Archives for posts with tag: images
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Chinese Whisper

July 24, 2012 //
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At the moment I have so many balls in the air, but I won’t write about any of them. Instead I will have to let you in on a secret: I am terribly superstitious when it comes to ideas and unfinished projects. I can’t talk about them! As soon as I start talking about ideas publicly, they fall to pieces or things just don’t happen. I can count on that!

One thing I can talk about now though… My book is going to be displayed at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This book fair is the biggest of its kind. It is a trade show for publishers and booksellers. There will be seven and a half thousand exhibitors from one hundred and six countries. Each of them bringing their new titles along, and among them my tiny little book, which travels in the bag of another New Zealand publisher. New Zealand is the guest of honour this year. This is a big plus. It means a lot to me, I am still a traditional publisher at heart! I remember when I was at the book fair years ago, I was always totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of titles on display. It is like the internet made visual!

Because I don’t want to talk about the finer details or my other projects, I thought I will play visual “Chinese Whispers” on my blog for a while. I will put up images that are somehow related to the previous one, but totally different at the same time. And then I will tell a little story around the image. I am curious how it will go.

Today’s image is an old letter press machine  in motion. My link to yesterday’s image is the blur: yesterday it was a  person, today it is a machine. The printer down the road has one of them (actually the one shown in the picture) and he runs weekend workshops. He asked me the other day if I can be his helper sometimes. I am very happy to do that. I still find it amazing that until the late 1970’s type was put together piece by piece to print books and newspapers. Not much had changed since Gutenberg invented the moveable letters in 1439. Imagine how people must have felt in those times, when all of a sudden a book didn’t need to be copied manually word by word, but could be put together first and then replicated as many times as needed in what must have felt in those times like lightening speed. It must have felt to them like the Internet to us now?

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Antipode

July 23, 2012 //
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Yesterday’s image was the “yang” to the old lady in the post lonely path (“yin”). The bare trees, the coldness and the male person climbing up the stairs into the light, while the old lady walks into the darkness…

When I put yesterday’s image up, I remembered this one here, which I always like for it’s colours. The image yesterday was taken in the ruins of an old castle in Germany. The castle dates back to 914 and sits on top of a volcano not far from Lake Constanze.  Meanwhile at the other end of the world, New Zealand wasn’t even inhabited by humans at this time. The first Moa-hunters arrived here around 1300. (The Moa is long gone, people are still here). The picture in this post was taken in some defense tunnels that were built into a volcano at the harbour entrance to Auckland. They were build in the 1880’s  when there was a scare of a Russian invasion.

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Categories Art, Photography

Coldness

July 22, 2012 //
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I really enjoy going through my images for my blog. Putting some up, one by one, makes me realise that I actually do have recurring themes. Loneliness and isolation obviously rate very high. But don’t send the men in white coats along, I am perfectly normal :). My images are just a counter balance to daily life, they help to de-stress.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Eerie place

July 21, 2012 //
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This image was taken at the eeriest place I have ever been to. A place called Prora. We stumbled across it by accident too, which is quite difficult, as these steps belong to a building that is 4.5 kilometres long. Yes, four point five! And worst… it is only 150 meters from the beach.

It is a concrete legacy of the crazy man that ruled Germany a life-time ago. The complex was planned as a seaside resort for 20 000 workers but was never finished. As it belonged to  the Eastern part of Germany, the Soviets established a military base in there after 1945. They dismantled some of the buildings, relocating all of the re-usable material, leaving bare brick skeletons behind when they moved out. In the late 1950’s the Eastern Germans took over and put some finishing touches on the building. It was then used as a National People’s Army camp until the Wall came down in 1989. During this time it was a restricted military zone, therefore a no go area. The checkered history continued after reunification. The German Army (Bundeswehr) utilised it for a while and it was used as a Refugee camp for people from the Balkans. In 2011 a Youth Hostel opened up.

When I was there (2007), only one of the blocks was used. It housed a museum outlining the history of the building and the history of the National People’s Army (Eastern German Army). The rest was 4.4 kilometers of gutted buildings in various states of decay.

The whole thing is like a snake. All rooms have a sea view, so the building is very narrow.  The picture below shows the seaward side.

On the side away from the sea runs a corridor and every 100 meters or so there is a staircase extension, where the washrooms are located as well. These extensions are depicted in the image below. So you walk for miles alongside this building always seeing the same thing.

This place has all the recent German history packed into it. This makes it so eerie for me.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Meaning?

July 20, 2012 //
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I leave you alone with this one today.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

A snails plight

July 19, 2012 //
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Snails are not really my favourite creepers, but I find their eyes amazing. They are constantly on the move.  I observed this one navigating her way through her world: the rough terrain of our back door steps. She had one eye carefully cast in my direction, scrutinizing my every move (not that I moved much lying flat on my tummy in the carport), and the other forwards to watch where she was going. All her observing didn’t prevent her from having an accident – A second later she had fallen down the steps. It’s good that she was wearing a helmet! It didn’t take her long to come out of her shell again and continue. Now that I am writing this, I discovered the lesson she tried to teach me: Watch out, take your knocks …and continue your journey :)

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Categories Art, Photography

Push-Push

July 17, 2012 //
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I digressed again, didn’t I?

The blog is supposed to be about the dede puppets and it is time to introduce the latest addition to the troupe: Push-Push. She is a nice enough puppet, but she is always blowing her own trumpet. If you look past the glitter, you will find she is plain boring, and doesn’t have many ideas of her own. She loves to slip into her colourful circus gear and a real transformation takes place: “Look at me, look at me, look at what I can do” she calls out.  And then she shows you tricks as old as Methuselah. “Yawn,” I say and walk away.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography, Relationships, Social Network

World view

July 16, 2012 //
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On Saturday there was a really good article in the local newspaper about How the Web messes with our minds. I should  be careful when I say really good, as we tend to like opinions that fit with our world view. We can remember things that support our own ideas much better than conflicting ideas.

Anyway, the article talks about first emerging research that the social networks can make us:

not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitised minds can scan like those of drug addicts.

It is very gloomy, more than one in eight people supposedly show an unhealthy relationship with the web. I guess this can be added to the list of alcohol, cigarettes and pain killers…

The article was in the NZ Herald, July 14, A24. Reprinted from Newsweek.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography, Social Network

Betreten verboten

July 15, 2012 //
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I find this image  typical of my childhood. The sign, right wham bang in the middle, says “Betreten Verboten“, which means KEEP OUT. This sign turns everything beyond that point into a living picture, just like a stage or TV. It is the lushest most beautiful landscape, but…  all you can do is sit and watch. Over in the distance at the edge of the trees, the little white spots is a group of grazing deer. It is  a very peaceful living picture. Of course, I know now, without the sign there would be no lush and beautiful landscape. It would be trampled all over and the deer would be scared deeper into the woods.

There were a lot of Betreten Verboten Signs scattered around my life and I believe this is one of life’s great lessons: To learn which ones need to be obeyed, which ones can be safely ignored and which ones need to be fought against.

 

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

A lonely path

July 14, 2012 //
2

This is another one of my favorite images, even though not many people I showed it to share my excitement. Actually nobody I showed it to liked it, but then I think only a handful of people have seen it so far.

I admire the old lady, holding tightly on to her handbag, striding out with great determination. Her crooked body still exudes purpose. There is no waiver in her gait. Straight down the middle, protected by spring-green chestnut trees. These trees have been around for centuries and have seen many old ladies passing by. (Yes, I do understand why other people might not get excited :)

Yesterday I had some time to do more research on the Internet regarding the puppet world. I found some amazing stuff overseas, but New Zealand looks pretty grim. There is a “Puppeteers in New Zealand” organisation. But their website (Pinz.org.nz) has a very neglected feel. There is a forum with 13 members but it is locked and the last entry was 2010.

There are of course puppeteers for children around and there seems to have been a New Zealand Puppet Theatre founded by Annie Forbes in 1984, which was going for some years. Annie Forbes, a third generation puppeteer, has moved to Australia.

The funniest thing I found was on Wikipedia (puppetry subhead oceania). There are a couple of good paragraphs about Australia and then – New Zealanders hold onto your seats!– one sentence: “In New Zealand, a similar history has taken place.” That’s it! Thinking about it now, that might be because all the good puppeteers have moved across the Tasman (see above).

I am going to finish Push-Push today.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography, Relationships
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