Baltic Sea Beach Life
Some days to swim and relax and watch and contemplate and … not much more!
my main website
my pinhole photos / Lochkamerabilder!
my recipes - all about eco film developing!
my workshops
Aug
15
Jun
20
About Love, Life And Death
My Big Love died four days ago. It feels absurd and I feel calm and superweird and paralyzed. But also full and saturated with his love and the full 13 years that we had together. Full of images and coincidences and words and shared situations and so much that I know not many people have in one life. Thankfulness will prevail, I know now with one Dagie-part. The other one is still paralyzed.
But I wanted to tell you something else: The last film that we made together (ideas shared, he on the camera, me editing and making the sound later, refining the story) is now – in retrospect – astonishingly predictive!
It is a film about broken lines. Broken communication lines (communication was very special and fruitful between us!). New communication lines. Me connecting trees that communicate underground. Take a look:
Deutsche Version https://vimeo.com/710046723
English version https://vimeo.com/710130718
clickclick
This film is dedicated to my Big Love Jochen.
Jun
7
Me In New York
This picture! Lily took it … Lily organized a filmshow! A bunch of my films in a New York cinema: Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn.
“Spectacle (est. 2010) is a collectively-run screening space in Brooklyn, NY, established and staffed by hard-working, cinema-loving volunteers. Our programming runs seven days a week and includes overlooked works, offbeat gems, contemporary art, radical polemics, live performance and more.”
Yeah! I was there … at least in spirit!
Lily took a photo of my audience.
I love it.
Jun
5
Ode An Juni Begins!
Remember? I do it every June … filming some super 8 each single day of June, my favourite month, making it an ode to this fresh and lovely month!
Day 3 took me to the Königsheide (King’s Heather) in the East part of Berlin. Just a small forest. But it felt like being far away from the city!
Jun
1
Pling-Ke-Ling: New Tram Sound
I was riding the tram here in my city and I noticed: they have a new announcing sound! I like it.
Mai
29
Münster Workshop Snippets
The workshop was fantastic and resulted in a sackful of films!
I edited some scenes of the two group films we shot spontaneously together!
Click here or on the picture! It’s on Youtube.
Mai
16
Münster Art Academy Super 8 Workshop #1
I am guest teacher at Münster Art Academy! I teach analogue film and eco developing! Two weeks only, but very intense, 5 students participating!
The weather was gorgeous the first week, so we did part of the process outside!
Mai
9
One Year Later – Kiss The Moment!
One year ago (it was actually in June and July 2021) I started a pinhole photo project: I take something from nature (the image and the developing ingredients like clover, sage, peppermint, food waste etc) and I give it back: I hang the photo in the place where it was taken. It remains there until it gets stolen, rained down, or weathered.
It is in transit, it will disappear, but that doesn’t matter, the flowers are wilting as well and the trees are losing their leaves.
Nothing is forever, but for a while it is just there, delightful: kiss the moment, it’s not a pyramid!
(This installation was part of the exhibition THE GARDEN. CINEMATICS OF THE SOIL at Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin 2021)
Now one year later the photos are still hanging there! Some torn, all a bit withered … but still so beautiful!
Mai
1
Foto Impex
What is an impex actually? A disease? An input? Is it Latin? No, much easier: “business, (in company names) import and export”.
Anyway, Foto-Impex is my favourite photo shop in Berlin, they sell all the sweet stuff that I need … photo paper, fix and developer, sheet film … all Adox and all Foma and all the others!
Big kiss goes out to them!!
Apr
18
The First Day Of Spring
… Hiking! With my friend Gesine and her dog Sumi! 12 km! Yay! 77 km away from Berlin! Pure joy and forgetting about miserable things one day long. New leaves, crisp air, a freshly born spring … the earth is such a beautiful space if only …
Apr
10
2 Dagies
The weather is ugly, spring won’t come, winter lingers here forever, so I stay inside and tinker with old and new film stripes …
Apr
7
Mrz
29
Mrz
23
Pinhole Washi
There is an interesting small film and photo company in France called WASHI FILM: “Film Washi is the world’s smallest company to produce photographic materials. Specialized in handcrafted film making and industrial film conversion, Film Washi offers a wide range of unique and innovative films.”
This is their website: http://filmwashi.com
I bought a 500 ASA film and used it in my little pinhole camera. Maybe it was a bit preexposed, it has funny light leaks at the perforation … but I like it anyway!
Mrz
22
Mrz
21
Mrz
20
Mrz
18
Mrz
16
Mrz
15
Feb
22
shop.dagiebrundert.de
My shop is online!
Full of nice pictures: pinhole and super 8! Colour and b&w! And a comic book!!
Click on the image or here >>> Dagie’s Shop
And HERE is a short Welcome Film!
Feb
21
Brokkoli Leopard
Placing soda-soaked brokkolis on a stripe of old Kodachrome super 8 film (see posting February 17), leaving it there for a while, then rinsing and fixing it, gives you a nice leopard pattern!!
Feb
19
Transparent Film Stripes
Yes, there are things that can go wrong … I developed two super 8 films and both came out blank. An old Agfachrome: blueish and an old Kodachrome: light orange. Too old, bad storage, natural decay … this can happen even if the chemicals are super fresh and my hands are magic 😉
Feb
18
Feb
17
Veggie Fun
Some film experiments with vegetables. I marinated them for a couple minutes in soda-vitamin-c-water and then placed them on film stripes. Interesting pattern! Will be fixed and rinsed afterwards so that they will be stable. More to come!
Feb
14
Feb
13
So Sachen / Such Things
This is a report about how things can go awfully wrong and in the end can become something beautiful and just … magically matching somehow.
Maybe it will be a bit too chemical and diving deep in photographical layers … but it will be funny too, promised!
I spent a week at my friend’s spot on the countryside and we had some very cool film and story ideas. Yes, sometimes I am not totally self-centered … with the right person there can be a swinging mood in the air vibes!!
We took a black&white TriX film (fresh from Kodak), filmed our ideas and then decided to develop it reversal. Meaning: positive. It is much more complicated than developing it negative. Which I do all the time using coffee and my breakfast remains and such things.
Reversal developing needs a very strong bleach to get rid of the first developed black silver. Then there’s a second exposure to light (the first exposure happened when the film was, well, exposed in the camera!) to activate the sleeping silver salt molecules which will then turn black when they get in contact with the second developer. Phew!
We used FOMA chemicals. FOMA is a czech factory that produces lovely stuff like foto paper, films and chemicals.
First developer, bleach bath, clear bath, and then: the moment when you shiver and open the tank lid and see: YES! Pictures! (a film that has just come out of a bleach bath looks milky-white with clear images). The rest of the procedure can be done in daylight.
So we rinsed it and then poured the second developer over the 15 meters of well-bleached film … and then Yell and Shriek: the emulsion began to fall off! To peel off! To run away in flakes!!! The images that we just saw just slipped away under our fingers! Out with you, developer! Some seconds in fix, no rinsing, just carefully hanging the long spaghetto to dry … and then scanned it the next day.
Now what happened here? I know that this bleach made from permanganate and sulfuric acid gives a lot of stress to the emulsion … softens it and makes it very sensitive and vulnerable – better not touch or rub too much! So was it the harsh and strong second developer that crushed it? Is the Czech soup too strong for a TriX?
Next day brings freshness in mind and mood. Somehow the two-third destroyed film appeared miraculous to us … and to the film story. We thought about defocussing, about stuff that happens in the corners of your eyes, of your consciousness, about second sight … and the film and the story melt, kiss and prosper!
This is just a little glimpse into it, I think the real film will be a longer one than usual and it will take a while. I am happy.
Watch a little Trailer on Youtube!!
Jan
31
Beautiful Super 8 Stills
Nice, France, lately.