 1972-1974. The attentive observer can find a similar scenery only 45 pages later in plate 81. There a long haired woman is seen in profile, her hands resting on said counter and holding a dollar-bill. The wall if the snack bar to the left is the same as before and most importantly: one can see the ketchup bottles (and even the pepper shaker) blurred in the background. But this picture has a date: 1971 and is from another series: “10.D.70.V2”. I would be the two photos ware taken mere minutes from each other.

All in all, the show is worth a visit, as this is one of the few chances to see so many of Eggleston’s pictures in one place. It is still running until Mai 17 in Munich, Germany, at the “Haus der Kunst” (Prinzregentenstrasse 1, 80538 München), open from 10-22 every day. Admission: 9 Euro or 6 Euro for students and so on (only with some verification like an student ID). More information can be found on the (somewhat badly designed) homepage of the Haus der Kunst and  at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

There will be several shows in the United States in the next month/years, too:
- Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: June 20 – September 20, 2009
- Art Institute of Chicago, February 20 –May 16, 2010
- Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, October 28, 2010 – January 23, 2011

Tags: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Democratic Camera, Dye Transfer, Eggleston, Haus der Kunst, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, MAGNUM Photo, New York, Washington, whitney museum of american art, William Eggleston, Catalog, Color Photography, Exhibition, Film Photography, Germany, Munich, Museum, Photo Exhibition, Photography, Tourism, USA