October 2004
Hi lovers (and ex-lovers)
I´m sitting in a very hi-tech internet cafe in a small town near the Polish border. This is, or was, a coal mining town, but now the centre of a region with the highest unemployment rate in Germany - something about 25% by conservative estimates. Since the end of the GDR, exactly 15 years ago, thousands of workers have lost their jobs due to the loss of markets in Russia and the modernisation of mining equipment and the takeover by a huge Swedish energy company. I´m not sure of the exact number, but I guess there are at least 50 mines, of which only 4 still operate. This means the landscape is a bit of a mess. But...mega bucks are being poured in to restore the old sites. There´s an idea that it can be cleaned up and turned into a tourist attraction - lakes and forests, hunting and fishing and farmland. Well, some are skeptical that it will ever be worth it - it´s gonna take 30 or 40 years for a start - by which time energy demands (see the oil crisis...) may mean that they´ll turn around and dig it all up again with more advanced technology to get at what´s left and the even deeper layers that they can´t efficiently get at at the moment.
For now however, and for me, there´s a surreal landscape that needs to be photographed. After spending the day teaching the engineers and secretaries the world´s most wonderful language, I change my duds and head off on my trusty mountain bike across these places in search of the special constellation of form and light (and all that stuff that makes a picture work). Since we are getting into Autumn the time is tight, light is running out faster and faster. But I know my way around enough now to select one place and get there as fast as I can. Been lost more than once (use a compass now), been caught in a few storms, run out of time and had scary rides back through some dodgy spots...but getting some good material. More on that later.
Meanwhile, weddings! I´m not exactly keen on these things personally, and don´t go out of my way to shoot them, but for friends...ok, I´ll do the job if asked. The average commercial standard for such things here seems to me to be way way behind what my esteemed colleagues at home can do, so I figure I can´t do much harm. Basic approach is not too standard since I look at it as a reportage activity - works for me and I usually get the shot. The happy couple here, Andreas and Bernd ( don´t ask which one is the woman), asked me and I couldn´t refuse. First because they are both lovely people, and secondly cos it was a bit of an unusual event. I used my EOS 5 with the 50mm and the increasingly appealing Fuji Neopan 400. A photgrapher buddy asked if it was medium format so it scores yet another point in my search for a replacement for the old Tri X (still haven´t completed my tests of the new version, but it´ll have to be damned good to get me). It was a perfect day too, and nobody pinched my bum.
Other stuff - as my contribution to a group exhibition called "Ex-lover", I´ve just hung (err, leaned against the wall cos it was too heavy) my biggest work ever: Photos glued on a sheet of steel, 1700 x 1700 x 3mm which needed four guys to carry it, and sprayed it with my blood during the opening drinks - maybe requires some explanation, but another time. Someone said it needed the "splash of colour" anyway. Whatever.
Tell you about my website next time.
It´s freezing here - time to go to the Irish pub for a pork steak, a beer and (maybe) an early night.
Prost,
Dean