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Berlin-Friedrichshain, 27.06.2010

Berlin-Kreuzberg, 26.06.2010

Really interesting interview with WorldPressAward2008-Winner Tim Hetherington about his film ‘Restrepo’ (together with Sebastian Junger) and the present and future of photography and visual journalism on lens.blogs – don´t miss.

This weekend I have been at the Festival For Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany where 60 pieces of journalistic photography and several examples of audiovisuals were presented to an audience of about 20.000 people in five days. One can say that was a big success for high class photojournalism, which was said to be nearly dead in times of digital picture flood and a suffering press. But the ability to tell a story through fascinating images of high quality is still attractive to people who like to get good information from  journalists who want to show what’s happening in the world. More and more these journalists find ways to get independent of publishers and present their work in self-published books or as audiovisuals, tools who allow them to spread their work without editorial restrictions. The quantity of amazing quality shown in Hannover gives confidence that ambitious photojournalism is not dead, but rising like a phoenix… And hopefully some near day these photographers can again earn enough money for their living.

Polish photographer visits Wales. Guess what he is interested in? – No, you are wrong! – Maciej Dakowicz from Bialystok in North East Poland was only interested in getting a few snaps of local life during his stay in Britain. What he found was so astonishing that even a hardboiled Polish guy couldn´t believe it. See what he experienced in Cardiff (and read the story about on Mail Online).

Berlin-Neukölln, 14.06.2010

Read an interesting article (in German) on the current issue of “Der Freitag” (German weekly web-magazine) about street photography in times of terrorism and surveillance. Different photographers out of history and present time of street photography are quoted with their own explanations of what it means to take pictures on the street, their working styles and experiences of how photographers are treated there. – If you like to take pictures on the street you know how difficult it is today to do so.

… just got the link to the original article by Sean O’Hagan. Thanks Christian.

Recently I used to have the great pleasure to be in the audience of an evening lecture by Anders Petersen (at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, Berlin), who is not only a godfather of black and white photography but also an extraordinary character, that means a beautyful and striking person. These days I discovered an article about Petersen on Lens Culture, “an online magazine celebrating international contemporary photography, art, media and world cultures”. You can see a selection of his images there, but the best is an 18min audio interview and a 20sec sound bite where he talks about what he likes about black and white photographs. Enjoy, it´s great.

Everywhere you go you hear that Dutch photography is the most interesting in Europe now and one particular name is in every mouth: Rob Hornstra. He is something like a shooting star and in New York they are really keen on him (Winner NYPH Book Award 2010). Not without reason Hornstra is praised for his ideas to find ways of how to make photo books and get them financed. Working on longterm documentary projects (what he calls slow journalism) he is exploring new grounds of journalistic distribution by selling his work in progress (and of course the books already finished) to people who want him to continue. You should have a look at (and if you like participate in) his new project, called ‘The Sochi Project’, where he is going to show how an area is changing when selected for Olympic Games. This kind of co-working could (and should) be part of the future of critical journalism.

‘Benidorm – Das verlorene Paradies’ is a stunning series by German photographer Nicole Strasser presented on ‘Bildwerk3′ online-photo-magazine. If you are not sure about where to relax this summer, even after enjoying ‘The Sun Always Shines (PartI)’, this will be top of your choice.

… seen on the pet-fair Berlin.

Why do people come to cities and what do they expect for themselves from their future? What are the stories that motivate them to set out for the metropoles or to reside there? To find an answer to these questions, twenty student photographers from Germany, Poland and India spread out to Berlin, Warsaw and Mumbai to take pictures for the “The Promised City”- project. One of them was Rebecca Sampson, who did a compelling photo-story about ‘Bollywood’, the dream and the reality of how to become a star. Have a look at her website to see this story along with more pieces of impressing contemporary photography.

Do you know anything about modern Russian photography? If you are interested in what young Russian photographers are doing these days and how they work with mixed media, visit “LifeSlides”, winner of ‘Enthusiast Internet Award 2008′ and get a feeling of topics that Russian photographers are curious about. Little disadvantage: texts are mostly in Russian language.

Berlin Weissensee 2010

Recently I have been asked to shoot a book release party for (small) money. The book was quite nice, the author as well, so I accepted and did some pictures for a little slideshow, which is now to be seen on Berlin-Verlag website. Enjoy if you like.