Kategorie: Hier kommt alles rein!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!!