The ABC Project, Part 3

So, nun ist es soweit. Der letzte Buchstabe des Alphabets wurde heute in ein Bild verwandelt und hat die Sammlung komplett gemacht. Auch in dieser letzten Runde gab es ein paar nervenaufreibende Momente, weil sich ein paar Motive gesträubt und einige Ideen der Umsetung wiedersetzt haben, irgendwie hab ich dann aber doch noch die Kurve gekriegt und bin eigentlich auch recht zufrieden mit den Ergebnissen. Da ich die letzten 3 Tage unterwegs war (bzw. immernoch bin), hatte ich im Vorfeld ein paar Bedenken, ob ich es an diesen Tagen wirklich schaffe nicht nur ein neues Bild zu machen, sondern es auch pünktlich zu veröffentlichen, aber auch das hat ganz gut geklappt, da ich zwischendurch genug freie Zeit im Hotel hatte. Natürlich hätte ich noch viel mehr von Berlin sehen können, dafür fehlte mir aber ehrlich gesagt die Energie nach der langen Zugfahrt und dem unglaublich tollen Konzert von The BossHoss am gleichen Abend. Morgen geht es wieder zurück ins Rheinland und somit bleibt mir hier und jetzt nur noch ein kurzes Fazit zum Projekt.

Es hat unheimlich viel Spaß gemacht und ich mag die Mischung der Bilder, die dabei entstanden sind. Es kostet allerdings auch einige Energie und erfordert durch die inzwischen doch recht dunkle Jahreszeit etwas mehr Planung als mir normalerweise lieb ist. Ich finde es nicht schwierig, jeden Tag ein Bild zu machen, vermutlich könnte ich auch jeden Tag 10 Bilder machen, wenn es jedoch nicht einfach nur irgendetwas, sondern etwas ganz Bestimmtes sein soll, ist es nicht mehr ganz so leicht und läßt sich auf Dauer mit meinem Arbeitsalltag nicht vereinbaren. Wenn ich eine bestimmte Idee im Kopf habe, läßt die sich in der Regel nicht so einfach ignorieren, tanzt die ganze Zeit in meinem Kopf herum und lenkt doch ganz schön ab, das kann ich mir dauerhaft nicht leisten. Und nur einfach irgendwas fotografieren, wahllos und nur um des Bildes Willen, ist nicht so mein Ding. Aus diesem Grund würde ein 365 Tage-Projekt für mich auch nie in Frage kommen. Ist aber halb so wild, es gibt ja noch unendlich viele andere Sachen, die man machen kann und ein paar neue Projektideen spuken mir auch schon im Kopf herum. Hier sind nun aber erstmal die letzten 8 Buchstaben meines ganz persönlichen Alphabets, mit besten Grüßen aus der Hauptstadt.

S is for Stencil

I think it was about one and a half years ago when I started to notice more and more pieces of art on the walls of my city. I’ve seen a lot of graffiti before, it’s basically everywhere you go, but now there were things that were different, more than just a tag made with a spray can. Beautiful artwork made with care, the style of certain clearly artists recognizable.

When I started to take picture of them while walking around the city, one of the first was a piece made by the stencil artist L.E.T. I really love the clean look of the pictures created with these technique and its close link to photography which is often providing the basis for the stencil itself. I’d never thought that I will be collecting art one day, it just happened as I wanted to bring some of the artworks from the street into my home. This picture shows a detail of one of my favorites, a large portrait of Charles Bukowski painted by Orticanoodles. It’s a three layer stencil with very fine cut lines, just totally awesome.

T is for Tears

When the letter D was due, I manage to avoid the main subject connected with it. It has impacted my life for many years and even though I found the way out of it several times, I know that it will never completely disappear, it’s part of me that will always wait somewhere in the shadows. And while it is something that can only be felt deep inside but not seen from the outside, the tears that are coming with it are impossible to hide.

There were times when  they would flow uncontrollable as if nothing could ever stop them. There were also times were they would just not come to bring any relief from the things that were building up. They are still something I’m struggling with often but sometimes… sometimes it feels ok. Today, only the heaven was crying and the sun was out quickly to dry all the tears it had shed.

U is for Urban Art

Another letter that revealed it’s meaning very early in the game and just didn’t not allowed any other interpretation. Beside photography, there is currently nothing that fascinates and interests me more than the urban art and how it is changing the space around us. It’s everywhere I go and makes my world a little bit more colourful.

This beautiful mural called ‘Mooonchild’ was painted by the Irish artist Fin DAC almost to date a year ago on a wall adjacent to my favorite gallery for urban art. Fin is self-thaught and has, in only a few years time, developed his own style, a mixture of stencil and painting which he calls Urban Aesthetics. Basically, it’s all about beautifying the walls of the city. He also says about himself that he creates his art to keep himself happy which is something I can relate to very well.

V is for Viola

One of the early ideas for this project was to include a picture of myself if I have the time. I thought it could be for M(e) or S(elfportrait) and if that doesn’t work, the first letter of my name would still offer one last opportunity. As it was a normal working day today, this meant I had to do it in the office which is not necessarily the best place for this kind of thing. Me being somewhat moody and restless of late didn’t help either but at the end, it’s all part of the package wrapped in chucks, jeans and worn leather. A little while after I had taken the picture I realised that there is another R.E.M. song that describes more or less how I’m often feeling these days: “That’s me in the corner…”

W is for Wonderland

This letter was supposed to stand for ‘Water’ which is by far my favorite element. I’ve written so many times about what it means to me and taken hundreds of pictures of it before. It should have been so easy but somehow it didn’t work, I couldn’t really grasp it today.

It was already far too late in the day when I finally got to look at my pictures and most of them didn’t speak to me at all. And then there was this picture I had taken of a puddle left behind by the rain, blurred into abstract, and I just couldn’t stop looking at it. There are those rare moments when I fell in love with something I hadn’t even really seen before or maybe just not seen like this. Little shifts in the fabric of the world that turn the ordinary into something so much more beautiful. I just love it when reality is changing on it’s way through the lens.

X is for Xpro

It’s not really a word but rather abbreviation standing for the cross processing of film and it was all I can think of to shoot at the moment. I could have used something from the archive but wanted to avoid it so snapped this in the morning to day before I lelft. It’s a brand new roll of Lomography slide film bedded on a few pictures I amde with the same kind of film about a year ago. A very nice choice for autumn pics which reminds me that I need to shoot more film as soon as possible.

Y is for Yearning

I had a quite long list of words for this letter, adding more words over time as I wasn’t sure how the show the first thing that came to my mind. I had an idea in my head, the ghost of a picture that I couldn’t really find out there while I was wandering around in the park near my hotel.

Then, late in the afternoon with the light already fading, I found myself looking down a path that was so beautifully framed by the trees and saw the two of them. Walking together, holding each others hand. That she was wearing red made it even more perfect. I’ve blurred this intentionally because the feeling to yearn for somebody or something is not always obvious. Sometimes it’s either hiding or simply being ignored. Because it’s easier that way. And less painful.

Z is for Zone

It’s the same word in both German and English, it also has the same meaning in each language. For me, it is part of my history as I spent the first 11 years of my life in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, a time I would sometimes refer to as ‘zone time’ even though I can’t really remember where I picked that up.

It wasn’t my first choice for this letter but as I happen to be in Berlin, the formerly split city, it just seemed to be the right thing to do. I walked along an old piece of the wall now serving as an open air art gallery today but had a special, more central place in mind for this picture. So, here we are, at Checkpoint Charlie, about to leave the zone that is only a memory now.