A good picture needs.......

I just got back from an afternoon in the darkroom; listening to some hits from the 1970's. Today I found out that I'm really a "retro" kind of person...... . That doesn't mean that I promote love and peace or drive a 1974 Porsche 911 Turbo..... .

It's more that I found out that all you need to take a good picture are your eyes, your brains and a camera. Even a simple one will do. I happen to take all of my photographs with a mechanical camera without light meter. I use my brains to "meter" the light and it's quite accurate still...:-).

This means that I'm able to shoot faster when light changes and there's no need to point a light meter at my subjects.

When I come home I develop my negatives and print them with an enlarger from the 1950's!

60 years have passed since this was state of the art technology but it all still works like a charm.

This just goes to show that a good picture can be made without all the gizmo's and geeky stuff that you will find on today's digital cameras.

I would say that 90% of the options on these modern cameras are quite useless. Your best camera are your eyes and brain!

I sometimes find myself looking for extraordinary or exotic subjects to photograpgh, when obvious/ simple subjects communicate the message in the same if not, a better way.

It's like the tourist visiting Rome and photographing all the sightseeings like the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, The Vatican etc., just to show that he/she was there....

I wanted to do the same but in a different way.... . This picture is very simple but I think it communicates the message in a stronger way.

I cropped this print a little but the original shows the typical Italian facade and stones of the building. Combined with the greeting cards, it leaves no questions as to where this was taken and at the same time it's not your obvious "hey we visited the Colosseum, look at us"- kind of tourist picture.

In printing this, it was really difficult to get good deep blacks in the iron postcard stand, so I had to do several exposures before I got it right...

Arriverderci!

My prints for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/fastfassie

I've decided to put my prints up for sale at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/fastfassie

René Burri and Che Guevara

Sometimes I wish was born somewhere in the 1930's so I would have been in my twenties by the 1950's and I would have been able to be part of the birth of B&W photojournalism. Among my friends I would count Cartier Bresson, René Burri, Robert Doisneau, David Douglas Duncan......but the reality is that this is 2010, I'm in my thirties and all of these masters were already working when I was still part of the cosmos. So no chance. But that's why they are museums!

Yesterday I went to the kunsthal in Rotterdam to see an exhibition of Swiss photographer René Burri. The exhibition is called "Retrospective" and shows many of his most famous photographs made over a period of more than fifty years. Burri is famous for his portraits of famous people like Che Guevara, Richard Nixon, Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso.

What I like about Burri's photographs is the human touch or the gentleness in his pictures if you like. Tragedies are not shown in a direct visual "in the face style". No dead bodies, no blood or misery is shown, as opposed to the pictures of people like Capa or even Salgado.

What remains is a gentle distance to his subjects, showing the world around them and letting the viewer interpret all that. I couldn't really find a specific style in his work but I guess his style is that he has no style, making his portfolio very diverse and attractive, both in colour and B&W.

This man definitely has the eye and his retrospective of work is no less than impressive imo. Go and find out for yourself if you have a chance!

Trapani - Processione dei Misteri

I just got back from Trapani (Sicilly) and photographed the preparations for the "Processione dei Misteri"; a catholic religious procession in which the holy story is represented in a theatrical way. The procession takes place from holy friday through saturday and is visited by people from all over the world. I will upload some photographs asap.

Some Color please!

Right, some I'm back after many months of not posting here.... Shame on me! Another year's almost over and we're heading into 2010. So how's the year been for you in terms of photography?
At least my freezer is full of undeveloped film waiting to be developed and then printed in the darkroom. People often talk to me about the hassle of having a tradtional darkroom, the work that goes into developing, printing, developing, adjusting, prining again. Honestly, I don't care and I wouldn't want to change to digital photography at this stage. Working in a real darkroom is so much more fun than sitting in front of a screen imo. It's much more rewarding. In any case I added a picture I took in Germany some years back. It's in color, shot on Fuji slidefilm. The scan's not really good I think... .

I normally don't do a lot of color but for once I thought it was nice to conclude the year with. To your health and wish you a great 2010!

Here I am!

It's been a while but I was occupied with the important and serious things in life you sometimes don't want to spend time on. As you may have noticed, the finishing of my darkroom has been delayed but I'm quite sure that it will be finished by mid-spring this year and then I will be posting much more regularly and upload many prints. Keep coming back!