I've been thinking.
I am 21 years old. Two years away from the perfect age. I live in a houseshare with four other people. Idiots, but artists. I go to a prestige University in south England, transferring to an even more prestige University in south London in September. I had the chance to move to California for 4 years, if money didn't matter. I am single and relatively enjoying it. I have enough male friends to randomly start affairs, but won't do it because I like them too much. I also have people on another continent caring about me, sending me birthday presents, although we won't be seeing each other for another year. I have the best friend back home you can ever imagine. I have friends in other countries who come to visit me only to drink gin with me at the beach. I have two people here who come to my place only to eat ice cream with me so I'm not alone. I have the chance of having amazing housemates for the next three years, if things actually work out the way they should. I could be super famous by the age of 30, making thousands every time I sell one picture. I have every chance in the world.
Yet, I am still unsatisfied.
Sunday 26 April 2009
Sunday 19 April 2009
I'm not scared
It's been a while again, life here is busy.
News in sentences.
I got into Calarts. They offered me a $8000 scholarship, which is awesome, but not enough to actually go there. Now I'm hoping for my masters in California. A girl can dream, right?
I accepted Camberwell, finding a flat/house is harder then expected. Moving in with Jedrezj, that incredibly talented photographer from my course, hopefully Lisa and maybe another girl who's doing Illustration. Could be good, could also be too much. I'm excited for Camberwell, although it will never be CalArts.
But they apparently have an exchange program with New York City, I'm dreaming.
Summerplans are ruined thanks to stupid tenancy regulations in London. We'll have to find a flat in August instead of May, meaning I won't be able to go on my 3 months cross country road trip. I kind of knew that it would go wrong, yet again, I was dreaming. Now I'm left with three, sort of four other possiblities. Either Thailand or India for 5 weeks in July/beginning of August, eastern Europe by train for 5 weeks or a reduced 5 week road trip through the US. Last possibility is kind of out because I told myself either do it properly or not at all. So I'm left with Thailand, India and eastern Europe and totally clueless. Thailand seemed very attractive yesterday, today it's eastern Europe.
Professional wise, things are going good, I think. I had to give my work into the hands of a professional printer because my standards are too high and because I want/got offered a bigger exhibition space than the other people in my group show. So now it's waiting.
Picture post is coming up eventually, right now I just want to get things over with, then I'll start uploading low res files to flickr. Oh, and maybe even my own homepage, depending on when Murat and me are getting around on doing it.
News in sentences.
I got into Calarts. They offered me a $8000 scholarship, which is awesome, but not enough to actually go there. Now I'm hoping for my masters in California. A girl can dream, right?
I accepted Camberwell, finding a flat/house is harder then expected. Moving in with Jedrezj, that incredibly talented photographer from my course, hopefully Lisa and maybe another girl who's doing Illustration. Could be good, could also be too much. I'm excited for Camberwell, although it will never be CalArts.
But they apparently have an exchange program with New York City, I'm dreaming.
Summerplans are ruined thanks to stupid tenancy regulations in London. We'll have to find a flat in August instead of May, meaning I won't be able to go on my 3 months cross country road trip. I kind of knew that it would go wrong, yet again, I was dreaming. Now I'm left with three, sort of four other possiblities. Either Thailand or India for 5 weeks in July/beginning of August, eastern Europe by train for 5 weeks or a reduced 5 week road trip through the US. Last possibility is kind of out because I told myself either do it properly or not at all. So I'm left with Thailand, India and eastern Europe and totally clueless. Thailand seemed very attractive yesterday, today it's eastern Europe.
Professional wise, things are going good, I think. I had to give my work into the hands of a professional printer because my standards are too high and because I want/got offered a bigger exhibition space than the other people in my group show. So now it's waiting.
Picture post is coming up eventually, right now I just want to get things over with, then I'll start uploading low res files to flickr. Oh, and maybe even my own homepage, depending on when Murat and me are getting around on doing it.
Sunday 22 March 2009
10 Dollar
Mind shopping list for myself. Just to note how much electrical bullshit I still need to by. Prices are Amazon prices.
Sekonic lightmeter 258.06
Polarising filter 22.79 (instead of 104, I should maybe use that as an advantage and order soon)
Metz flash gun 321.45
Manfrotto tripod 133.95
and eventually, once I will set up my own lab
Enlarger 546,21 plus all the chemicals/paper and wet stuff that comes with it.
I have no idea how to pay for that.
and I'll do my laundry now to get my mind off things.
Sekonic lightmeter 258.06
Polarising filter 22.79 (instead of 104, I should maybe use that as an advantage and order soon)
Metz flash gun 321.45
Manfrotto tripod 133.95
and eventually, once I will set up my own lab
Enlarger 546,21 plus all the chemicals/paper and wet stuff that comes with it.
I have no idea how to pay for that.
and I'll do my laundry now to get my mind off things.
Thursday 19 March 2009
The Passenger
yes it's been some time. And today is one of those days. I woke up way too early, don't really have to go into Uni, but I will anyways because there is nothing else to do.
Sunshine outside, but I owe everybody here some updates.
LCC interview was horrible, the two men were really mean, some of what they said: "your work is just a simple excuse to meet people" or "You cannot go on working like this because attendance is a vital part of this course. You have to give 100% when you are studying with us and cannot go on trips around the world all the time. Your attendance has to be there." Bastards. I got in anyways.
By now I don't want to go there any more, Camberwell interview is coming up next week, Westminster the week after. I withdrew my application from London Met, will probably do the same with University of East London, if they ever get back to me.
Right now I feel like life has taken me on a journey of which I don't know the final destination. Camberwell by now is the place where I want to be, but I thought the same about LCC before I had this terrible interview and noticed how less the people there actually care whether I'm one of their students. Matt, one of my tutors, said a good photographer will make the most out of any photography course, no matter how good or bad the ratings are. Sometimes I believe in it, sometimes I don't. Bournemouth did give me a massive load of confidence when it comes to talking about my work and generally making it clear that photography is a profession like any other, yet again, I still have massive doubts. Doubts about not being able to pay back the loans I will have to take starting this September, doubts that London might be the place to be, the unis but just simply too rough, doubts about everything, that staying at home and saving money might be a better idea. But saving money for what? I don't know either to be honest.
I guess I just have to ignore the voices in my head, just like I did before I moved to Bournemouth. I mean in the end, everything turned out right.
Sunshine outside, but I owe everybody here some updates.
LCC interview was horrible, the two men were really mean, some of what they said: "your work is just a simple excuse to meet people" or "You cannot go on working like this because attendance is a vital part of this course. You have to give 100% when you are studying with us and cannot go on trips around the world all the time. Your attendance has to be there." Bastards. I got in anyways.
By now I don't want to go there any more, Camberwell interview is coming up next week, Westminster the week after. I withdrew my application from London Met, will probably do the same with University of East London, if they ever get back to me.
Right now I feel like life has taken me on a journey of which I don't know the final destination. Camberwell by now is the place where I want to be, but I thought the same about LCC before I had this terrible interview and noticed how less the people there actually care whether I'm one of their students. Matt, one of my tutors, said a good photographer will make the most out of any photography course, no matter how good or bad the ratings are. Sometimes I believe in it, sometimes I don't. Bournemouth did give me a massive load of confidence when it comes to talking about my work and generally making it clear that photography is a profession like any other, yet again, I still have massive doubts. Doubts about not being able to pay back the loans I will have to take starting this September, doubts that London might be the place to be, the unis but just simply too rough, doubts about everything, that staying at home and saving money might be a better idea. But saving money for what? I don't know either to be honest.
I guess I just have to ignore the voices in my head, just like I did before I moved to Bournemouth. I mean in the end, everything turned out right.
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Transatlanticism
National Express is advising their costumers to be at the airport three hours before the departure of the flight. Yes, three hours. Who the hell is at the airport three hours before the flight? When I'm in London I start making my way to the tube three hours before departure. Back home, I don't even start driving. 2 hours before the departure is the guided time they give you if your destination is outside of Europe. 1.5 hours within Europe. But no, National Express wants you to be three hours early. I get their point when saying there could be any delays and I have to admit that I am nervous about this Friday, having only 1 hour and ten minutes from bus arrival to flight departure. But I believe it's possible. I even believe that my flight will be delayed due to weather conditions back in Frankfurt. But most of all I believe this is going to work out. Yet again, I've always been afraid of missing my flight and it would just make sense that this one could be the moment my fear becomes reality. I don't even know why I don't care that much this time. I guess deep down I just believe that it's going to work out, even tho I'm departing from Terminal 5 where security takes twice as long as in Terminals 1-4, and three times as long as back home. But yes, I do still believe. Wish me luck!
Saturday 14 February 2009
Wasteland
I tried holding back this post for several weeks now, but the point came at which I cannot restrain myself any more.
You've heard it all before. Children starve in Africa, homeless people begging for money only to buy themselves some bread, the usual arguments when the plate hasn't been completely emptied. The people throwing around these statements should meet one of my housemates. Nahiyan. He usually orders food online because he's too lazy to go around the corner to our rather big selection of supermarkets: Sainsbury's (walking distance: 10 minutes), Somerfield (walking distance: 5 minutes), Tesco express (walking distance: 5 minutes) and finally for the cheapos out there Lidl (walking distance: 15 minutes). So it can't be the lack of selection, it must be sheer laziness. On Thursday he got a delievery at 9.30am. He just left the stuff standing in the kitchen and went back to bed. I noticed the milk standing around which is supposed to be refrigerated, the sweets filled with whipped cream and custard, all meant for the fridge. In addition to that, only on Monday he also got another food delivery, of which most of it went off as well. Because he not only doesn't put stuff in the fridge, but apparently he also doesn't know about an invention named freezer. The fries just lay around in the fridge until he eventually got them out, left them on the counter and I threw them away earlier today, without even daring to look inside.
He leaves everything on the counter. By now I also started looking in his cupboard, in which right now there are four naan breads which went off two days ago, but they still look good, croissants bbf 11th feb, still good, tried them, only a bit dried out.
To make it more clear, here a list of things I got off him for free because he wanted to throw it away:
two full bags of oranges
half a jar of delicious humous
uncountable amount of bread
croissants
milk
half a pack of honey nut
vegetables, loads of vegetables
He doesn't know of any of these things. Because, and here's the other thing I actually wanted to hold back, but just cannot restrain myself any more, he doesn't put stuff in the bin. He just leaves the stuff on the counter until it really goes of. Meaning, until the still half full juice container slowly blows up, until the only 1/4 emptied chocolate milk slowly first turns into yogurt and then starts dividing itself into water and dried up chocolate milk and eventually blows up as well, the grapes go from good looking attractive edible to slowly getting grey to completely covered in mold. I asked him why he just leaves the stuff on the counter instead of simply throwing it in the bin. His answer: I just can't be bothered. Strange tho: the bin is closer than the counter in the kitchen. It's standing right next to the door, the counter only starts halfway into the kitchen.
As I am writing this I am having Jalapeno humous on bread. My bread, his humous. Also I converted one bag of oranges into a tasty homemade orange-juice/smoothy. He went to London for the weekend, Ollie and I desperately hope he won't be back tonight then we can have a massive feast with all his food which will go off today: salmon, chocolate milk, more humous, lettuce, cucumber, strawberries, minced meat, croissants, naan bread. This would be an amazing dinner.
If not, the naan bread already went of two days ago, I'm thinking about just putting it in the freezer, I'm pretty sure he won't even notice. And if he did he would never ask me neither blame it on me. There's no proof. I don't consider it stealing. Because instead of throwing it away it just helps me save money. Also, he owes me all those sleepness nights because of the xbox and way too loud sound.
You've heard it all before. Children starve in Africa, homeless people begging for money only to buy themselves some bread, the usual arguments when the plate hasn't been completely emptied. The people throwing around these statements should meet one of my housemates. Nahiyan. He usually orders food online because he's too lazy to go around the corner to our rather big selection of supermarkets: Sainsbury's (walking distance: 10 minutes), Somerfield (walking distance: 5 minutes), Tesco express (walking distance: 5 minutes) and finally for the cheapos out there Lidl (walking distance: 15 minutes). So it can't be the lack of selection, it must be sheer laziness. On Thursday he got a delievery at 9.30am. He just left the stuff standing in the kitchen and went back to bed. I noticed the milk standing around which is supposed to be refrigerated, the sweets filled with whipped cream and custard, all meant for the fridge. In addition to that, only on Monday he also got another food delivery, of which most of it went off as well. Because he not only doesn't put stuff in the fridge, but apparently he also doesn't know about an invention named freezer. The fries just lay around in the fridge until he eventually got them out, left them on the counter and I threw them away earlier today, without even daring to look inside.
He leaves everything on the counter. By now I also started looking in his cupboard, in which right now there are four naan breads which went off two days ago, but they still look good, croissants bbf 11th feb, still good, tried them, only a bit dried out.
To make it more clear, here a list of things I got off him for free because he wanted to throw it away:
two full bags of oranges
half a jar of delicious humous
uncountable amount of bread
croissants
milk
half a pack of honey nut
vegetables, loads of vegetables
He doesn't know of any of these things. Because, and here's the other thing I actually wanted to hold back, but just cannot restrain myself any more, he doesn't put stuff in the bin. He just leaves the stuff on the counter until it really goes of. Meaning, until the still half full juice container slowly blows up, until the only 1/4 emptied chocolate milk slowly first turns into yogurt and then starts dividing itself into water and dried up chocolate milk and eventually blows up as well, the grapes go from good looking attractive edible to slowly getting grey to completely covered in mold. I asked him why he just leaves the stuff on the counter instead of simply throwing it in the bin. His answer: I just can't be bothered. Strange tho: the bin is closer than the counter in the kitchen. It's standing right next to the door, the counter only starts halfway into the kitchen.
As I am writing this I am having Jalapeno humous on bread. My bread, his humous. Also I converted one bag of oranges into a tasty homemade orange-juice/smoothy. He went to London for the weekend, Ollie and I desperately hope he won't be back tonight then we can have a massive feast with all his food which will go off today: salmon, chocolate milk, more humous, lettuce, cucumber, strawberries, minced meat, croissants, naan bread. This would be an amazing dinner.
If not, the naan bread already went of two days ago, I'm thinking about just putting it in the freezer, I'm pretty sure he won't even notice. And if he did he would never ask me neither blame it on me. There's no proof. I don't consider it stealing. Because instead of throwing it away it just helps me save money. Also, he owes me all those sleepness nights because of the xbox and way too loud sound.
Friday 13 February 2009
Betterman
I'm going to choose the lazy way and simply do this:
Flickr
It has all of the stuff I published this term, meaning all the stuff I took to my assessment (which I passed with a beautiful 100%, about 2 hours ago)
I finally managed to get a neutral flickr account, leaving me with two more to upload all kinds of nonsense to it. But this one will be art stuff exclusively, and if I can convince myself I'll even upgrade to pro and begin sorting out all my series.
As for interviews, three are coming up: London met (bleh), Westminster (about which I am getting more and more excited, the course seems to be really good) and LCC (classic).
Final Major started, I have two standing ideas, one of which I prefer but everybody else seems to like #2 better. Pitch on Wednesday, then I'll know more.
Flickr
It has all of the stuff I published this term, meaning all the stuff I took to my assessment (which I passed with a beautiful 100%, about 2 hours ago)
I finally managed to get a neutral flickr account, leaving me with two more to upload all kinds of nonsense to it. But this one will be art stuff exclusively, and if I can convince myself I'll even upgrade to pro and begin sorting out all my series.
As for interviews, three are coming up: London met (bleh), Westminster (about which I am getting more and more excited, the course seems to be really good) and LCC (classic).
Final Major started, I have two standing ideas, one of which I prefer but everybody else seems to like #2 better. Pitch on Wednesday, then I'll know more.
Saturday 7 February 2009
My Eyes
Okay, still no pictures, but I'm tired, I'll use that as an excuse.
But nonetheless, I should write something useful. or at least, I feel like I should.
I found this beautiful lense, 17-75mm, 2.8-4.5 (no, this doesn't have to mean anything to photography unrelated people, all you have to know is that this is awesome) for 248 Euros. And I might just buy it from my birthday money. Or rather buy it now and then justify it with my birthday money. Because the Canon Kit lens is slowly starting to piss me off. Just about time after 1.5 years I'd say. Plus it's a good lense for my summer, because the kit lens only goes up to 55mm. And the reviews are really nice. Yes, I might just buy it. But then, I also need a polarising filter, which adds up another 45 euros. It's an expensive job.
Then, the tutorial I had on Wednesday. According to Tim I have good 'photographic eyes' and the photos I took last week are 'beautiful' and 'stunning'. Just what I need, really. Especially because Matt wasn't too convinced of my work, but there you have it again. Matt = commercial. Tim = Fine Art. I so don't belong to any commercial course, I really have to go to Camberwell. Plus, flats there are cheaper anyways. And it's close to the beautiful Walworth Road with all its small shops.
Plan for today: read some more of my book (The Fuck Up, I'm liking it) and scout for some nice flats in Camberwell.
Good Night!
But nonetheless, I should write something useful. or at least, I feel like I should.
I found this beautiful lense, 17-75mm, 2.8-4.5 (no, this doesn't have to mean anything to photography unrelated people, all you have to know is that this is awesome) for 248 Euros. And I might just buy it from my birthday money. Or rather buy it now and then justify it with my birthday money. Because the Canon Kit lens is slowly starting to piss me off. Just about time after 1.5 years I'd say. Plus it's a good lense for my summer, because the kit lens only goes up to 55mm. And the reviews are really nice. Yes, I might just buy it. But then, I also need a polarising filter, which adds up another 45 euros. It's an expensive job.
Then, the tutorial I had on Wednesday. According to Tim I have good 'photographic eyes' and the photos I took last week are 'beautiful' and 'stunning'. Just what I need, really. Especially because Matt wasn't too convinced of my work, but there you have it again. Matt = commercial. Tim = Fine Art. I so don't belong to any commercial course, I really have to go to Camberwell. Plus, flats there are cheaper anyways. And it's close to the beautiful Walworth Road with all its small shops.
Plan for today: read some more of my book (The Fuck Up, I'm liking it) and scout for some nice flats in Camberwell.
Good Night!
La Femme d'argent
Just short notice. Six days away from my stage 2 assessment, I am about to go out for my last shooting for the book project (which turned into a more or less elemental/detail/psychadelic/scary forest shoot project).
Images to be posted soon, also my portfolio is on the tip of being completely finished, images to be posted soon as well.
Images to be posted soon, also my portfolio is on the tip of being completely finished, images to be posted soon as well.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Monday 2 February 2009
Koko
Just a short observation from me. This morning I took a look outside and I see 1/2 inch of snow. Excitement, but also confusion came over me.
Then I check my university emails and read this:
[...]The weather conditions are clearly causing difficulties for many staff and students travelling to the Institute. [...] the advice to be given to those who call in is that they should not travel if they have any concerns about the safety of their journey. [...]
Yes, this really did happen. These people here don't know what snow means.
Then I check my university emails and read this:
[...]The weather conditions are clearly causing difficulties for many staff and students travelling to the Institute. [...] the advice to be given to those who call in is that they should not travel if they have any concerns about the safety of their journey. [...]
Yes, this really did happen. These people here don't know what snow means.
Friday 30 January 2009
Someday Soon
my summer is four months away, and although at first glance this might seem like an off topic post, no no, here goes. I will make my summer full of art, like no one has ever seen it before.
I will shoot in raw. Which means I have to get yet another 8, preferably 10 gig memory card, but that's worth it. Connected with that, I will take either my hard drive with me, or get a large memory stick on which I can then put all my images. because that whole cd burning thing last year was bothersome.
I will also keep a journal of all my experiences. So what? some might say now, because I keep journals of everything. But, and that's the great part about it I will make that book myself. Because I learned one way of making a book yourself, and I am googleing it like a crazy person right now and I really like the saddle stitch technique and might just start with a dummy tonight. and then hopefully find that one paper place in london and get some nice paper.
I will actually spend enough time in each place to get a sense of it and take appropriate pictures.
I will apply all the stuff I've learned in England so far. And all the stuff I am yet to learn.
I will, if it fits into the project, ask strangers whether I can take their photo. Because I've done it here, and I feel way more confident in the States anyways.
So basically, it's going to be freaking awesome.
I will shoot in raw. Which means I have to get yet another 8, preferably 10 gig memory card, but that's worth it. Connected with that, I will take either my hard drive with me, or get a large memory stick on which I can then put all my images. because that whole cd burning thing last year was bothersome.
I will also keep a journal of all my experiences. So what? some might say now, because I keep journals of everything. But, and that's the great part about it I will make that book myself. Because I learned one way of making a book yourself, and I am googleing it like a crazy person right now and I really like the saddle stitch technique and might just start with a dummy tonight. and then hopefully find that one paper place in london and get some nice paper.
I will actually spend enough time in each place to get a sense of it and take appropriate pictures.
I will apply all the stuff I've learned in England so far. And all the stuff I am yet to learn.
I will, if it fits into the project, ask strangers whether I can take their photo. Because I've done it here, and I feel way more confident in the States anyways.
So basically, it's going to be freaking awesome.
Thursday 22 January 2009
Evil
Things have been going downhill a lot lately. My Christmas project more or less failed, except for that one shot of my grandma which actually did turn out amazingly beautiful. My health is going downhill as well, my nose is all stuck up, I wasn't able to sleep that much since Monday. Therefore the latest project, which is finally fine art stuff, is going downhill as well because I don't have the energy to go out and shoot a bit. Ideas are there, it might just end up very sequential and bernd and hilla becher orientated, but that should be a good things, right?
Still no news from any of the Universities, I'm starting to get impatient. Portfolio review for three hours tomorrow, then I should finally know more. And hopefully be full of enthusiasm again after a motivation talk from Matt. I really need that right now.
Still no news from any of the Universities, I'm starting to get impatient. Portfolio review for three hours tomorrow, then I should finally know more. And hopefully be full of enthusiasm again after a motivation talk from Matt. I really need that right now.
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