Theresa

18 October 2013

When I last photographed my friend Theresa, she had just secured her first job after graduation. A year later, the resourceful health and safety professional sticks to the good advice my friend Rob once expressed: the best time looking for a job is when you have one.

Since a picture is mandatory for almost all job applications in Austria, we put my spacious living room to good use one last time before I had to move out and shot some formal portraits. Luckily there’s also one to sneak into »Project 12«. This, that and the relocation got into the way, so it took me way too long before I managed to get round to editing (and seeing the barber).

Valentin Rosegger, Physiotherapist

22 September 2013

My good friend and physiotherapist Valentin Rosegger is about to open his own practice and asked me to provide some visuals.

I gladly obliged, because in the past I received countless hours of Valentin’s skilled treatment and profound advice. Creating the images for his information material was a great way to repay the services (and I could also sneak in my – late – August portrait for »Project 12«).

If you are looking for a thorough physiotherapist, I really recommend him. He is setting up shop at Lindengasse 27 in 1070 Vienna and offers very work-compatible times. For an appointment dial +43 699 17161420.

Big thanks to Valentin Rosegger’s colleague Julian Gullner, who played the patient in a manner that can only be described as patiently. It involved holding a very strenuous position for a very long time (see above), neither minding Valentin (»straighten the back Julian, involve the abs a little more«) nor me (»great, stay just like this, only a few more shots, almost done«).

Project 12: Anke

4 August 2013

Since the beginning of the year Anke, who teaches German Literature at Vienna University, and me tried to put an idea for a portrait into practice, which for this, that and the other reason never quite happened.

So there was a vacancy in »project 12« since at least the beginning of 2013 – when, by the end of May, somehow several things just fell into place: a friend of ours gave Anke a bunch of hefty peonies in a colour she absolutely adored and that coincidentally also matched a dress in her wardrobe.

Furthermore, I had just bought her a used mini trampolin (after I had a go it unfortunately is now defunct) that coincidentally matched her urge to jump with joy after a streak of successful undertakings. And lastly, I had just thought up a contraption for a home grown diy beauty dish which I really wanted to try. And so it went and I am extremely happy about my wife finally being part of my project, too.

Summer Trip

4 August 2013

To escape the heat, we recently took refuge to the old family cabin in the German forests. We started by a brief stay in Munich and concluded with a huge cake in Ratisbon.

Project 12: Karin Peschka

3 June 2013

In February this year, I met up with author Karin Peschka (whose story »Watschenmann« recently won the Wartholz-Literaturpreis) to discuss a portrait. We agreed to wait for spring and in mid May I took the Lilo to Eferding, where we were lucky enough to experience some of the rare sunny moments this year. After a lovely family lunch in a beautiful garden, we went over to the former family run restaurant and explored the house from top to bottom.

The building’s arresting atmosphere provided photographic opportunities galore, so we tried to realise a few, starting in the attic, working our way down through the kitchen into the basement and back up into the »green room« (where I also took the May-portrait for »Project 12«).

The Dreambird

28 May 2013

Die Langeweile ist der Traumvogel, der das Ei der Erfahrung ausbrütet. [en]

Walter Benjamin

Project 12: Mirko Krause

27 April 2013

The library of the Viennese Arbeiterkammer (Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour) is quiet, well stocked, has a sensible policy on water in the reading room and comes with a garden, so on most days this is where I work – and so does Mirko. He is an architect and writes his Ph.D. on Peter Eisenman and Rem Kohlhaas (which is a a funny coincidence because I am writing on Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas). Most of the time we share the better parts of our days and in the past year we went from being just library-buddies to being lunch-buddies, too.

A while back I had made a mental note about a lovely spot in the Arbeiterkammer lobby/waiting area and had hoped I could use it for a portrait one day. With the extraordinary architecture (by NMPB-Architekten) surrounding it, what better subject could there be than an architect who even happens to spend most of his working hours in that very building? So for my April portrait for Project 12 I am grateful that, despite his super busy week, Mirko was willing to sit in the gorgeous sunset light for me.

I am also very grateful to Roman Berka of the Arbeiterkammer Directorate, as he didn’t hesitate for a second when I asked for permission to shoot at that wonderful place. A big thank you also to the porter for his relaxed attitude during the shooting.

Certain people keep saying that apparently asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission. Not only was the opposite true here but while asking for permission, I also learned something: Mr Berka told me that Barbara Kruger’s »Questions« was due to be taken down at the beginning of May. This meant that a) I wasn’t going to run into unexpected construction work and b) I could do the shooting when the opportunity was still there to incorporate one of her pieces which is a very apt motto for every Ph.D. student: »Is work ever done?«

The Stuff Creativity is Made from

7 April 2013

Talking to Christian about creativity, inspiration, style, artistic language (and Austrian unincorporated association law) made me remember I still had shots from his studio sitting on my hard drive. palette

Bright Field Trinity

10 March 2013

Re-reading Light – Science and Magic and coming through the glass department, I thought I’d give bright field and dark field a try. I picked non-coloured bottles with different contents (brownish, clear, air) and am quite pleased with the bright field result. Dark field was an utter fail due to several reasons, two being a) lack of proper dark material and b) bottles having stuff on them like labels and print and me being unable to remedy that.

So here’s my Austrian-Scottish-Swedish bright field trinity:

The Tricycle

1 March 2013

A week or so ago Christian Bazant-Hegemark said he had an idea for a picture involving himself, a children’s trike and one of his paintings. Was I interested in helping him shoot it? Of course I was – he is very easy in front of my camera and I knew it was going to be fun.

He wanted to combine a photo of himself with a painting he is currently working on. The painting shows a boy on a children’s tricycle and my job was to place Christian so that his position would resemble the trike-boy’s as much as possible and at the same time keep the background relatively easy to edit out.

In the words of Douglas Reynholm: I am no Truman Capote when it comes to Photoshop and I am excited about what Christian is going to do with it, but what I pictured while shooting was something like this:

It goes without saying that Christian riding an imaginary tricycle whilst resting his feet on a broom and sitting on a bar stool that was itself placed on a table was also calling for a more serious portrait.

Fuji Finepix

26 February 2013

When I am out and about I usually don’t take the DSLR but use an old Fuji Finepix. It accompanied me to the summit of quite a few mountains, to the beaches of several seas and preserved the memory of the odd pique-nique, too. The wear is starting to show and it is nor ever was perfect, but as the second worst pictures are the ones never taken, she’ll do. The worst are of course the ones taken and then lost because some Northumbrian bog-pixie steals the camera (which was the fate of the Samsung I used before, hence this one is kept on a leash).

I wanted to try a light-tentish setup for a while and thought the battered old piece would make an appropriate subject – and it also gave me a chance to practice with my old 100mm ƒ/2.8 that unfortunately lacks the autofocus.

Projekt 12: Schlosserei Alex Stahl

30 December 2012

Shortly before Christmas I visited Alex, who is a metalworker. He kindly paused building a motorcycle to turn my old cymbal boom stand into a light stand. I took the opportunity to take some welding and grinding pictures of him, his friend Lippo and his little apprentice.

At this occasion I also completed my »Project 12«: Alex is my final portrait for 2012 (with Lippo adding a nice touch through sending some flying sparks up and down the room).

Signs of the World

30 September 2012

Been travelling: »No briefcases, no swimming, no smoking, no dogs, no firearms – no problem«

»Strictly No brief cases beyond this point.«

John Cleese on Creativity

24 July 2012

Watch for yourselves:

Some quotes:

Now, in the closed mode an uncultured [petri] dish is an irrelevance. In the open mode, it’s a clue.

To get into open mode, you need: space, time, time, confidence, humor.

If, while you’re pondering, somebody accuses you of indecision, say: »Look, Babycakes, I don’t have to decide until Tuesday and I’m not chickening out of my creative discomfort by taking a snap decision before then: that’s too easy.«

Alan Watts: »You can’t be spontaneous within reason«

Humor gets us from closed to open mode as quickly as nothing else.

There is a difference in between seriousness and solemnity.

Lake View Ranch

4 May 2011

Westernreiten & Ferien auf dem Bauernhof am Ossiacher See in Kärnten: https://www.lake-view-ranch.at/

Inspiring Photographers

1 January 2011

To keep track of inspiring photographers I started this list – because nothing else worked.

Irene Andessner

Website: www.andessner.com

Austrian fine artist. Collaborates with various photographers for »self portraits done by somebody else«. »Ursula K.«-series is especially interesting, also »Donne Illustri« and »Maternoster«. »Ida – Artemis – Merian« is my favourite, though (one, two).

Zack Arias

Websites: zackarias.com · www.dedpxl.com

Dealing with unhappy subjects
Top Five Books
Video: If I had to start my photo business today (via Sara Lando)

Laura Barisonzi

Website: www.barisonzi.com

Photographer from New York, good shots of wushu, yoga, and parkours.

Nick Brandt

Website: www.nickbrandt.com

Beautiful animals in black and white. See »elephant drinking« and »elephant with exploding dust«.

Joachim Brohm

Website: www.joachimbrohm.com

Architecture and Landscape.

Gregory Crewdson

Website: www.artnet.com/awc/gregory-crewdson.html

With Crewdson each picture is a meticulously planned, large scale project – all of them fantastic. There is no proper website, but the google has many of his images. Benjamin Shapiro just finished a film on Crewdson (www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com) and vimeo has one – two – three clips (hat tip to the Strobist).

Imogen Cunningham

Website: www.imogencunningham.com

»If you don’t like it, it’s your problem, not mine.«

Meg Partridge made a film »Portrait of Imogen«.

Peter Dench

Website: www.peterdench.com

Many of Dench’s projects have a focus on the UK in common and remind me of my time in Northumberland – some in a good, some in a…uhm…different way.

Mitch Dobrowner

Website: www.mitchdobrowner.com

Storm- and cloud-chaser.

Philippe Echaroux

Website: www.pays-imaginaire.fr

Great pictures, interesting ideas. There’s a youtube channel, too.

Rosa Frank

Website: www.rosa-frank.com

For me a personally important inspiration on people photography with a focus on the fine arts (dance, opera, theatre, music).

Sacha Goldberger

Website: www.sachabada.com

Sacha focusses mostly on his grandmother and does the most amazingly themed shoots with her. To me he is an inspiration both in the conceptual department but also in his approach on age and the expectations that come with it.

Philippe Halsman

Website: www.philippehalsman.com

Monroe, Nixon, Dalí, Duke and Duchess of Windsor: Halsman made them all jump. Smithsonian has a portrait gallery and a piece on him by Owen Edwards: When he said »Jump«.

Peter Hapak

Website: www.phapak.net

Moving portraits of »The Protester« for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. There’s a behind-the-scenes video on youtube.

Natsumi Hayashi

Website: www.yowayowacamera.com

Flying self portraits. A bit of a one trick pony, but still nice.

Gregory Heisler

Website: www.gregoryheisler.com

Portrait Photographer. Youtube has a bunch of videos on him. Three are fairly recent, more should be coming according to David Hobby. His »50 Portraits«-Book is fantastic.

Lewis Hine

Website: Sorry, no websites back in the days…

Sociologist and photographer with a focus on child labour.

Fan Ho

Website: www.fanhophotography.com

Hong Kong street photography spanning from 1950s to present day.

David Hobby

Website: strobist.blogspot.com

David Hobby’s take on off-camera flash. His flash-course is a gem and comes in two pieces: Lighting 101 and Lighting 102. He also keeps an »on assignment« category, where he shares in-depth background information on some of his real live shoots.

How-to-list (interesting: light christmas morning)
Video Vault
50 DIY projects

George Holz

Website: www.georgeholz.com

Setup video on (eight light) Beyoncé shoot. Video on Jack Nicholson shoot.

Jasper James

Website: www.jasperjames.co.uk

Fascinating City Silhouettes series.

Chase Jarvis

Website: www.chasejarvis.com

Regularly broadcasts Chase Jarvis Live.

Erik Johansson

Website: www.alltelleringet.com

Photographer and retoucher with a clear inclination towards the the latterer.

Gertrude Käsebier

No websites back then, but at MoMA.

Herlinde Koelbl

Website: www.herlindekoelbl.de

Famous for her long term projects. Check out »Targets« and August-Sander-inspired »Kleider machen Leute«

Mark Laita

Website: www.marklaita.com

Inspiring still life and food. »Created Equal«-project is overwhelming.

Sara Lando

Website: www.saralando.com Blog: www.saralando.com/blog-en

Ms Lando is the Strobist’s Correspondent to Europe and has a series »On Photographing People« (pt. 1–pt. 2–pt. 3) over there. Also My week with Heisler (pt 1 – pt 2 – pt 3)

Dorothea Lange

No websites then, but at MoMA.

Neil Leiffer

Website: neilleifer.com Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Leifer

Sports photographer who took the stunning overhead shot of Ali after knocking out Cleveland Williams atthe Astrodome in Houston, Texas on 14 Nov 1966.

Victoria Ling

Website: www.victorialing.com

Fascinating still lifes (something I don’t usually get too excited about). Her portraits from pencil shavings leave me speechless. She also keeps a blog.

Gerd Ludwig

Website: www.gerdludwig.com

National Geographics’ man in Eastern Europe. Check out his Chernoyl project (exclusion zone and victims).

Vivian Maier

Website: www.vivianmaier.com

As full time nanny, part time street photographer, Maier over the years has gathered a portfolio that allows an intimate insight into USA street life and culture. Watch the »Finding Vivian Maier«-trailer.

Fabrizio Maltese

Website: www.fabriziomaltese.com

Steve McCurry

Website: www.stevemccurry.com Blog: stevemccurry.wordpress.com

Famous National Geographic shooter (»The Afghan Girl«). He got to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome ever made (documentation here). From 19 January – 16 June 2013 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg hosted the exhibition

Steve McCurry: In the Flow of Time. Photographs from Asia 1980 – 2010 and I have never before and never after seen prints that actually radiate with light!

Scott McClellan

Website: www.aasm.ca

Portfolio section – photo section – behind the scenes video.

Andreas Meichsner

Website: www.andreasmeichsner.de

Great architecture shots, lovely project on TÜV-experiments called »the beauty of serious work«.

Eric Meola

Website: www.ericmeola.photography

Arnold Newman

Website: www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com

»People photography is 1% inspiration and 99% moving furniture«

Long interview on youtube where he talks about his approach (and blows cigar smoke all around live on telly in 1981).

Walter Nürnberg

Website: none back in the days

See Getty for instance for his industrial masterpieces.

Erwin Olaf

Website: www.erwinolaf.com

The grief-series.

Platon

Website: platonphoto.com

Article on »Power«-Project
Putin Shoot Video and article

Martin Prihoda

Website: www.martinprihoda.com Blog: www.atomicsafari.blogspot.com

Prihoda does mostly advertising and editorial shoots for fashion magazines in India. He also keeps a blog on photography, life, and all the rest.

Andreas von Reiswitz

Website: www.vonreiswitz.com

Black and white portrait photography of man and beast. My favourite is his Family Constellation Project where he asks random and unrelated strangers in the street to come together for a family portrait.

Funny and at times uncanny conceptual pictures. His »Storytelling« series (»Scream«, »Trouble in Paradise« and »Pursuit of Happiness«) has many great moments.

Strobist’s correspondent to Europe Sara Lando has an article on Schmid.

Martin Schöller

Website: www.martinschoeller.com

There’s not much to see on his website, but there are several collections of his images elsewhere: at livejournal some of his famous portraits and at imention more portraits and a fun with stars series.

»Behind the Cover« at Time magazine.

Yohei Shimada

Website: www.yoheishimada.com

Strobist correspondent Irwin Wong had an article on him.

Taryn Simon

Website: www.tarynsimon.com

I am a bit reluctant to call it »political photography«, even in the best sense of the term, but it is definitely concerned photography on the highest aesthetic level. Recent talk at TED (and an earlier one).

Matthew Jordan Smith

Website: www.matthewjordansmith.com

In conversation with Matthew Jordan Smith. On Tyra Banks shoot.

Matthew also operates a Photography Help Store.

Connecting with Models

Alfred Stieglitz

No websites back then, but at Met-Museum.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Website: www.sugimotohiroshi.com

Interesting takes on a broad range of subjects like water, architecture and the colours of shadows.

Christian Tagliavini

Website: www.christiantagliavini.com

»Waiting for Freud« and »1503« series (the latter won Hasselblad Masters 2012 in »Fine Art«).

Winkler + Noah

Website: www.winkler-noah.it

Mostly pretty standard (high class) advertising with cars taking up a lot of space. What I like are some of their kids and grans.

Dan Winters

Website: www.danwintersphoto.com

He has a whole variety of approaches, ranging from gangs over bees to celebrity shots. I especially like his Brad Pitt series, my favourite is the one of Brad and Quentin in the cinema. His book Road to Seeing is praised everywhere but hard to get.

Peter Yang

Website: www.peteryang.com

»Peter’s best travel advice is to get a neck pillow and eye shade. He says you will look like a fool but sleep like a king.«

Category: Photography

Irene Andessner

Zack Arias

Laura Barisonzi

Nick Brandt

Joachim Brohm

Gregory Crewdson

Imogen Cunningham

Peter Dench

Mitch Dobrowner

Philippe Echaroux

Rosa Frank

Sacha Goldberger

Philippe Halsman

Peter Hapak

Natsumi Hayashi

Gregory Heisler

Lewis Hine

Fan Ho

David Hobby

George Holz

Jasper James

Chase Jarvis

Erik Johansson

Gertrude Käsebier

Herlinde Koelbl

Mark Laita

Sara Lando

Dorothea Lange

Neil Leiffer

Victoria Ling

Gerd Ludwig

Vivian Maier

Fabrizio Maltese

Steve McCurry

Scott McClellan

Andreas Meichsner

Eric Meola

Arnold Newman

Walter Nürnberg

Erwin Olaf

Platon

Martin Prihoda

Andreas von Reiswitz

Corey Rich

Claire Rosen

Denis Rouvre

Christoph-Martin Schmid

Martin Schöller

Yohei Shimada

Taryn Simon

Matthew Jordan Smith

Alfred Stieglitz

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Christian Tagliavini

Winkler + Noah

Dan Winters

Peter Yang

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