A key step in moving towards completion of an Assignment is to assemble the first set of possible photographs and pin them up for contemplation. My pin board is a 30" monitor, but the process is the same. I look at the set several times a day adding and subtracting, changing the processing a little, and even heading out to retake the photograph if I feel it is necessary. I am actually pretty happy with what I have now and think I am starting to build a photo essay of Richard-Strauss Strasse. 11 photographs is not a novel, more an editorial, so the essay will be short and perhaps simple, but interesting and hopefully challenging.
I have also road tested a number of the images on the Flickr student forum, which must be done with care, however, I take an interested response there for a good sign that an image is working at some level. I am also very grateful for a quick dialog with Clive that basically concluded that like it or not now is time to commit and finalize this assignment. Another useful comment was advice from a fellow student to first of all get on with it (thanks Pete), but also to keep the same aspect ratio on the photographs which will drive a greater sense of narrative flow than continually changing. I agree and with that this set is becoming a big departure from my former practice of almost arbitrary cropping coupled with colour rather than mono.
Today, I also managed to do a little more photography. A couple of potential images needed a rework, a wider angle lens was needed so I pulled my 7-14mm (14-28mm in real money) out of the drawer and revisited a couple of sites. This was also a welcome relief from a very tough workload at the moment. I started work this morning at 5am, stress was keeping me awake, so I just got up a got on with it. Better to deal with the problem than fret over it. Walking with camera in hand and a mission in mind is an antidote to most things.
So here are is my working set of 19 possibles:
Technically this is not such a good image, I struggle to balance both sides of the photograph, however, I think it is very telling. I chose this door bell box at random, then looked at the names. Out of the 12, at least 5 are non-German. This points to the multi-ethnic make up of the street and Munich in General. The pieces of paper also point to low rent, smarter places have nice little brass plaques.
I struggle a little with what this is supposed to say, but I like it as an image, the scooter hints at a younger mobile population with a sense of fun. The dour doorway hints again at a lower rent area.
Just around the corner on the side of one apartment block, this photo shows how people make their tiny balconies into a small garden, we all need space and air. I think this points to the sense of place people have and the need to mark a place as their own
My wide angle permitted a different look to some photographs, this is one I reworked today. The strange bench points to a community with creativity, the building behind, well glass and steel, very German.
Another wide angle rework of an image I had previously taken. I want to look behind the facades in my strip photo, to show more detail of where people live. The building is very striking and alone would be interesting but no more. The Apotheke sign in the foreground is important as it shows how organized life is here and also suggests a slightly hypochondriac mentality, there are chemists everywhere here.
This juxtaposes disorder with order, a tiny blot on an otherwise pristine world. I think this photo might be important to break the orderliness of other photos. The problem is that it is very much like the strip images.
Non-negotiable, this simply makes me laugh, I keep thinking off what would happen if it really toppled. Ick. These little blue portaloos are everywhere here, they sprout whenever some building work is beginning, they are a direct sign of wealth and perhaps the need to continually update the quality of the buildings that make up the street
Another sign of the times is this estate agent. This was an empty office a year ago. Estate agents are very uncommon here, to see one on a main street is very unusual. The temporary nature of the sign and lack of any refurbishment of the building suggest that this is an opportunistic and temporary presence, but it does reflect the gradual upmarket move of the area.
German word for Shark is Hai. I am a diver, this amuses me, but otherwise is a rather dull picture. What is more telling is that the full work would be Hair, Germans increasingly turn to English for words to make the dull sexy.
Better, than the last one, this has a few potential meanings. The first is that they left the dog on its own outside, no one would ever steal a dog and no dog here would be badly behaved neough not to be left alone for a while. Most supermarkets support a bunch of bored looking dogs waiting patiently for their human to finish the shopping.
One of my thoughts for this set is to use photographs of people in place of people. Imagery is everywhere, advertising thrusts faces at us.
Another sign, this time an advert for a Bavarian group, tradition is alive and well here, supporting a rather slapstick comedic genre. Fly posting is very illegal and quite rare, instead utilities often place a poster container on their various access points and sell the space for advertising. Mostly for cultural events.
Fun play on words, but one done nervously. Einfahrt (entrance) has been subverted with a W to make it a Weinfahrt, but they pulled their punches and used brackets to make sure no one was confused. A keeper I think.
Doubt that I will keep this, but it is an interesting symbol of change. Germans don't do a weekly shop, they buy a little food 2 or 3 times a week, freshness is highly valued, especially bread. The result is that we have far more but smaller supermarkets. This is a real change, Internet grocery shopping with delivery to the door, a real change for this country. The shops all close at 8 here, but deliveries are permitted until 10 - unheard of!!!
Another keeper, Marxist-Leninism in a modern market economy, great. Or perhaps simply that the EU elections bring out all flavours of extreme politics.
Alternatively there is the appeal of the highly traditional
One question that I must answer soon is whether to actually include people or not. So far people are absent. Legally the issue is with obtaining prior permission to show a face that is prominent in an image. Someone who is incidental to a landscape photograph is OK, as is the back of someone's head. The only German Street photographer that I know is Siegfried Hansen, the people in his images are always somehow obscured. I need to think about this, but if I do allow people into the photos, this is a one for inclusion, it carries many messages about health.
This is also a little fun, showing a little more of the structure of the street and also the German desire to be green manifesting in transporting a bed on a bicycle.
This photographs, might be marginal as we can see her face, but it is very small. Not sure about the graphical quality of this shot,but the cigarette in each hand points to a very german vice.
Well there we go, a first stab at narrowing down to a manageable set from which to develop my assignment submission. 2 more days to go before I spend Saturday writing up my submission notes and sending in this assignment. Then I will do that very Bavarian thing and enjoy a liter mug of beer or two and a large piece of a pig.
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