The Joy of Being Photographed

Even without speaking the people's language, it was easy to put more joy onto the faces of my subjects whenever I wanted to. Simply by showing the first picture on the display, then take another one.

Some Kind of Burner Portrait

This is a portrait of a burner, however I didn't take this at the festival. The story is that my visit to Burning Man seems to have a much longer lasting effect then I would have expected. Because of my pictures, more and more burners get in touch with me. Now if you are not familiar with BM, you probably don't know what this means. I'm happy to share my impressions: the people you meet there are people of the most creative, kindest, and entrepreneurial kind - 50,000 of them. This has all been very interesting to me so far. The lady in the picture is a photography student. She contacted me on Facebook and then "booked" me for a 1-on-1 course to learn about my approach to picture-taking.

In the picture below you see Alex and Yanina. Alex and Yanina got married at Burning Man. I didn't know about them until their best friend Laurent contacted me to ask about the Bliss Dance photo. In a virtual way, I accompanied Laurent during his quest seeking for the best way to make a wedding present out of it. The result is a print on metallic paper behind 1/4 inch Plexiglas. Receiving this photo kind of made my day. Not sure how to explain this. I very much enjoy looking at the contrast between the day I took off to the dessert not knowing what to expect, and today, when looking at the positive ripple-effect it still has.

Burner Portrait IV

You can find more Burning Man images here.

Burner Portrait III

She was dancing into the sunrise to some chill electronic music.

The first two Burning Man portraits are here & here.

"About me" Page & Burner Portrait II

You might have already noticed that my little website here was lacking of an "About" page. This has changed now. You find it right here.



Another portrait from Burning Man:
I met this guy inside an interesting three story Asian looking building.

The Joy of Riding a Giant Fly

I believe only very few among us know what this is like.

Burner Portrait I

For this picture I used the truly fantastic Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens.

New Series - Prison Chess

This new series is the first serious documentary project I dared doing.
All pictures were taken in 2008 and 2009 while accompanying Princeton University students to chess events in a maximum security prison in Trenton, New Jersey. What I tried to document was not the events. I focused on portraying the prisoners and their thoughts about the game. I hope you find it interesting.

South New Yorkers

April 2009.

From a walk on Coney Island. CI has a somewhat special atmosphere during off season times. Probably because it is so old and appears so abandoned then. April is somewhere in between. You can already watch people, but it's not as crowded as during summer. I don't know what else to say. People I brought there either appreciated the experience or seriously disliked this place. You have to be there and experience it to do either of those.

Making Music

A Venice Beach portrait.

I got lots of good Holga shots back from the store, basically one roll of black and white, and one roll of color film. This is one is the first color picture. There are also more Lensbaby results on my hard disk from last Sunday. I'm not sure what it is, the imperfect optics of these toys that make photographing so easy going, or simply the fun of using something new..I might keep posting daily now for a while.

Prison Chess Portrait - Miguel Suarez

You can find more about this here.

Prison Chess Portrait - Alonzo "Lonnie" Hill

After a longer break, I'm now starting to post prison portraits again. Soon I will have posted everything, and the series will be complete. As usual, here the link with more background information about the project.

Steffi and the Canon 7D

The 7D is a great model - and Steffi too.

Jimmy

Spontaneous picture taking outside the Tower Bar, San Diego.

Referee

Mind Reader

There he is! Suddenly popped up in 2009.

Prison Chess: Earl M. Hammud

More information about this project can be found here.

Franz enjoying a cigarette

East Village.

Prison Chess: "Knowledgeable" James

More information about this project can be found here.

Prison Chess Portrait ("Leo" Kimpton)