Incidental Images

Well, the one thing I got out of breaking my arm and spending time at home was another video. I had a series of material left from last year's Italy trip which I was dying to use for another video for some time now. So I finally sat down and put the whole thing together.

The video is called 'Not To Touch the Earth' can be found here.

Featuring an unsuspecting Japanese tourist encountered in the dome in the town of Spoleto in Italy, the video incorporates a series of sequences shot on the island of Elba, in the region of Umbria and in Florence. It can be seen as something of a corollary piece to the previous video, Liquid Light, in that it is also about movement - but here, it is a less peaceful movement.

The music is the track Coro by Ryuichi Sakamoto, from his album Chasm.

The words are taken from the Doors' song Not to Touch the Earth. This is an excerpt from The Celebration Of The Lizard, a 133-line poem by Jim Morrison that was going to take up the first side of the album Waiting For The Sun. However, in the end only a part of the 24 minute song was put on the album.

This is a series of photos which we (that is, Torsten & I) shot inside the decaying former sanatoriums in Beelitz, in the vicinity of Berlin. This complex of 60 or so buildings was built between 1860 and 1930, at a time when tuberculosis was killing off many residents of Berlin, especially in the overpopulated working class quarters.

The complex was like a small self sufficient community, with its own bakery and even train station. It was divided in buildings for men and for women.

Serving as a military hospital during each of the two world wars, it became, after World War II, a Soviet military hospital, which it remained until the Russian troops left Germany in 1994.

Since then, the buildings have been left to decay. Windows and roofs are pretty much gone, and it's only a matter of time until there's very little left.

Well, I just finished scanning in the first batch of the 13 rolls of film I took on vacation in Italy. Seeing the result, it's the usual thing, of course: 60% of the pix make only sense to those who were there, another 20% make no sense at all, and you're left with a small number of photos you can show to people without causing having yawns on their part. Now with the roll films, you get used to being economical, but still, as I said, I managed to fill 13 rolls (at 12 pix each, you do the math). Some people in the group had 500+ photos on their digital cameras. Good luck to them.

I've posted the first batch, both Holga and Lubitel ones - so far only the colour rolls. It was good having the two cameras with me. I still think the Holga's my favourite (both for its simplicity, and for the slightly warped results one gets), but the Lubitel proved great when there was no sunshine. Later in Florence I also took some interior photos with the Lubitel, not knowing if they'd work out, but they did - great even. I'll post those later.

Last week-end I returned to my home country of Luxembourg for a quick visit. For those of you who don't know, Luxembourg is that little country wedged right between France, Germany and Belgium (and no, there's no skiing there, that's Lichtenstein^^). Anyways, I took a few pix with my Holga camera, mostly of new buildings which I hadn't seen before either, a new concert hall and a modern art museum, designed by I.M. Pei, although I think he has done better work (the building is great from the inside, but it looks a bit uninspired from the outside).

This is a selection of pictures I took with my Holga at the Christopher Street Day, or Gay Pride Day as it's known elsewhere. It's hard not to fall into the clichés and photograph every drag queen on display, and I haven't quite avoided the trap, but these particular ones turned out ok, I thought.

This month is becoming the hottest July on record in Berlin, with 30+ degrees for the past six weeks or so. Since Berlin is sorely lacking in beaches, people tend to improvise here. They create artificial beaches along the river, with palm trees, beach cafés and all. These photos are from one such beach, where they went even one step further. Since the river is too polluted to swim in, they converted a barge, which is moored in the river, into a swimming pool and created a beach around it. The place has a nice bar, a resident DJ, and is sometimes open all night. Great place.

Here are just a few pix from that place.

Inspired by the graveyard pix that other people have been putting up recently, I dug out a few of my own. Most are from a cemetery in Nice, in the South of France, a huge sprawling place on a hilltop overlooking the sea. People have money there, and they like to show off even in death. Makes for great photos, 'though.

Summer's here, with a vengeance. In my last entry, in June, I was complaining how cold it was here, and ever since the World Cup came (and went) we've had 30+ degrees. I'm NOT complaining... I love it.

I've put up the first pictures from this summer, with more to come. These ones were taken on the rooftop terrace of my friend Dan's flat in Berlin Prenzlauerberg (isn't that a mouthful?).

Another cold and miserable day in Berlin when it should be summer. Uploaded a bunch of photos from my last stay in Bangkok. How I miss living in a country where the weather is reliable - reliably good, I mean!

Also uploaded a video which I made last week-end to support Ryuichi Sakamoto's Stop-Rokkasho project. For more info, check here
http://stop-rokkasho.org

First time here, so I start my uploading a few pictures from my hometown, Berlin. They were taken in March when it was bleak winter time still. All these photos were taken with a Holga camera.