Tag: Photography

Architectures

Tobias M. Schiel12 Comments

When I read the Lens-Artists Challenge No. 366, I immeditately thought of these photos. I had originally prepared separate posts for the modern high rise (a groundbreaking modernist building in Düsseldorf from the 1950ies) and the more traditional buildings just behind the port of Camaret-sur-Mer.

Thinking about this week’s challenge a bit longer, I suspect these pictures highlight my own bias rather than the actual contrast between city and country. But I still find the juxtaposition more exciting than presenting the two places in separate posts.

Sports? Games?

Tobias M. Schiel10 Comments

This week, the Lens-Artists Challenge certainly called for a re-post of one of my favorite photos: A competitive game and a companionable occasion.

Dancing never feels like workout. However, at the end of a session, you might have practiced coordination, balance, musicality – and even find yourself out of breath. Plus, you’ll have flexed your social muscle.

A good start to a good swim. Of these three pictures, this is the only one that’s new – one I always meant to make but did not get around to till today. So, thanks for the challenge!

Minuscule Doors

Tobias M. Schiel8 Comments

“Going back” is this week’s Lens Artists Challenge; Sofia Alves takes us back to an old doors challenge. In the light of these two ideas I’d like to start this post with some back doors.

As far as toy photography goes, I love to build and photograph doors because of both their architectural and narrative potential. They are simple means of definig a building and evoking an atmosphere – back door or main? Factory or bar? Welcoming or forbidding?

A door is a passageway. This function evokes narrative. The door is closed: what’s happening behind it? The door is open: will someone walk through it? And then, what will happen?

The inside and the outside can stand for a before and an after. Thus, narrative – or the paasing of time – can be hinted at in a single picture.

Graphic

Tobias M. Schiel11 Comments

This week, John Steiner of the Lens-Artists came up with a challenge that really got me thinking: John prompts us to pick a word “that fits your topic and select three or four appropriate photos to share.” In view of my toy photography years and the time before that, would I find any common denominator? I used to be very intersted in abstract photography, exploring real space and pictorial composition. It also seems I like showing affiliations or connections, both spatial and social.

One way of doing so was employing neagative space and stark contrasts – which is something I’ve also been exploring with toys lately. So here’s a little retrospective: three toy photos, and three photos showing memorials.

The latter date back to 2012-13, while the picture with the three deck chairs is no older than a week.

How to Make a Faceless Self Portrait (With Dog)

Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

These miniature scenes do not happen out of the blue. I am an amateur photographer. I love wearing that type of cap. People have to wait for my while I take a photo. And yes, I have photographed shop windows before.

Scanning my photos for proof, I found some pictures that fit the bill. Looking back even made me realize I hid my face in my real-life self portraits as well.

I think when we photograph we always do it with thousands of pictures in our heads, even if we do not have them all before our inner eye in the moment we release the shutter.

Left: “A Picture With Me in It” (2012), right: “Junk” (2009)

Kunstpunkte 2023

Tobias M. Schiel5 Comments

Kunstpunkte (literally “art spots”) stands for two weekends when more than 100 artists in Düsseldorf invite the public to visit their ateliers. These visits always fascinate me; they are a chance to get very close to art and artists, experiencing the places where the works are acutally made. This is similar to visiting the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (academy of fine arts) which I will cover in a separate post.

You may notice that I barely photograph the art itself, feeling much of it has already been reproduced (the last picture in this post shows part of an art work however). As for the artists themselves, I value their privacy, plus I am not really a portrait photographer. So here are some impressions from four different spots all of which you might not get to see outside of the Kunstpunkte.

Note: The next Kunstpunkte will take place next weekend and the weekend after.

When I’m Sixty-Four

Tobias M. Schiel8 Comments

Like “Lovely Rita” a couple of weeks ago, this one is based on a Beatles song. Though I am not a big fan of their music in general, I think the “Sgt. Peppers“ album is a work of genius, and I always wanted to do a series of pictures based on the entire selection of songs it features. One day… For now, here’s an entry for the Lens-Artists Challenge # 297: Music to My Eyes.