Piccadilly Circus

A bus in London. While almost all photos I posted in the last months were very recent, this is a pretty old picture.

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In 1996, a lot of the telephone kiosks in London looked liked this from the inside. That's probably different today - if they still exist at all.

But I'm not sure if currently I'd like to return to the UK and check myself. It seems the authorities over there are now extremely hostile towards photography and treat every photographer as a potential felon. Definitely not something a democratic country should be proud of.

Bruce Schneier wrote a good article about this topic.

Curtains

One of those pictures I had forgotten for a long time. I don't remember why I took it but it seems I liked how the reflections of the trees interacted with the creases of the curtains.

Near London's Tate Gallery on March 27, 1996. M4-P, 35mm Summicron, Tri-X in Rodinal.

Speaking of windows again, I've tremendously enjoyed Klavdij Sluban's book "East to East" which I recently bought and which also contains several views out of windows (many of them taken from the Trans-Siberian Railway). It's a wonderful book with dark and bleak photos almost devoid of any human presence. One of my current favorites.

The only problem with great books like Sluban's is that they remind you how bad your own stuff is in comparison...

On the phone

In London's Chinatown on March 25, 1996.

The M4-P with the 35mm Summicron, Tri-X in Rodinal.

Holland Park

A Tube station in London (where else?) on March 28, 1996. This one belongs to the not too abstract category.

The old Leica with the 35mm lens and Tri-X souped in Rodinal.

The tie and the monkey

It's easy and fun to shoot billboards. Somebody already did the hard work of creating a good layout and you just have to find the right detail and frame it. Expect more to come.

This one I found in London near Euston Strret on March 27, 1996. The shutter speed on my Leica was 1/125, the aperture on my 35mm Summicron was 11, and the film was Tri-X which according to my notes I developed in Rodinal.

The jacket

Together with the shadows of the late afternoon sun, this jacket hanging off some pole in Whitechapel, London on March 27, 1996 was irresistible for me. I still like the image because it's hard to figure out what is (or was) going on. It wasn't easy to get the exposure right while shooting more or less straight into the sun, though.

M4-P with the 35mm Summicron on Tri-X, f/8 at 1/125.

Looking away

1996 at Brixton tube station in London. The woman in the middle seemed to be a bit deranged and was giving some kind of speech. All passersby tried hard to pretend they didn't notice her. This is one of a series of eight photos of this scene.

M4-P with the 35mm Summicron on Tri-X - March 28.

Zappa's last drummer

Another one of the assignments I had back then. The job was to photograph Andreas Boettger for a student magazine. I always was (and still am) a big fan of Franz Zappa, and Mr. Boettger was at that time a member of Ensemble Modern and thus ended up playing percussion on three Zappa records. That's the closest I ever got to any member or ex-member of Zappa's bands except for a brief chat with Napoleon Murphy Brock three years ago.

The whole shooting took place in a dark and cramped rehearsal room, so I was happy that I came home with at least a few usable shots. Taken with the FM2 in Hanover on January 15, 1996 on Neopan 1600 developed in HC-110. My notes clearly say that the lens was a 24/2.8 although I'm very, very sure I never owned one. Seems I borrowed one although I don't remember it.

Update: Did I really say "very, very sure"? I just looked at some other old photos taken with the Nikon (from 1994 already) and they clearly look like they've been taken with a wide-angle lens. I'll have to eat my words...

The juggler

A juggler I saw in London. I filled half a roll of Tri-X while watching his performance, but the last frame - where he takes a bow at the end - is the one I eventually liked best.

March 26, 1996 near Covent Garden with the M4-P and the 35mm Summicron - f/5.6 and 1/125.

Rain

Whether this newspaper man in London just didn't like the rainy weather or whether he didn't sell enough on that day or both, I'll never know. But certainly his expression matched what someone had painted on his kiosk.

Taken on March 26, 1996 with the M4-P and the 35mm Summicron on Tri-X. Aperture was f/5.6, shutter speed 1/125.

The Tube

While entering a subway station in London I noticed many people dashing around a corner in a hurry. I decided to skip a couple of trains, trying to capture this movement instead. I opened the aperture to f/2, set the shutter speed to 1/8, and took a shot whenever someone passed by who was particularly fast.

In spite of the slow shutter speed, I managed to get a couple of photos where the background was as sharp as it would have been with 1/125. This ain't one of them, but still I think it's the best of the series. And it eventually ended up in the BMW spread.

March 27, 1996, Leica M4-P with 35mm Summicron, Tri-X.

Lots of dead chickens

When I was in London in 1996, I also went to Brixton and there I found a market hall where I took lots of photos. One of the things I did there is something I don't do often - I asked people whether I could take portraits of them. The picture I eventually liked most is this one with the guy proudly showing off one of his chickens.

Incidentally, I promised to send him a print but managed to lose his address. On the off chance that somebody who reads this blog knows this man, please let me know how to reach him. I'd really like to send him the photo as promised and maybe he'll be pleasantly surprised to finally receive it almost 15 years later...

This is from the time where I really took lots of notes, so I know it was March 28, the shutter speed was 1/60, the aperture was f/5.6, the camera was the trusty Leica, the lens was the 35mm Summicron, and the film was Tri-X, developed by myself.

The Pretend Garden-Girl

This photo is of "historical" importance to me as it belongs to one of the few assignments I had in 1995/1996.  I was still at university working on my doctorate but at the same time I was seriously considering to work as a professional photographer and so I was happy to accept small jobs even if the payment was minuscule or non-existent. Here I was shooting a rehearsal of Mozart's La finta giardiniera at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. I shot about half a dozen rolls of Fuji Neopan 1600 using my Leica and the Nikon. (Yes, I told you I had sold it, but luckily I had sold it to my girlfriend who was so nice to lend it back to me for this occasion.) One of the photos (not this one, though) was published in the Neue Presse newspaper some days later.

This particular photo was taken with the Nikon and a 135/2.8 Nikkor lens that I had bought used shortly before I got rid of the FM2.  The date was February 14, 1996.  The film was developed in HC-110.

Fake shadows

This one's from 1996, taken in Whitechapel in London. I like the shadows in this picture, the one of the mother, the one of the traffic light that we don't see, and the fake ones of the birds on the billboard. And also how the hairdo of the little girl echoes the movement, both its own and that of the ducks.

I took six photos at the same place in a few minutes, but this is the one I like most.

Again, this is the M4-P with the 35mm Summicron on Tri-X, developed by myself. I took notes at that time, so I know it was March 27, and the shot was taken with f/16 at 1/250.