speechless

Sometimes we go to a place and it leaves absolutely no impression. This is what happened to me when I went to Taipei/Taiwan in May and in June 2009. On each trip I spent a few days in Taiwan’s capital. Everytime I brought my Leica in order to catch some of the things that would catch my imagination.

It just did not happen. My hotel was in a suburb of Taipei. There wasn’t anything that seemed to be particularly typical Taiwanese. Not even typical Chinese to my eyes. Taipei seemed to be a accumulation of characterless buildings and streets. Nothing that caught my eye, nothing that I found at least a little inspiring. To me Taipei looked like a mixture of Tokyo, Seoul, and Kuala Lumpur, neither here nor there. After two fruitless trips I just took a picture of my taxi driver. That’s it!

I am sure this is not fair and I welcome every Taiwanese to tell me where the interesting spots are, with character and atmosphere, typical Taiwanese. I am sure they are there, I just couldn’t find them… ;-o

What to buy in June 2009

Susan Sontag: On Photography

Two weeks ago I strolled through a local book store and found a discounted edition of Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”. Since this is an absolute classic, I did not hesitate to buy it.
Susan Sontag is one of America’s most acclaimed writers. Through her close association with America’s photographic scene, she not only managed to get a close insight into the work of some very famous artists; in 1973 she also published one of the most famous theoretical works about photography. Though already almost 40 years have gone bye, this little Penguin edition is still a very good way to approach photography from a theoretical point of view. Reading it it becomes very clear that the essence of photography can never be technical. The approach toward the image and the execution of the photographic act contains a sensual as well as a cultural implication.
In her essays Susan Sontag not only describes the development of photography during the last 100 years; she also points out how the perception of images and subjects changed through the ages. “When anything can be photographed and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely with no expectations of discovering what it means.”

This book doesn’t help you making better images. But it will help you understanding the way you behave towards the subject and it places you in a broader cultural and historical context of photography. A book that should not be missed!
Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” can be purchased here!
For Singapore Readers: I purchased the book at Kinokoniya book shop, Ngee An City.

Tokyo: order vs. chaos?

Downtown Tokyo: April 2009

In April 2009 I visited Tokyo for the first time in my life. I had never been to Japan and I was really looking forward to it.
I think most people who visit Japan for the first time are probably a bit disappointed at first glance. Tokyo has very little of the traditional Japan. Having been to most Asian capitals like Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Saigon, and other major Asian cities, to me this seemed to be the prototype of all Asian city planners. It’s the cleanest city I’ve ever seen (even beating Singapore or Zurich!), and so orderly and organized, it’s almost scary. Unlike my Chinese experience, everyone is polite, leaves you space to breathe, and neither steps onto your feet nor bumps into you without apologizing. How nice!
Whatever there must have been of traditional buildings, must have been whipped out either by American fire bombs during WWII, or by Japanese bulldozers afterwards. Tokyo seems to be the most modern looking city I’ve ever seen.

However, said that, on second glance there is this element of chaos which seems to be lurking beneath all the orderliness, tidiness and cleanliness. The Japanese seem to have found a way to quietly protest against this boredom of order by adding little, almost invisible details of rebellion.

I found these in details on the street like this arrangement of tree/sign/bike along the most busy and expensive shopping street of Tokyo.

Another way of resisting the overwhelming pressure to conform with the mainstream is the fashion. Young people in Tokyo love to add details to their appearance which first surprise and irritate you, before you start to appreciate and admire their style which defies all standards of fashion and sets something typical Japanese.

The individualism of Japanese youth and their way of dressing is so profoundly Japanese and Asian that they were able to set their own fashion standards, different from the American/European fashion mainstream. Not surprising for a country that has a long history of design and aesthetics in everyday life. For me, the Japanese have a sense for shapes and composition that is not even matched by the Germans or Italians. No wonder they are also great in photography!
Walking around taking images in central Tokyo was great fun and I hope I will have the chance to go back next year. My HOLGA camera was the perfect tool to express what I saw and felt in Tokyo: the constant struggle between perfect order and anarchy!

self portrait

Stefan 2009, with my Pentax 67:

My blog is now almost one year old and I thought it is time for a self reflection, in the mirror that is!

In November I had bought a second hand Pentax 67 when I spent a few days in Seoul. The Korean Won dropped dramatically due to the American credit crunch and made old film cameras even cheaper than they already are. This wonderful camera was an absolute bargain.

About self portraits:
It seems to be the fate of photographers that no one tends to take images of them. I have hundreds of portraits of family, friends ad all sorts of people. But nobody appears to be interested in my image, ha ha! So the only way to get my own portrait is to pose this way.
I like the soft colors of the Kodak Portra. Apart from that it is a reminder that we are all getting older, including me!

bali beach encounter

Bali, April 2009

This image was taken during a week’s holiday in Bali in April 2009. The guy was one of our scuba-diving guides. Everyone was very cheerful and friendly. Bali is a wonderful place with friendly people and it is very easy to photograph.
The photograph was taken with a hasselblad 500cm and a 60mm wide angle lens on TMX400 film. I like the light you get at a beach. The sun is very bright but the indirect light is filtered by palm trees. The fact that the sand in Bali is (volcanic) black and therefor doesn’t reflect as much as white sand also contributes to the lighting conditions.

The overexposed sky first seemed to be a problem. Viewing the end result i find that it actually provides a nice white backdrop for the portrait.

What to buy in May 2009

Jock Sturges: Notes

Jock Sturges has for long been an icon of nude photography. The American who became famous by taking beautiful large format images of young man, women, and children found his motives in the nude colonies of the American West coast and France. His images became famous for their natural beauty and technical perfection.

“Notes” is not only a beautiful crafted review of Sturges work over a longer period of time, showing images in color and b&W. It also gives a very interesting insight into the way Sturges worked and approached his subjects, from the polaroid draft image to the perfectly crafted end result.
Beautiful Nude Photography without any vulgarity or kitsch. Highly recommended for a reasonable price. The book can be purchased here.

light and skin

Bali, April 2009:

I am always amazed how important the lighting is for the look of skin. The color and intensity of light determines whether we look healthy, sick, awake, tired, beautiful, or ugly.

This image was taken in our outdoor bathroom during a week’s holiday in Bali/Indonesia. There was no direct sun and the light was filtered by palm trees and reflected by these greenish tiles. The kids were playing with a frog they had found in the shower area. I took the picture with my Hasselblad 500CM and a 60mm wide angle lens. I think it’s absolutely beautiful!

Time

This is my daughter Maya. She is almost five years now and very comfortable with the camera pointed at her. No wonder, since I have been photographing her from the the first second she was out in the world…

For me it is amazing to see the changes over time, so observe how someone develops slowly into something new. Not only from the parental point of view but also from the photographer’s eye. It never gets boring because there always new aspects, new angles, an evolving character, a human being in constant development. i can’t wait to see my children developing. It gives me inspiration and unmeasurable joy!

Family

Last week I watched a talk show on German TV. It was about new custody regulations for divorced families. The participants spent a lot of time argueing about whether the new regulations were defending the rights of the mother, the children, or the father. The main complaint was that without proper financial support from the father of the child the mother would have to go back to full time work which would then leave the children without anyone taking care, thus serious mental damage would be the result.

While I was listening to the discussion, I was constantly asking myself “Aren’t there people to support the single parent? Where is the family, the grandparents? That’s when I remembered this image that I took in Bangkok in February 2009:

I have been in Asia for eight years now and noticed that the the fact that nucleus family structures are mostly still intact, single parents still have support and back up, even after a divorce. Grandparents are traditionally the people who take care of children while parents are out to make money. This is their classic role and they do it very well.
In my experience, the more people a child has he/she can relate to, the healthier the child will grow up. These can be parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbors, teachers, friends… anyone really, as long as the relationships are stable and lasting.
I my opinion the problems in Germany are not caused by a lack of legislation (there’s plenty of it in Germany!), but due to the fact that families are to small. If there are only The parents and the child(ren) then there is no one to fill the gap when one person leaves.

I always find it very refreshing to see Asian families still helping each other!

About Photography

I am just back from a vacation in Bali and the film rolls are in the lab so there is nothing to show today. my head is too full to just write something, too. As an alternative, I am posting the (true) words of someone else (kenrockwell.com) that I just read:

Photography

Photography is a means of expression, just like writing or painting.

Because photography is a means of expression, you have to have something to say, or your photos will suck.

Blindly pointing a camera and then expecting to whip it up later in Photoshop always results in crap.

Buying a Nikon D3X, Leica M7 or Canon 1Ds Mk III and expecting it to make sharp photos doesn’t happen. Sharp photos come from sharp minds expressing ideas clearly.

You don’t need to be able to express whatever you’re trying to say in words or any other form, so long as whatever you are trying to express comes out in your photos. Composition is key.

Photography is an art which, like most art forms, happens to use some technology, but photography still has nothing to do with technology

Because some technology is involved, there are always legions of unseeing people who just don’t get it. If you’re not an artist, it’s easy to miss the whole point and spend a lifetime reading books (and websites like this) fretting the tech details and buying too much equipment, instead of learning how to recognize what makes good photos and doing it.