Kategorie: Blog english
Blogbeiträge auf englisch
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The break was a bit longer …
… but now there’s plenty of new content!
Not only new films have been added, but a completely new section, „Reise – Travel“ has also been created.
For the photos I took during my March trip through France and Spain, a strict sorting by film and camera wouldn’t make much sense. Instead, the photos from longer trips will now be organized by time and location, grouping different films and cameras together. You can already find the first locations there, and new ones will be added every day.
To make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for, there’s now a „neu – new“ button at the top of the homepage. This lists the latest posts in reverse chronological order, so you can access them directly from there. This saves you from having to search through everything if you just want to quickly check out the latest news.Quick tip: if you save this „new“ page as a link (www.pictorialist.de/neu-new), you can use it as your start and save yourself the detour via the main page.
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Don’t miss out when there’s something new
The GALLERY page will always feature images from the last five developed rolls of film. When a new roll is added, an older one is removed.
That may be a good reason to check back regularly.
Anyone who would like to be reminded occasionally when there’s something new here is welcome to subscribe to the NEWSLETTER.Yes, you will need to enter your email address – but it absolutely won´t be used for anything else. And your data will remain here. Even sending emails is done via our own server.
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Why do I shoot analog?
Digital photography has many advantages. It is faster, allows immediate assessment to the results, is usually quieter, and – above all – is significantly cheaper in the long run. Yet it also has one major drawback: it is too perfect and predictable.
What draws me to analog photography is its slowness – the deliberate process, the anticipation of developing, and later of enlarging or scanning. I rarely take more than one, at most two, shots of the same situation. Either it works, or it doesn’t, or it works completely different of what I expected. There are missed opportunities.
I don’t feel the need to capture everything. Trying to capture too much devalues the moment. A moment thrives on transience; it derives its meaning precisely from that impermanence.
The truly important things are remembered even without a photograph. Being present matters more. For me, analog photography is a special, conscious form of presence. I capture what resonates with me, instead of searching for meaning afterward in 1.500 digital photos from a single day. „Just take 20 or 30 shots at once, one will be fine in the end“ – for me, this attitude diminishes the artistic process of making a photograph.
That’s one side of it.
The other side is the tactile, technical, and acoustic experience of holding an old camera – 50, 80, sometimes 120 years of history in my hands.
When a camera comes to me, it usually requires inspection, cleaning, and repair. That´s the first oportunity to become friends – or not. Most of the cameras in my cabinet show clear signs of age. That’s not a disadvantage. A well-worn camera has been used, loved, and cherished. A camera that still looks like new after 90 years lacks a history. Frequently, it had some kind of defect or inherent weakness that prevented it from being used extensively, that´s why it still appears untouched.
An old camera needs patina.
Cameras can speak. And sometimes they speak to me. Some become an extension of my hand, turning into a tool that disappears between me and the subject. Others I never truly connect with – I fumble with the settings, my fingers can’t find the shutter release, taking photographs ceases to be an experience, and I’m simply released when the roll of film is finished.
One key criterion for a favorite camera of mine is the ability to create intentional double exposures. Up until the 1930s, most bellows cameras with leaf shutters offer this feature – Balda, Certo, Zeiss Ikon. Even the first Rolleiflex cameras do. More details can be found in the individual camera reviews that will follow.
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What is pictorialism?
Since the end of the 19th century, there have been, broadly speaking, two main directions in photography:
- Documentary:
reality is depicted more or less faithfully to the original image. - Pictorialism:
reality is artistically distorted.
Documentary photography generally focuses on rather advanced equipment, such as a sharper lens, a film with a higher resolution, or a sensor with a higher resolution.
Pictorialism, on the other hand, is more concerned with artistic expression, the specific atmosphere, the composition, and the emotion conveyed by an image.
Most photographers, at least in their own perception, consciously or unconsciously align themselves quite clearly with one of these two approaches.
For documentary photographers, expired film, and its unpredictable image quality are anathema.
The pictorialist side revels in the unexpected, experiments with unfamiliar materials, and tries out new techniques to add another layer to what is already there.
Everything has its place. This page focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on the pictorialist application of photography, mainly with vintage cameras, mostly long-expired film, and double and multiple exposures.
Perhaps pixel peepers will also find something to enjoy. - Documentary:
