waiting for the river – the day after

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(Jens Stachowitz)

The project »Warten auf den Fluss« (waiting for the river) by the artist-group Observatorium in Rotterdam has fascinated me. »Waiting for the river« does mean the Emscher that is no river since over 100 years but an open waste water canal. The Emscher will be renaturated in several years and this art project wanted to tell us this. Warten auf den Fluss was a hostel in the Emscherlandschaftspark made of wood and had a warm and inviting atmosphere – I loved it and about 25.000 visitors had a look at it during the summer of 2010.

Warten auf den Fluss

Warten auf den Fluss von Uglix bei Flickr

Warten auf den Fluss was part of the EMSCHERKUNST.2010 Exhibition curated by Prof. Dr. Florian Matzner.

I visited the sculpture the day after it was demolished – it was a temporary project and was over at Sept. 18th. 2010 – and I got a little bit sad.

(Jens Stachowitz)

I vainly hoped it would be saved and I could invite friends to to stay overnight together.

Here are two links for further informations (in German language) with some good pictures by the bloggers Gunwalt and Karin Reichert-Frei and Thomas Frei.

Gerd Lieder is chasing reflections

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A patchwork of Gerd Lieder´s work

patchwork by Gerd Lieder

My eyes were immediately cought by the reflections Gerd Lieder has chased and painted. I saw a few of his paintings – those from Dubay and those about Gehry´s architecture – in the art galery art-isotope in Dortmund, Germany. The exibition started on Sunday, 19th Sept. 2010 and will last till 17th Oct. 2010.

For me there is a strong parallel to Eli Reinholdtsen, my photographer-friend in Oslo whose work I have mentioned in Eli Reinholdtsen is chasing reflections. In this two paintings by Gerd Lieder there are the strongest parallels

Painting of Fifth Avenue by Gerd Lieder

Fifth Avenue by Gerd Lieder

Bäume 2 Trees 2 150 x 110 cm Öl/Leinwand 2004

Trees 2 by Gerd Lieder

Gerd Lieder is working with glass, water, mirror and foil and he uses a camera to chase the reflections he wants to paint with oil at canvas. Yes, you see paintings. His body of work is very impressive and his technique to manufacture photorealistic paintings is on a master level. Gerd Lieder is playing with the viewers understanding of reality, like Eli does in a similar way. Eli is explaining her approach in her eBook you can find here. What is shown? Has it really been so? Did Gerd Lieder change something while painting?

See this article by Tom Querengaesser to get some insights and see Gerd Lieder´s website for more impressions on his work.

Eli Reinholdtsen is chasing reflections

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spray-painting © by Eli Reinholdtsen

Today and want to introduce Eli Reinholdtsen a photographer-friend of mine living in Oslo, Norway. I met Eli in Genua when she was arriving for the second week of the Italy Within The Frame Workshop in April 2010 and I was leaving after the first week. Eli I first met virtually on facebook as a result of Jeffrey Capman´s building up a workshop community. Eli posted this photograph (above) to introduce herself into the community and I was very impressed. I like this photograph very much! Eli has been an avid snapper ever since she was given her first camera at the age of eleven but discovered the infinite potential of creative camera modes about two years ago. Like to be seen she did the discovery very fast.

Eli and I – and other participants too – had a glass of wine and I had a very good conversation with Eli that avoce my wish to stay in touch with her. Later on within her workshop week she put a self-published book called “Folk” into David duChemin´s hands at the breakfast table and as a result of this introduction this ebook (beneath) was released by Craft And Vision on July 28th.

Eli-Reinholdtsen-Chasing-Reflections-Cover

Very well done Eli! I am very impressed by the photographs in this ebook. The photographs have multiple layers inside combining at least two images in one, leaving question marks and stimulate curiosity. Its a joy to see the full size photographs on the first half of the book and the smaller sized versions with comments on the back half give very good explanation and education. Eli loves what she is photographing! She loves street photography, she loves reflections and is drawn to when people are wrapped up in their own thoughts. Her photographs make me smile but the photographs are the result of hard working: Comming back to see whether the light is better, waiting for an hour ore more to catch the moment, trying to create a better photograph in the same setting but another moment, not giving up when she could not capture the image she wanted to create. Chasing Reflections – a wonderful art piece and photography education at the same time! Highly recommended!

Buy at the webshop of Craft And Vision

For the first four days only you can enter the promotional code REFLECT4 to save 1 $ (will expire at 11.59pm PST August 1, 2010).

the beauteous holdup of the world

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On sunday, 18. July 2010, the ruhr area celebrated a gigantic street festival of everyday culture called »ruhr still life« as a part of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010. I took part, was totaly captured by this event and recorded 12 GB of data for 801 photographs that will be part of my »One-Mile-From-Home-Project« and that will take a while to edit to be a consumalbe slideshow.

100000 cars are moving on this motorway every working day. (Jens Stachowitz)
100000 cars are moving on this motorway every working day.

Here some facts and emotions:
• 60 kilometres of the busiest motorway in Germany were blocked. Only pedestrians and ciclists were allowed from Dortmund to Duisburg – never ever this has been before
• 3 Million people attended – a gigantic mass and a very impressive moment in the life of everybody I could speek to
• the motorway sometimes was not able to contain the masses – the newspaper titeled »the beauteous holdup of the world«
• 20000 tables were put together to the longest table of the world – a symbol for the idea of belonging together in the ruhr area that consists of 52 cities
• 12000 voluntiers that made the festivity happen – I say: Thank you so much!
• beautifull summer weather and nearly nothing unplesent happend – a day of delight!

See some impressions from my hometown taken by press photographers.

Portraits are build on a faithfull relationship

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At my last self assignment – 20-years-Post-&-Welters – I trained to better create environmental portraits on the boat the aniversary was celebrated on. When the journey started I was introduced by the host of the party as a friend and a photographer. He told his guest that the photographs will be shown on his and on my website. He invited his guests to give a sign when they don´t want to be photographed. Here I will show Portraits of which I am pleased and proud of.

There were a lot of people around and the most of them got used to me photographing them. With some of them I had a talk about themselves beeing photographed. Most of them I spoke to told me that they do not feel comfortable being photographed. I tried to build up a good relationship to them. That were my strategies and messages:
• I don´t like to be photographed too but I am luky to see good pictures I am in.
• I know that there has to be a balance between having a party whithout disturbance and the goal of the host and his guests to have some good photographs to hold their memories.
• There will not be shown any photographs in the gallerey in which they look bad.
• After creating a photograph they can look at the display of my camera and decide whether to delete it.
• They should talk to others and enjoy the party. I will wait for the decive moment when they smile or laugh. I will not press the shutter release when they are eating and drinking.
• They should not pose. It would be the best not to consider me.
• I accuse for using the flashlight because of the very low light within the boat and harsh light outside.

So they could see that I am aware of their situation and could share some values with them. After this conversation most of them agreed in being photographed. They got into a comfort zone because they haven´t had a sence of risc any more. Most of them cooperated, gave us – me and them – a try. There where only some guest I didn´t get a good photograph from. Mostly there was at last a photograph that could be accepted.

Very happy I am with this photograph because the woman told me that there is no chance to get a good portrait of her. I know her for years and could not agree. The problem is not her appearance but her feeling that a photo whith her in will fail. I hope this photograph will tell her another story. (Jens Stachowitz)

One of the guests told me – supposable some more felt this without articulating it – that the mimic (facial expression) of me hidden behind my heavy dslr-camera with a 70-200mm-lens and a flash mounted on is intimidating. I could agree to this and told him that I own a smaller camera and would have used it when the picture quality would be as good as those from my dslr. He could agree in this argument and got used to me, my camera and me photographing him. Finaly he could give me a little smile when facing my camera.
(Jens Stachowitz)

There are some more photographs I am proud of and that needed no effords to develop the acceptance of the subject.
(Jens Stachowitz)
(Jens Stachowitz)
(Jens Stachowitz)
(Jens Stachowitz)
(Jens Stachowitz)

It is not about to set yourselve a monument

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Santa Monika pausing her travel from and back to Dortmund nearby the Henrichenburg boat lift. (Jens Stachowitz)

Last friday (2010-07-09) two friends of mine had a festivity on the “Santa Monika” to celebrate 2o years of working together in their own architect´s and urban planner´s office »Post & Welters« in Dortmund, Germany. Both I know since we first worked together in the 80th, the time we did our years as journeymen learning from the masters and wandering around to build up our experience in the profession. Hartmut Welters I met in the office of the architect and urban planner Franz Pesch (today professor in Stuttgart, Germany) and Norbert Post I met in te office of the architect and urban planner Peter Zlonicky (Munich, Germany; today professor emeritus and still working intensely as an consultant).

There would be a lot to tell about those four masters in the field of architecture and town planning and about which pathes they choose within their journeys and about how their profession shifted to the current appereance too. Here I only will mention their approach to their tasks that is the same as mine as a facilitator and that is part of the base of our professional and personal friendship: Satisfy the desires of your customers and realize social values at the same time! – It is not about to set yourselve a monument.

Tilman Harlander (professor in Stuttgart, Germany) said in his keynote during the festivity: “There are architects that are proud of their work and love it most when it is photographed in the moment it is freshly build up or – even better – when it is shown as an architecture model. But in the moment the users appropriate the building those architects feel disappointed because of the changes the users cause due to their everyday usage.” Henry Beierlorzer (freelance urban planner, Witten, Germay) pointed out something like following during his laudatory speech: “For Hartmut and Norbert it is a gratification making plans with their customers, make them beeing a part of the planning-team and use their knowledge and insights to produce a building or a city quarter that fits to their customers needs.” In the same time they try to connect the building or the city quarter to their surroundings and try to meet the environmental requirements in the best manner they can do.