Golden October Sun And Friend And Dogs And A Pinhole Camera

I carry my loaded pinhole camera wherever I go … I met my friend Kasia and her two little dogs in a park, an old abandoned graveyard. She told me a funny story about her one dog Lichee: he is quite old now (15) and about to get blind and a little lame, but sometimes like being hit by an energy beam he’s running around like crazy and full of energy like a teen dog! Her dog whisperer friend told her that he is beginning to mix up his realities, remembers old memories and lives in them! For the moment. This is it. For the moment. I ponder and wonder about it.

Pinhole Power!

My most recent workshop at Bi’bak Berlin, a lovely place with a garden!

It’s easy to make your own personal pinhole camera, you just need a light-tight box (the best in the world is an Illy coffee can!!! Must have a removable / screwable lid), a hole and some photo paper or film. Negative and positive.

In this workshop we tinkered pinhole cameras (to take them home afterwards!), learned a lot about the beauty of analog photography, apertures and exposure times, went out and tried the different ways to create an oddly beautiful picture! Developed together in the adventurous, improvised darkroom! It was fun! Thank you all for being part of it!!!

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!