This is another theme used for our calendars. Spoons.
Themes are most often to be found under my nose, like in the kitchen drawer.
Complicated, no it doesn´t have to be.
I remember the printers comment, “but it is only spoons”. YES! I said, that is just the point!
Sometimes I search in shops for something useful. This time I found lavendar and these strawberries. I know it is right when I see it.
Share if you care, thank you! 😊
Over the years I have made many calendars together with my dear friend Peter Schäublin in Switzerland. A wonderful friendship that started when I attended a seminar at Sinar Cameras in Schaffhaussen. Working with view cameras, tilts and shifts etc. We met in a corridor and started talking. We still do, now as close friends for many years. Peter is a very talented photographer and also a great graphic designer. For these calendars we will come up with an idea, a theme. I do the photographs and Peter will do the rest. With the help of Stamm printers I will then receive the result by courier close to Christmas.
This selection was made with gloves of different kinds I found in a hardware store.
It all started in 1998 when I sent Peter some flower images digitally photographed. Made with a scanner back attached to my Sinar 4×5″ camera. The calendars are made as PR and can not be bought. Today we have many friends and clients that are eagerly waiting for the next edition. Always keeping a space free for it. It is large in size. It is not the calendar you put in your wallet. It measured 50×70 cm for 2015.
With the internet this is easy to do though we are far away from each other in miles. Peter is never further away than a call or a mail. Though he himself travel the world on photographic projects. The challenge every year to come up with a new idea is something we really are looking forward to. It took us until last year to do images with watches. For some reasons we didn´t start with the obvious. Switzerland is THE watch country in the world. We had other themes to cover. And there are still so many more to do.
Themes that has been covered over the years are flowers, my grandfathers old tools, watches, water guns, spoons, old toys, musical instruments, cutlery, frozen vegetables, fresh vegetables, dish brushes etc. etc. And gloves. We have great fun doing this every year as you can understand.
Finally, below, this is a small selection from how we started. For the 2015 edition we used images from a cookbook that I photographed last year. Chefs name KC Wallberg.
😊 Share if you care, thank you.
Oooops! I published before I was finished. This is the final version.
This is a blog about portrait photography, without images.
Some days ago I had a wonderful assignment photographing employees at a big advertising agency. It was many persons to be photographed and I built a small studio at the agency and stayed for three whole days. People were put on a schedule. One person every quarter of an hour.
What strikes me is the importance of an image and how difficult it can be to see oneself on a photograph. I had conversations with everybody to discuss the pictures and to find the image that were true to the person. To find the image that they were comfortable with. Sometimes it was very easy, but sometimes it was also VERY difficult. When it was easy it was like, well those are fine. You choose, it is OK with me. No problem! When it was difficult it was like, NO! Delete these!!! I don´t like my nose! Look at my double chin, can you retouch that in Photoshop? Well, I guess that is how I look. I look like my mother…
It is obvious that the person we see every day in the mirror is different from the same person in a photograph. When you leave the mirror there is no image of you any more, but the picture will stay the same whenever you look at it. At one time two girls came together to help selecting the right picture. That was a great idea! Perhaps one of them said they didn´t like the picture so much but her friend said it was a fine photograph. “You look fine, that is you”. Immediately everything was much easier and it was a simple choice. It is fine to trust a friend.
I also noted that it was more difficult for girls to see themselves then the men. But they also thought they looked fat etc. Taking time for talks they all came up pleased with at least one image. Some said ” I can live with this…”, and they made it smiling.
Being a photographer is hard when the first a person say showing up for a portrait is, ” I don´t like this”. It is just as awful as going to the dentist. !? ( What have we done to deserve theese reputations??? ) I never look good on photographs! So I explain that we will take many exposures, just to choose the best. Blinking is no problem and if you happen to make a strange face, that is no problem at all. But if you only take a few exposures at parties etc. and you blink or make a face. Well, perhaps that is what you will think.
It was great to have the conversations with everybody. Really great. This was one of the most interesting jobs that I have had in a long time because all those conversations. And everybody came up with at least one image that they liked. Personally I think many photographs showed the fine character of the many nice people and fine faces that I met. They all were made in bw. Hope to show you a selection in the future.
😊 Pelle
Going places is fun and my vision sharpens. I notice small details different from home. The light might be different. I recently wrote about my visit to Horten, Norway. I made some own photographs too. I wasn´t just looking at others.
What I notice is this. My own photographs often include traces from other people. Wear and tear, here and there. Sometimes decline. Like this small series for instance. All found in Horten during my short, early morning walks.
In the early morning, or in the evening, the light is most often more interesting. I set myself in the mood for photographing and I look at the world close to me more intense. But, it is really photographing that puts me in a mood. In the morning my senses are more alert.
I photograph what other people has left or made unknowing that it could be a nice image. I look at the world in shapes, forms, shadows, and I frame it.
I walk the streets, and I look into backyards. My eyes go up and down. I search for patterns, colors, shadows, shapes. Images to be registered with my camera.
What messages were posted on this notice board in Åsgårdstrand? By who and why? Åsgårdstrand is the place where Edvard Munch lived. Here history becomes present.
I read on a pillow in a shop window. “Today is a gift. That is why they call it the the present”.
Looking down I noticed also the manhole covers looked different from at home. Did Edvard step on this…?
Last weekend I visited Norway and the Preus Museum of Photography. In 2015 they celebrate their 20th year anniversary. It is Norways National Museum of Photography, and it is situated south of Oslo. Well worth a visit if you are interested in photography.
Norwegian photographer, founder of Preus Foto A/S, and collector. After years in the Navy he established himself as a photographer on Storgaten in Horten in 1956. Then in 196? with the help of the municipality of Horten he expanded to include a photo laboratory which at its height had over 200 employees and more than 40 photo shops across the entire country. Preus also founded the international portrait chain Color Art Photo. In 1976 he opened his Preus Museum of Photography which exhibited parts of what had gradually become his sizable collection of photographs, cameras, and books. Thus he became instrumental in directing attention to the history of photography in Norway. In 1992 he was named an honorary member of Norwegian Association of Professional Photographers. In 1994 the Norwegian government bought Preus Fotomuseum as the basis for the future national museum of photography. Leif Preus was the museum’s first director from 1995 through February 1998. In 2003 he was named Knight, First Class, of the Order of St. Olav for his work.
Here you will find unique cameras, like the one owned by Edward Munch the famous Norwegian painter. His house is not far away from the museum. You will also find images by the great masters and a unique library.
In the fantastic library you will find some books not to be found anywhere else in the world. Some including original prints.
If you would like to know more, and I highly recommend you to, visit their site. http://www.preusmuseum.no/eng
Every month a new photographer is presented on the «Wall of Fame» – the innermost wall in the anniversary exhibition From Vision Machines to Instagram. Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) devoted himself to photographing a dying culture, the North American Indians. His images will be displayed during the month of May. These are original prints!
The museum is a living museum and the premises are just beautiful in this harbour area in Horten, Norway. Go there!
Finally I am proud to tell you that I was the first Swedish photographer to exhibit in his museum. But that was years ago.
😊 Pelle
In my presentation to this blog I write that I am a food photographer, and I am. But so far I have showed anything but photographs of food. So here is a small sample. Enjoy!
😊 Pelle
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32129342
BBC is a good source for information about photography and arts.
Mobile phones are useful not only for talking, sending messages or taking selfies. It is not about the most expensive camera, the longest lens etc. I like this! Good images are good images. The best camera is said to be the one that you take with you.
My own images were made in Paris. Not with a phone.
http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-27661889
More interesting from BBC about photography and art. YES, photography is an art form! But like with all art, I don´t HAVE to like it. And when everything is art, nothing is….? Sometimes being a professional within a trade/media that is also used in creating art can be tricky, I must admit. Well, after all, I decide!
Perhaps.
Just a walk in the rain.
Felt good this spring day. Rain, sun and cold. All at once.
I found this article about photography and images on BBC. Written by Phil Coomes, picture editor.
Many questions and not so many answers. Just like my blog. But thinking and contemplating about things is good, I think.
On a photographers mind 