Kategorie: Hier kommt alles rein!

¡Kino, Kaffee, Kompostol! – Days 3 + 4

Phew … that was intense!!
5 more coffee developings and one last soup made from many fruit (oranges, lemons, pommegranate, onion …) and some Tannenzweige … errr … Christmas tree twigs! And cocoa powder! Wonderful result! Going to get all 8 films digitized … you will see them soon!
Good night and day!!

¡Kino, Kaffee, Kompostol! – Day 2

More filming, more developing!
We cooked a soup together … made from all our breakfast remains like banana, apple, kiwi peels, some cold coffee, tangerines and lemons, weird Russian tomato goo, sweet potato peels, dried mushrooms and cranberries and perhaps some more! All mixed and with the added soda and vitamin c turned out to be a decent developer!!

¡Kino, Kaffee, Kompostol! – Day 1

I am giving an intense 2-weekends Super 8 film shooting and eco developing workshop in Berlin!
Day 1 Saturday, day 2 yesterday. In a very special place right in the core of Berlin (the former East part), at Alexanderplatz. In a very special space: Bi’bak / SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA.
Here is the Link X

This is how they describe themselves:
“SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA explores cinema as a space for social discourse, a place for exchange and solidarity. SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA brings together diverse social communities, links geographically distant and nearby places, the past, present and future, and decentres an eurocentric view through transnational, (post-) migrant and postcolonial perspectives. SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA is a transtopia, a place where “cross-border ties and connections converge, are reinterpreted and condense into everyday contexts” (Erol Yıldız). As part of the pioneering urban policy Initiative Haus der Statistik, the cinema experiment bridges the gap between everyday urban practices and film to create an alternative art form that connects different social perspectives.”

I love to be part of it! We are a group of 12 coming from all parts of the world (Chinese, Turkish, Swiss, Brazilian, Russian, German) working, playing, developing and exploring together for a certain time. It is intense and beautiful!

Berlin Ramen Bar Named Cocolo

How great it feels … sometimes I am aware how centralized I live, how hipsteresque and how deep in the middle of yumminess!
Just step out the door of my house and fall into the best Ramen Restaurant that there is in Berlin-Kreuzberg! Cocolo Ramen X-berg, Graefestraße 11!
Cocolo means … heart. The hot and spicy noodle soup gives me the heat that I need for this winter!

Somikon Super 8 Scanner

I have a super 8 scanner now!!!! It scans nicely, just got it today and checked it with a very old ORWO film. It took about 20 minutes to clickclickclick one roll of super 8 film. The quality is good! It says HD and I think it comes pretty close. Not for the big screen but for the smaller one it seems to be more than enough!!! (the film was not so sharp anyway …)

28 Pinhole Photos – 2 Months Later

Remember? >> “The developed images are returned to their place of origin, hung up there and they remain there until they are destroyed, soaked or weathered – kiss the moment, it’s not a pyramid!”

I went there yesterday to see what has become of them … if they are still there … and yes, they are!
Some have withered in a very interesting way, the one of the water connection thing looks like a runpath for little creature!
Oh I love the title: “Runpath For Little Creatures” … 🙂 … will it be the title of my upcoming book???

Some Dresden Glimpses

I was in Dresden, only 2 days, only one and a half hour away from Berlin, by train. The train continued directly to Budapest. I felt East European!
There’s a little film festival, called Schmalfilmtage / Small Format Days. This year very empty which is a bit weird since lockdown is over and I thought people would happily attend any event … but maybe we have all become a bit tired in our bubbles …
Anyway: it was lovely to be somewhere else!

It‘s A Brownie!

I found a new toy. A Brownie! As simple as a pinhole camera but with a lens instead of a hole. One step higher towards complication!

It is meant for the use of Kodak-special 620 film rolls that don’t exist any more. You can use 120 film but you will have to roll it on those 620 spools which you must find somewhere …
Too complicated, I cut photo paper to the right size and stuffed it in, squeezed it in the back door frame!

And then I thought why not trying to develop the paper pieces positive instead of negative? It’s a far more complicated process but it’s possible. There’s even an eco alternative … so I mixed some coffee, soda and vitamin c for the two developers and some hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid for the strong bleach.

Luckily I am staying on the countryside right now at my friend’s place, we drive around, find beautiful spots and click the Brownie!

And then we spend hours in the darkroom polishing the recipe, heating the soup, playing with developing time, trying not to sniff the stinky bleach, getting completely black papers and some very pale, some with weird dots and stripes, but some come out funky magical and beautiful!