Category: Features

Another throw-back project.

This time from 2016, the Fotomarathon – theme: Nervous Systems.

This is the original blog-post I wrote after just having won it . . . 

Nervous Systems

Can our inner thoughts be transmitted by our eye movements? 

Can our future actions be predicted by our current behaviour?

Almost certainly: New York Times – How companies learn your secrets.

Any new technology brings a wealth of challenges for society, as it begins to alter previous behaviours, and the embracement of digital technologies is no different, particularly regarding the ease at which data can now so easily be collected and analysed, searching for patterns, all in the cause of the corporate balance sheet.

It is both a blessing and a curse, as we enjoy the benefits of an App based economy, but often at the cost of our privacy.

This fotomarathon was part of the “Nervous Systems – Quantified Life and the Social Question Exhibition” at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, an exhibition concerning itself with these questions.

HKW – Nervous Systems

Fotomarathon

Competing

If you wanted to bake a cake, you wouldn’t just blindly reach into the food cupboard and grab the nearest items, throw them all in a bowl together, stick it in the oven for an indiscriminate amount of time and just hope for the best.

It would almost certainly not even be edible and at worst you could quite easily end up on a murder charge using the above method.

“M’lud, it is a clear case of wilful poisoning . . . ”

Surely a little preparation could avoid a multitude of costly blunders.

And what if it were a cake baking competition? 

Surely it would be advisable to do a little research concerning previous years winners first, then pick a good recipe and make sure you had only the best ingredients, and  above all, to do a few practice bakes before the big day?

Well, that’s how I approached the 2016 Fotomarathon Berlin.

Preparation is everything.

1: Above all, know your subject.

HKW – Nervous Systems

So I went to the exhibition just a couple of days after it first opened and immersed myself in it, reading as many of the exhibits as possible, and just before I left I went for a coffee and jotted down a few notes and ideas that had occurred to me.

I now had 2 weeks in which to see what my subconscious came up with.

2: Read the rules and understand them.

Fotomarathon: Rules

Fotomarathon: Conditions

It’s not only about complying with them, it’s about understanding the limitations they set you and how best to confront that.

For example knowing that the pictures had to be taken in chronological order, but realising that there were only 5 hours in which to take 6 photographs, but that included all travelling and breaks for refreshment, so realistically there were really only 3 photography hours available, so, finding a location where it should be possible to find solutions to the 6 tasks was extremely important.

I spend a week cycling around the area scouting the various possibilities and decided that the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) almost certainly offered the most promising opportunities.

3: Develop some ideas

Fotomarathon: Competition handout

Just brainstorm and write every last stupid idea down and then take a handful of the best, see if they are feasible and are flexible enough to be adapted for a range of different problems.

4: Don’t leave anything to chance.

Fotomarathon: Tips

Prepare everything the evening before, so that on the day you can concentrate totally on the tasks at hand.

5: It’s always about capturing a good photograph

Fotomarathon – Nervous Systems: Themes

My start number: 592

1: We are the product (Wir sind das Product)

This was an idea I had planned out, I was reasonably certain that I could use it somewhere because the main theme was digital data and the fact that it is being collected and analysed by other people, so, to incorporate an all seeing eye seemed quite obvious.

But it didn’t actually start like this, originally I’d planned to use a children’s torch and bits of this and that, and project something onto my face – I studied design and I’m a chronic DIYer.

But none of it worked, because it was either too complicated, or not bright enough, or worse still, it just wasn’t interesting.

So I screwed on a macro-conversion-adapter and zoomed right into my eye and suddenly noticed that I could clearly see all the reflected lights in it.

That was my “Eureka” moment, when I thought of using the iPad to project a word into my eye.

I made a rough test in Photoshop to see if it even worked, and then set about finding an App that I could use on the day and practiced using it, until I could do it in my sleep.

But even so, it still didn’t have the quality I was looking for, because of the limitations of the macro-conversion-adapter I was using, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a dedicated macro lens for the camera, a decision I haven’t regretted, because not only did it solve all the problems I was having with the taking of this photo, but it’s opened up a completely new world of photography for me.

Anyway, upon seeing the list of themes it was clear that I would easily be able to adapt the idea for the first task “we are the product” and just project my start number using my iPad onto my eye.

Unfortunately just as the competition started, I was overcome by an intense hunger which almost prevented any coherent thought, but I was lucky enough to get it quickly under control by clever use of the phrase “Big Mac and Fries please”, and I was also able to use the time productively by simultaneously preparing the graphic I would need.

It all went to plan, and I thought that the final result would look wicked enough to grab everyone’s attention, because who else would have anything like it? 

So, I’m extremely pleased with the final photo.

2: Everything to share? (Alles zu teilen)

Everything? 

Absolutely everything?

Even distress and lack of knowledge?

What a bit of luck I’d printed out those Facebook type “Likes” the evening before then.

I thought something like that may come in useful in an emergency.

I had intended maybe asking pedestrians to hold them up against something they either liked or disliked, but upon seeing these two buttons next to each other there, I far preferred the more obscure meaning.

So I stuck my “Likes” quickly to the surface and ignoring the booming metallic voice coming over the station PA ordering me to stop, I quickly took the picture I needed and disappeared into the crowd.

3: Data slingshot (Datenschleuder)

What is a data slingshot? 

Something that slings data at you I expect, and a modern rail station is just full of huge amounts of data that have to be collated and displayed in an understandable form so that travellers can find their way from A to B to  . . . Z with the minimum of effort.

I had tried taking interesting photos at odd angles of all the modern displays, giant, sterile LED screens, high up on walls and easy to read, but they were always somehow lacking the human dimension.

Modern street photography is often hampered by the very people you are trying to capture, because you need everyone to sign a model release before you even click the shutter, which robs the shot of all its spontaneity, and so much street photography is now just the backs of peoples heads, and it’s very difficult to capture a real moment whereby the face isn’t actually important, and I felt this was one of them, because it’s something we’ve all seen before and done ourselves, leaning into the timetable, and here I loved the reflection of both people in the glass.

4: Movement profile (Bewegungsprofil)

I found this difficult, but I eventually thought that you would only have a profile if you were being watched, so, I had to find a good interesting shot with a camera of some sort in it together with people, and after searching high and low for something suitable I came upon this.

The bright background of the station glass facade I found interesting in itself, certainly better than just a plain surface, it gives it texture and it also puts everything else into silhouette, which I felt gave the whole picture an anonymous feeling, everyone is being watched and that therefore everyone has a profile.

I had to stand there though for about 15 minutes taking different photos from slightly different angles and of different people on the escalator until I got the shot I wanted, and I’m very pleased I did.

5: Flying under the radar (Durchs Raster fallen)

This picture is an excellent example of how important luck can be in a competition like this, and not just the once, but twice.

But you have to be aware of it when it crosses your path, for there is a great truth in the old adage: You make your own luck.

I was on my way to the Hauptbahnhof with all the themes running through my mind, when I cycled past this bridge with all the tents and other vagrant’s belongings under it, and so I made a mental note that it could come in useful if I couldn’t find anything more suitable, because how much further can you fly under the radar than living under a bridge on a bench?

And as it happened I couldn’t find anything better, so I cycled back and went to take the best shot I could of it all, but what I lined up just wasn’t working, so I decided to try zooming right in on something specific, so I changed the lens to a telescopic zoom, but with an initial wider angle, and as I held the camera to my eye I saw the shadows that hadn’t been there earlier in the day, or with lens I’d originally been using, I immediately thought “wow, that’s it !!!” and here it is.

6: Covering tracks (Spuren verwischen)

How do you cover your tracks? and if they are that well covered, is there anything left to photograph anyway?

The point of it all is, that using anything digital will always leave a data trail, so surely the answer would be to use a public means of communication.

There aren’t many of these left now, but there are still some at the Hauptbahnhof, and where better to lose yourself than in a crowd of anonymous travellers?

I took the phone off the hook to give the impression of it just having been used by “the Shadow” and took the shot at an odd angle with a wide aperture using the “expressive” filter to bring out the contrast of the only two colours in an otherwise very grey metallic scene.

Conclusion

And was it all worth it?

Seemingly so, at the end of the event there was a slide show of all the entries, after which all the participants voted for the best photo-series and apparently mine was the clear winner (no, I didn’t vote for my own), mine was judged to be the people’s favourite and I went home with a new camera bag.

Fotomarathon: Report

And now it’s fingernail-biting time to see which 6 photos the judges will pick for the exhibition as part of the European Month of Photography festival.

All in all though, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

EMOP

Art Zeit Magazin

Fotomarathon: Exhibition

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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Twelve hours

. . . . Six themes

. . . . . . . .Eighteen photos

. . . . . . . . . . . . Four checkpoints

• 

2017 

A throwback project, but something I’m still very proud of, winning the Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017.

It’s all well and good wandering the streets for months on end, waiting for something of interest to happen, or coming across an interesting motif, but that’s all chance, of being in the right place at the right time, and you have years to curate a final set of images.

And given enough time and a powerful enough suite of editing programmes anyone has the opportunity to radically improve their collection of rather uninspiring images, and transform them into something more palatable.

The challenge

But nothing is more challenging than a photo race, a set of of related themes to interpret visually within a given set time, with little or no opportunity for even the most basic of editing.

Such a race stresses all your creative abilities as a photographer: brain-storming, recognising the potential in any given situation, the rules of composition, storytelling . . everything compressed into minutes instead of weeks or months.

It’s not easy, which is probably why no celebrated street photographers ever enter, because it’s a lot harder than it looks.

1st Place – Andrew James Kirkwood

Here are the themes from the UPR 2017 and my solutions . . .

Theme 1 – Poor but sexy

Theme 2 – Hungry hearts

Theme 3 – Break the rules

Theme 4 – Time traveller – Winner of best in theme

Theme 5 – Tear down this wall – Ronald Reagan – Winner of best in theme

Theme 6 – Nowhere

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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Every country celebrates itself, usually in the form of monuments and statues celebrating important events and figures from its past, and war heroes usually loom large in these collections of shared memory.

But as everyone knows, Germany has a rather difficult relationship with its past, particularly with its war heroes, understandably there are very few, and certainly none from the 20th century.

But one place they can be found is at the Grosser Stern, three of them:

Otto von Bismarck, Albrecht von Roon and Helmuth von Moltke.

Each casting a proud look over the Siegessäule – the Victory column – a monument commemorating victories in the latter half of the 19th century, against Denmark, Austria, France: the wars of unification, in which they all played a pivotal role.

Together they were responsible for bringing the German Empire into existence, making Germany the leading power in continental Europe, and this ensemble is a fitting monument for these three giants of 19th-century European affairs.

But hidden away almost out of sight at the back of the Tiergarten there is a second collection of statues dating from this very same period, celebrating more ordinary scenes, of families, wives and children bidding tearful farewells to fathers, off to join a war, another depicting a group of comrades in the thick of battle – monuments to the ordinary man and woman.

And yet somehow the general condition of these two groups of statues displays an odd disparity, because whereas the Field-Marshals and ex-Chancellor, who all died of old age, are kept in pristine condition, the golden cannon of the Victory Column not only reflecting the sun, but also the regard in which these three aristocrats are still held; the men, who did the actual fighting, who frequently suffered death, appalling injuries and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) are in a wholly different condition.

Hidden among the trees, covered in mildew, they are in varying states of disrepair, reflecting the horrors they were collectively subjected to, all missing their inscriptions, plinths full of bullet holes, one collection of figures missing large pieces of stonework including arms and heads, as though suffering a direct grenade hit.

This state of disrepair being itself the result of the intense hand to hand combat, that took place in the Tiergarten during the last days of the Second World War.

The juxtaposition of these two groups makes for a powerful statement about society, the obvious effort that has gone into the polishing of its founding father’s visual authority, while the people who made the enabling sacrifice, are hidden away, neglected and largely forgotten.

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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Rocktreff 2019 im Volkspark Mariendorf – Samstag, 15. Juni 2019

For a two-man rock band Waldmeister ist Retro is remarkably versatile, they have a fantastic raw sound, and visually they are the real deal, and as their name alludes to, this is retro rock at its best.

My only criticism is that they seem to have specialised in writing German texted material, and although I rarely actually listen to lyrics, even when they are sung in English, it slightly spoilt my enjoyment.

I listen to lyrics as though they were just another instrument, I really don’t care what anyone is singing about, but to my British ears, brought up on a diet of 50 years of the finest modern music,  German just isn’t a natural language for rock music, it’s too structured, it isn’t flexible enough, and otherwise good melodies are often compromised as strings of ill sounding verbs have to be squeezed in at the end of each line of text, for the lyrics to make any sense.

But they are a local band, for a local audience, and I doubt whether they have their sights set on an international career anyway.

My musical snobbery notwithstanding, they are a fantastic band to see live, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them at this small local festival, which I hope these images convey.

http://www.waldmeisteristretro.de/

https://www.facebook.com/waldmeisteristretro/

YouTube

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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Red and white: architect Rainer G. Rümmler was responsible for the distinctive design and look of most of the U-Bahn stations in Berlin built or refurbished between 1970 and 1996, and among these is Altstadt Spandau lying on the U7 subway line through Berlin, fourteen meters below street level.

Rümmler often took inspiration for his designs from the station names themselves, and this one is no exception, the contrasting red and white tiled interior reflects the colours of the Spandau coat of arms.

The station first opened in 1984 and was awarded heritage listing in 2017 together with six other U7 stations.

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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There can’t be many places left in Berlin where you can experience the might of Germany’s industrial past in a very visceral sense, most of it was bombed out during the last world war and now resides as part of one of the many hills surrounding the city, huge mountains of bomb-debris, and it has all since been replaced by more modern structures, but the 50-meter iron rail-bridge spanning the river Spree at Friedrichstraße is surely one of them.

The bridge, first built in 1882 to carry four tracks of rail traffic over the river Spree, still largely reflects its 19th-century construction, the original arch-spans were made of puddled steel riveted together with heavy dome-headed rivets, which is still the dominant impression.

Although only 2 of these original arches still exist, the others having been replaced with more modern girders during renovations to the bridge in the 1990s to accommodate ICE rail traffic, they were however manufactured to closely resemble the originals they were replacing.

It’s one of my favourite photography locations, because hidden within is a pedestrian walkway enabling access to the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station from the other side of the Spree at the Schiffbauerdamm entrance.

The riveted iron structure, dark grey in colour,  in almost permanent shadow, creates a very texture-rich and moody backdrop, with plenty of character, perfect for edgy black and white street photography, offering a perfect background to contrast against a wide variety of foreground subjects.

This is where 60s Hollywood cool can meet industrial downtown Berlin and shine.

Image gallery

Photosphere

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• Fotomarathon, Berlin 2016
• Urban Photo Race, Berlin 2017
• Micro Location: Graffiti
• The Crack In The Pavement
• Satan’s Pile
• Heroes, some remembered, most forgotten
• Waldmeister ist Retro
• Altstadt Spandau U-Bahn station
• Concrete, where architecture meets climate change
• That industrial look
• City glass, a very public gallery
• The Hauptbahnhof, a monument to success

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© Andrew James Kirkwood – 2024

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