photogas

thenumbernineteen: Collaboration with Photographer, Graeme...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:56:10 +0100

Collaboration with Photographer, Graeme Vaughan for the Illuminator Online:

At the moment Berlin is cultivating a distinct international presence. It has managed to establish itself as a new mecca for young people who are searching for a different kind of air to breathe. It is a city drenched in freedom and creativity hangs thick in the air; dripping down the buildings and manifesting itself in huge works of street art found on every corner.

There is however a much darker side to the city. Here, poverty is rife.

Between Alexanderplatz and Rosenthaler Platz a man with few fingers and even fewer toes begs up and down the rows of cars that stop at the lights. His skin stretches over the lumps of bone, unsettlingly bare without the usual protrusions. His two toes, curl upwards, balancing his tiny frame. He holds his empty paper coffee cup in the crook of his wrist and when the lights turn green he delicately hops, as if he were walking on gravel, until he reaches the safety of the pavement.

Further east, on the platform of one of those stations on the way to Warschauser Strasse sat a boy unconscious, not quite a man, slumped against the wall. Like a Philip Pullman creation without its demon; his body present but his soul lost long ago. A dog or what is left of it, sits by his side. Its body forms an uncomfortable silhouette, thin like a figure of eight.

These kinds of scenes can be witnessed on a daily basis. It is however not only the people sleeping on the floor and begging in the streets who suffer as bankruptcy flows through the veins of the city, but the city itself. The city’s aesthetic reflects its state: struggling, reliant on tourism and yet to rebuild itself to a state of completion.

When seen from an aerial perspective, Berlin appears as if still ridden with the bullet holes from the war. Like wounds that never healed, vast and empty expanses of space stretch; sporadically scattered as the body of the city finds itself deprived of the architectural nourishment it craves.

Sparse and barren, miniature wastelands rest abandoned, nestled in the shadows of protective fences which shield them from the tourist’s intrusive, darting eyes. Behind the criss-cross metal grid, mounds of rubble sit in the dust and the dirt as the cracked and broken windows look down on the graffiti artists who violate their vulnerability. The grass, not green and fertile but dry and drained of colour juts from the earth, overgrown and liberated by solitude.

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Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:42:45 +0100

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Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:42:22 +0100

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Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:34:31 +0100

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Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:27:49 +0100

walks iii * Treptower Park

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:05 +0100

Treptower Park, a day of walking in the rain past abandoned fairground rides and the truly monumental soviet war memorial.

Spreepark I (formerly “Kulturpark Plänterwald”)

was open from October 1969 to 2001, now abandoned.
owned by Norbert Witte - closed with debts of €11,000,000
[in 2004 Witte was arrested for attempting to smuggle £14m of cocaine from Peru to Germany in the masts of a ‘flying carpet’ ride]

Spreepark II

Soviet War Memorial I
(May 8, 1949)
Architect: Yakov Belopolsky
to commemorate soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle for Berlin in 1945

having spent a long time wandering round the park trying to find this monument, I met two guys, Leo and Jona who told me that they were having some kind of special day, which seemed to include drinking Ouzo and chilli flavoured water. “It’s a strange feeling that I’m having now” Leo said. I’m sure he was!

soviet war memorial II

soviet war memorial III

soviet war memorial IV

walks ii * around Marzahn

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:00:42 +0100

Berlin Marzahn with a complicated history including: the first district to be conquered by Red Army forces on 21 April 1945; the site of a labour camp where Roma were interned two weeks before the Summer Olympics of 1936; and where in March 1973 the Politbüro of the SED announced the objective to build 55,000 new apartments by 1980 as a solution to the housing crisis.

Today, Marzahn has the highest number of people per household within Berlin [2.1], and the smallest average living space [32.4 sqm].

Eastgate Berlin (2005). The largest shopping centre in the eastern districts of Berlin.
Architects: Jost Herring, Klaus M Hoffman, Ragna Carstens & Enno Schmacker
Investment Cost: €150m
Sales area: 32,000 sqm

Franz-Stenzer Straße

Raoul-Wallenberg Straße

Jan Petersen Straße

Marzahner Promenade

walks I * Bibliothek Friedrichshain-Kreutzberg to Volkspark Friedrichshain

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:52:12 +0100

08/12/2011
Starting at the Bibliothek Friedrichshain-Kreutzberg….

Central Library Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (2010)
Frankfurter Allee 14a
a former school remodelled by architect: Peter W Schmidt

Velodrom (1999)
Architect: Dominique Perrault

Velodrom - towards Forum Landsburger Allee

Ernst-Fürstenberg Straße

Denkmal des polnischen Soldaten und deutschen Antifaschisten (1972)
Volkspark Friedrichshain
monument to cooperation between the communist polish people’s army and german communists in the struggle against national socialism
Sculptors: Zofia Wolkska (pl) Tadeusz Łodzian (pl) Arnd Wittig (ge) Günther Merkel (ge)

Restaurant Schoenbrunn, located in former modernist GDR pavillion
Am Schwanenteich
Volkspark Friedrichshain

ending here at the Pavillon am Hain
South-Western corner of the Volkspark.

fractionmagazine: untitled by gusmantel on Flickr.

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:15:11 +0200

fractionmagazine:

untitled by gusmantel on Flickr.

Albert Bridge Houseby E.H. Banks: 1959

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:12:15 +0200

Albert Bridge House
by E.H. Banks: 1959

Piccadilly Plaza, #2

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:48:45 +0200

Piccadilly Plaza, #2

Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester originally built by Covell Matthews...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:10:00 +0200

Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester

originally built by Covell Matthews & Partners: 1959-65
pavillion by Tadao Ando: 2002

Kendals Milne Department Store, Deansgate Manchester JS & JW...

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:25:00 +0200

Kendals Milne Department Store, Deansgate Manchester

JS & JW Beaumont, 1938
Grade II Listed
cost at time of building £750,000

(this view from King Street West)

from series manchester the modern city

night drive [A1 / M62]the road trip: an amazing thing for ...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:08:34 +0200

night drive [A1 / M62]
the road trip: an amazing thing for inspiring some of the great photographers and commentators of the modern world - from robert frank, garry winnogrand, ed ruscha and the lovely recent work of any stein. it’s just there in front of us, rolling before us - even the most dreary trips are made more lively with a camera.

CRUMPLED CITY loving these maps by Emanuele Pizzolorusso....

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:43:00 +0200

CRUMPLED CITY

loving these maps by Emanuele Pizzolorusso. perfect for those whose map skills don’t extend to folding paper! the pattern of crumpled lines on top of the map’s surface seems a great representation of those many networks of connections across our cities.. i’ll be sure to get my hands on some!

studiosocial: Just picked this up. Here in the studio we are...

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:37:18 +0200

studiosocial:

Just picked this up. Here in the studio we are becoming big fans of these titles. The detailed drawings, the often crazy explanatory text and the frankly beautiful format. There is also obviously a nostalgia trip element to these books too. Lets face it 50’s/60’s/70’s ephemera is just looking so so good right now and it’s popularity is constantly increasing . The need or want to collect, uncover or find lost and forgotten ‘treasures’ is manifesting itself in shops, online and through the rummaging in your grandparents, parents or aunts houses to marvel at that lovely piece of time encrusted ‘stuff’. It all tells a story which right now more and more of us want to hear.

urbanautica: PHOTOTALKS: 'SCOTT CONARROE'

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:12:41 +0200

urbanautica: PHOTOTALKS: 'SCOTT CONARROE':

urbanautica:

1. You photograph within a tradition in which travel or a road trip becomes part of the process. How much do you prepare regarding locating sites. Also, since the photographs are made from an elevated position I am interested to know whether you sense photographic opportunities from the ground…

"The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this..."

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:05:17 +0200

“The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be reestablished. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity, as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation. The specialization of images of the world is completed in the world of the autonomous image, where the liar has lied to himself. The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living.”

- Guy-Ernest Debord: The Society of the Spectacle (1955)

gemmathorpe: Transition - New Art Gallery, Walsall. An...

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:18:18 +0200

gemmathorpe:

Transition - New Art Gallery, Walsall.

An exhibition of photographs I took of a year of change at Walsall Manor Hospital is on now at the New
Art Gallery Walsall.

The hospital has moved from buildings up to 100 years old, to a purpose-built, and PFI-financed site. I
photographed this transition throughout 2010, focusing primarily on the sense of community at the hospital.
The exhibition runs until June 18th, and will then be installed permanently in the new hospital building
later this year.

studiosocial: After a conversation in the office about whether...

Sat, 28 May 2011 22:25:56 +0200

studiosocial:

After a conversation in the office about whether you should be able to take your car on a train we landed on this. The thought being that you could get on a train up north with your trusty motor and end up darrn sarf having relaxed etc on board a train of luxury and comfort. Now, an office visitor has actually experienced this kind of journey and it turns out that is a slight fantasy compared to his actual experience. But hey, who cares………i’m just loving the idea and the amazing pics and graphics which accompany the U.K motorail system of the 60’s and 70’s. A piece of forgotten history right there.

More bits and bobs on this wonderful idea will follow.