Point Alpha

This is where the German/German border used to be... in fact where eastern Germany reached furthest into western Germany...

Press play :-)

Just take three different formats (large, medium and 35mm), add in black and white, colour negative and slide film, spice it up with a polaroid film back and, of course digital, throw in a flash… and two nerdy photographers have the perfect playground for a few hours of entertainment and excitement… Thanks, Thomas, it was great fun…

Back in Heuersdorf...

I have been back in Heuersdorf (the village that will disappear at the end of the year as it needs to yield to the commercial interests of open coal mining) this week… I have paid a first visit in January (see blog entry there) and wanted to re-connect with the people there and check on progress… This time I have returned with my (photographer) friend Thomas who photographed the village and the people there with his large format camera…






There was (surprisingly) a lot of (social) activity going on this weekend in Heuersdorf… (given that there are only 47 people left in the village) …for once there was a live band and dance on Saturday and a regional football game on Sunday… most touchingly, there was also a mass and (musical) prayer in the only church (Tabor church) that is still left in Heuersdorf (after the Emmaus church has been moved last year)… the mass and music was organised by a group of committed musicians from Dresden and a pastor who helped organise the resistance of the villagers… I was genuinely deeply moved by the mass and prayers…








Despite all festivities, there was clearly a sense of sadness in the air this weekend, as this summer will be the last summer of the village… by year-end all will be gone…

Specifically this is also the last summer of this lovely church before it will be deconsecrated and demolished… and I cannot even begin to describe how pensive and saddened this made me too… after all, not only brick and mortar will have to yield to commercial interests… an entire lively community will be destroyed… I am not sure whether those who made these decisions are fully aware of the consequences of their actions...

Once upon a time in New York...

This is where a short film should be posted... however, still grappling with technology...

Rejected (length of video is too long)...

OK, here it is now... I have posted it in two parts for technical reasons... really should just be one....

Rain is pouring down...

It has been incessantly raining today in New York... but even so, surprisingly I am warming up to the city...

Overheard in New York

Soundbites from the streets of New York...
A quarrelling Lesbian couple on 6th Avenue: ”From now on, I don’t want you to pick me up from work at lunch or in the evening… is that clear?”

Old man in a restaurant to a young woman: “If I could start all over again, I’d move to New York a bit earlier…”

Man shouting in his mobile in TriBeCa: “All I see is hotdog here…”

Black woman to another one close to Brooklyn bridge: “Why do you contradict everything I say? The shoes did not fit!”

Off to New York...

Off to New York to attend the inaugural photo festival...

Mother and son...

A weekend with good friends...

Car fetish...