Photographs & Memories

Santa Cruz do Sul, 1 January 2024 I photograph what I find, encounter, and come across.  I never arrange anything before I take a picture. There is  no conviction or ideology behind this approach. It is just what I do and I would think it is in my nature to go about  taking pictures in this way. Many photographers, I understand, claim to know how a picture should look like. What they do is to photograph the pictures in their  heads. My goal however is to get out of the prison of my head.

Am Hallwillersee, 2018 Als ich vor Kurzem alte Fotos von mir betrachtete. dachte es bei der obigen Aufnahme unvermittelt in mir:  Da sehe ich aus wie mein Vater. Das habe ich bisher noch nie gedacht. Wurde ich gefragt, ob ich eher meiner Mutter oder meinem Vater nachschlage, antwortete ich jeweils: Eher meiner Mutter. Nie hatte ich in  Betracht gezogen, dass ich Züge meines Vaters haben könnte.  Meine Reaktion auf dieses Bild erkläre ich mir weniger mit der physischen Ähnlichkeit, als mit der Art des Schauens, die  derjenigen meines Vaters sehr ähnlich ist. Jedenfalls kommt es  mir gerade so vor.

These pics were taken in Santa Cruz do Sol on 2 February 2024. In reality, most of these flowers are so tiny that we hardly see them with the naked eye, I zoomed in on them to make them appear as they now do. They are reminders that to open our eyes is necessary should one be interested to learn about the beauty that is surrounding us.

Santa Cruz do Sul, 20 February 2021 In the Brazilian summer of 2021, I was living at the Residencial Athenas, a condominium in the centre of Santa Cruz do Sul. The above pic was taken from "my"  balcony on the 10th floor. Needless to say, the pic brings back memories of other evenings with similar views. The longer I stay with these evening light feelings that seem somehow connected to vague longings and a pleasent melancholy, I notice that the thoughts that cross my mind are wandering to quite other views that I had observed while on this balcony. Especially images of various cloud formations come to mind. What could better teach us that life can't be possessed than the ever changing passing clouds, I wonder?