A Walk in Berlin

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DSC00942-kWalking is such a good idea for photographers that I am always happy to participate in Jo’s Monday Walks: This sequence was made during a stroll in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood which is about to become very posh. A partial eclipse of the sun accounted for very strange light for a while but I did not include the photos made during the eclipse though because they somewhat ruined the atmosphere of this selection.

The Changing Seasons: Marching Into March

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It is so sunny and nice outside that I just could not resist this title. Sorry for that.

So here’s my contribution to Cardinal Guzman’s monthly photo challenge. The pictures were made on March 9, 11 and 12 between 08.15 and 08.45 a.m. Same as in January and February, they show things I find on my way to work, mainly around the parliament of the federal state of Hesse in the heart of the city: My way to work en miniature, some older buildings around the state parliament building, the state parliament itself and two close-ups of a café that used to be a hair salon and still maintains that flavour of the seventies.

The Signs Are Unmistakable

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With the interest rates so low in Germany, building money seems to come cheap. That’s the impression you get while strolling in downtown Hamburg (or Düsseldorf or Wiesbaden, for that matter). Cheap loans might explain the Baulaune – the mood for building everybody seems to be in.

This is my second contribution for this week’s Photo Challenge.

Watching the Game [Prologue]

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Is there any wilderness left? With a camera and its frame you can make believe there is, and on some occasions I roam the nearby meadows and forests to do exactly that. But every once in a while I not only happen upon felled trees and tyre tracks but also upon raised hides. They actually tend to get in the way, eliciting the exasperated sigh, “another one!”

Following the maxim to make that which disturbs me part of the picture – or even the picture’s sole subject – I decided to photograph the raised hides themselves. They seem to lend themselves to a ‘graphic’ treatment, to trying out various compositions.

I am always interested in what I like to call fleeting architecture: Tents, scaffolding, construction sites – and also, less fleeting, industrial facilities. They all seem to embody the essence of the ‘form follows function’ principle, their utter lack of aesthetic ambition bringing forth a very own kind of aesthetics.

If all goes well, these pictures will convey a sense of typology: Although these ‘buildings’ are in the hinterland, the series’ title might well be Le città e la caccia which I think sounds good and which I also think would pursue the idea of describing a place focusing on some of its isolated aspects.

I hope you all enjoy accompanying me into the woods once more. Let’s go, and don’t startle the deer!

Fragmente einer Sprache des Schreckens

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Batterie Longues-sur-Mer. People killed here. People died here. A tractor tows a plough over the fields, back and forth; birds sing, gulls scream. I smell the sea.

I know the guns reached far and were not easily destroyed. However, I’d like to imagine that after the first destructive blows the remaining soldiers realised that their chances dwindled. And ran.

People run around and photograph the cannons. I don’t want cannons; they are not appealing, not even visually. I try to make a picture of this space that stifles me.

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[This week’s photo challenge reminded me that today might be an adequate day for posting this.]