September update

I’m sorry it took so long to post something new on my blog. Working, commuting, family, it all consumed a lot of time. In between I still try to photograph, a bit. The pictures will follow later, but I thought it was time for an update and some thought.

So Ricoh announced the GRIII a day before the Photokina 2018 opening. The GR series are basically the only cameras that really interests me. I’ve been using it since the end of 1996. 12 years with the GR1, and since 2009 with the GRD1, GRD3, and from 2013 the GR. While I love the concept of the GR series, I also believe that going digital caused scope creep with the designers. The digital GR cameras became programmable machines, and all I tried to do was make it more simple in it’s usability.

You see, the 1996 GR1 was a simple camera to operate. Choose your aperture or put it in P-mode. The only add-on was exposure compensation. Simple. My GR though has Tav mode, many programmable buttons, a rocker dial on the back that is as unpredictable as the weather in West Europe. So all I did, was choosing one aperture, ISO 1600, and using the zoom button for exposure compensation.

When I look at the back of the new GRIII prototype the user interface has changed. Less options, it seems. I’m personally glad that they ditched the flash, and that the GR has no tilted screen. I hope it can still be operated with only my right thumb. I will hopefully figure this out soon. More about that later.

Street photography. It seems no other genre in photography gets people more opinionated. While I wouldn’t call myself a street photographer I admit taking a lot of photographs that others think is street photography. I don’t take these however with street photography as my intent. With the new GDPR legislation that took place in May this year it is good to think about this intent. There is more protection now for the individual and personal data. And photographers are part of the personal data too. Cause I think honesty and respect are of the utmost importance, I think it will also alter my photography. And strangely though I find this very exciting.

So here both above mentioned subjects come together. Earlier this year I was interviewed for a German street photography magazine, Soul of Street Photography & Philosophy. It was as a joy to be interviewed by someone I know. It allowed us to dig a bit deeper in my reasoning, and thought process. So what has this all to do with Ricoh and street photography? Upcoming Saturday, 29 September 2018, Ricoh Germany and the Soul of Street magazine invite users and enthusiasts of all GR camera generations to the first GRmany Meet & Greet. It will take place from 10 am to 6 pm at stand A041 in hall 2.2 at Photokina. In their “photographers corner” the people of the Soul of Street Photography & Philosophy magazine and some GR-photographers from the PxP-Portfolio will be there, including me. So maybe I see you in Cologne. And the magazine, it is available here.

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Don’t know, do know

So President Putin and Trump met each other in Helsinki. I don’t know really what to think of it, but the outcome felt like a definite shift of power. The world order we got to know, and grew up in, feels changed now. For some that might be a fantastic moment, for others it could be the end of their world. I don’t know if it is good or wrong. On the one side you have an elected president who I seriously doubt is fit for office, although my view might likely be influenced by my European more left of the political center position, and on the other side a president who was a former KGB agent. I don’t know, but both don’t really give me confidence to trust them.

I grew up in the Cold War and thought 9 November 1989 was like the most important day in my life, when the gates in the Berlin Wall stood wide open. There was the East and the West, until that moment when the Cold War came gradually to an end and the Soviet Union crumbled down. I knew there was no right or wrong, even though they kind of taught us so. I guess, there are wrongdoing rightly people and vice versa.

No matter where my thoughts and sentiments wander, it becomes obvious that the world isn’t right or wrong, isn’t all white or black. And the same can I say about my photography. While much of my work was black and white, it’s message or feelings was originally intended to be somewhere between it. After years passed by, and melancholy filled it in more often, it started to feel too much like black and white to me.

Therefore I decided to stop doing black and white photography for now. Also I deleted all my black and white photographs on my Instagram account. I still appreciate the beauty and simplicity of black and white, but really like the diversity of color now. Color isn’t just what you see. There is so much more to it. Just take a look at some of the movies by Wong Kar-Wai from Hong Kong.

It just fits me better right now. It provides me with a new set of challenges. Just to say, I’m curious how my photographs look in color.