Industrielandschaften - Mannheim, Deutschland, November 1985

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Three years later, also on November, but on a very dissimilar mood from my previuos post, I felt an urge to shoot urban landscapes.

The Rhein (Rhine) and Neckar rivers are the home of one of the most important European inland ports, spreading around the German towns of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

I decided on medium format equipment for the task, bringing along the Hasselblad 500 EL/M and the Rolleiflex T.

Wish I had done these photographs in large format, but that was still zukunftsmusik...

So, will you please excuse me for some inaccurate perspective?

Shot with Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Rolleiflex T

Technical Data:
Cameras - Hasselblad 500 EL/M + Rolleiflex T
Lenses - Carl Zeiss Tessar, Planar or Sonnar (Distagon?)
Film - Kodak Tri-X + Ilford HP5
Developer - Kodak D-76 1+1
Location - Mannheim, Germany (last one on the border to Ludwigshafen)
Date - November 1985
Scanner - Epson Perfection 4990 Photo

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"Those Were the Days" - Schloss Lembeck, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany (November 1982)

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After reading two books by Irvine Welsh (“Ecstasy”, “Trainspotting”), I decided on one by Paul Auster (“Leviathan”).
By comparison, this last author reads a bit like “Reader’s Digest”.
It kind of misses something…

I always felt the same about my humanistic photography: it’s like ice cream with eierlikör on top, it’s like sex with a pillow.
Aiming at the higher-levels of some of my “heroes” (Josef Koudelka, Robert Frank, William Klein…), I am obliged to concede that my efforts seem to be in vain.

My images are a little too soft…

My photography lacks punch!

Wanting to widen my horizon, rucksack on my back, 2000 escudos in my pocket, I hit the road to Germany in the distant year of 1974.

I had met a german girl before, so the first town I lived in was Münster.
What a difference!

Coming from a small and forgotten little land that suffered 48 long years of dictatorship, my young naive eyes would just marvel at this open-minded world.

I felt lost and enlightened at the same time: I couldn’t really feel at home, and I didn’t want to leave and go back to the darkness where I was coming from, either.

The girl soon became my wife. She was coming from Gross Reken, a village not far from Münster, so I quickly became acquainted with Münsterland, a region that I kept admiring and enjoying through the years.

Belonging to Dorsten, Schloss Lembeck is only a short distance from Reken. When I was bothered from hanging around my parents-in-law, I often went for a visit to the Schlosspark (after that Veltins Pilsener would taste even better…).

Again and again I had a Leica with me.

Shot with Leica M4-2 + Elmarit-M 28mm

The images might be soft-spoken, but aren’t those trees beautiful?


Technical data:
Camera- Leica M4-2
Lens - Leitz Canada Elmarit-M 2.8/28mm
Film - Kodak Tri-x
Developer - Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1
Location - Schloss Lembeck, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Date - November 1982


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