June 2003
Dear Pointers and shooters,
"It was a dark and stormy night..." It was, really! Germany is in the middle of a heatwave with regular as clockwork thunderstorms which are usually accompanied by very strong winds causing considerable havoc. And since Summer also means I´ve got a bit of time on my hands I´m spending a lot of it in my jocks sweating in an airless darkroom trying to get the Industrial Landscape portfolio together.
But, I managed to make time to get out last weekend to shoot something else as the city was invaded by a wave of another sort: the "Dark Wave Gothic Festival"...20,000 freaks (thank you Patrick B. White, American teacher, for that label). It´s the biggest of its kind in Europe and possibly the world, and this year was their 12th gathering here in Leipzig. Caught this lovely couple at the train station (that´s a bloke on the right, ok?). Don´t be misled by the costumes - they are mostly quite harmless, and there´s never any trouble - hardly an extra cop in sight. I say mostly because deep at the core there are a few "members" who take it quite seriously and you really don´t want to know what they get up to - even some of the symbols they wear are apparently linked to those used by Nazis, but were origionally taken from ancient pagan rituals - however your average Goth doesn´t know much about this. They just like to dress up and hang out listening to bands, getting plastered and falling asleep in cemetaries (well, at least it was the weather for it). Anyway, they pose very willingly.
One more thing: If, as good loyal readers do, you have a stack of old PMs lying around, could you please dig out a few articles that I´m missing from a portfolio I need for a show based on my (first?) five years in Europe: May 99 - a guy with a bag of coal, June 99 - a Gypsy girl with a bunch of flowers, and February 2000 - a portrait of a worker, and send them to Bob at the PM. I could also do with a new jar of Vegemite.
Vielen dank (= ta),
Dean