TOTAL CONTROL CAN BE THE DEATH OF WORK ...

Andy Goldsworthy, who in regards of a lot of things - but most of all his spontaneity, intuition and calmness while working with natural materials and processes - is one of my most favourite artists, literally speaks out of my mind in "Rivers & Tides" by saying.

"One day i went out and worked on the beach. What struck me was a sense of energy [...] this almost breathlessness and uncertainty. [...] Total control can be the death of work."

THE DYING ART OF ("JUST??") THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DARKROOM ...

Leaning on a very nice project by Richard Nicholson and a post published by the Guardian that featured the project under the headline of “the dying art of the photographic darkroom", I tried to leave you some personal thoughts, that has been haunting me for a while.

Even more since I read an interesting manuscript called “Rauchzeichen aus dem Labyrinth - Der onthologische Anspruch der Photographie” by Steffen Kammler last year (“Rostocker Phänomenologische Manuskripte”).

Bringing what i read in the manuscript together with what i saw in Richard Nicholsons project and what I experience of being a photographer that still partly processes in the darkroom, i was wondering …  “What esle is going to be gone if the photographic darkroom really dies out? Where (if there) is this thin border between photography in the broader and photography in the narrower sense? The border, that after Steffen Kammler and in conjunction with the darkroom would have to be drawn behind “the negative that has been the last instance that has direct contact with the light and therefore carries the trace of the referent”? Something that digital photography can not claim for itself as “the lightsensor that literally takes the place of the photosensitive layer, in comparison does not show any trace of contact after the contact with the light …” because “the location of the light-contact is seperated from the location where the information is stored.” (Steffen Kammler, Rauchzeichen …, page 28).

I’m not a philosopher and I know that in the end it might not really matter for the (average) spectator. But still I do - as an artist - confront myself with the media I’m working with. As I had to deal with some slight problems after Kodak lately decided to stop production of a certain paper I partly used over the last 9 years of printing - and loved, I had to think about that question of the media even more and had to involuntarily compare those two (very different) crafts from an at least process oriented point of view:

“The craft and process of taking a negative, filterting colors and getting a result by printing in the darkroom” VS “the craft of scanning a negative and trimming dozens of adjustment layers” to get a similar result.

It’s not that I decided to switch from analog processing to digital. It was a “just in case” for a “worst case” scenario where - in my case - Fuji decides to discontinue their Kodak “equivalent” out of the blue!!!! (A scenario artists, photographers,… unwillingly have to deal with due to technical changes, lobbying or companies stopping the production of certain fundamental ressources of their work; not just in photography.) However; I started comparing the procedures and steps that would bring me to that similar result and I started wondering about which craft carried more of that (non existant) claim to reality that (from a laymen’s and not philosophical or mediat-heoretical perspective) makes photography the photography “we somehow believe in”. And I came to the conclusion, that for me personally it is more “the process in the photographic darkroom” than the one infront of the screen and dozens of layers changing the appearance of a picture, that gives me that unique (authentic-like) feeling of being a photographer documenting the world around me. Although I know that I’m still a photographer (not better or worse) if I use my digital camera (that i like aswell - no digital hater here) to make a picture. But still; it’s just different and not the same. If it has something to do with Steffen Kammler’s statements, i don’t know. But I know there is space to give it some more thoughts. As always.

Enjoy the documentary (youtube) and Kodak, Fuji, … (if you’re out there) give it a thought and please just sometimes continue carrying extraordinary items like special papers, … within you product catalogue. As an acessory if you like. I know you do and I also know that you have to be competitive in a globalized world, but those are big decisions you make and it always effects someone.
I’m not expecting anyone to read what I just wrote. The flood of information is just one other thing that comes along with our digital times. If you do, thanks for taking the time; otherwise i can say: for me personally it was great to clear some thoughts that were running around in my head anyway.

I wonder if “Vinyl” survives the “Compact Disc” by the way. Enjoy!

LEX DE KALHEX - PERFECT PICTURE 2LP - LTD

The forthcoming Akromegalie Records release Perfect Picture by Lex de Kalhex is one of those releases none of you out there, that likes well elaborated jazz based Hip Hop instrumenals in a mid 90ties Godfather Don, Pete Rock tradition should miss. Very nice beats combined with very well selected and compared to Damu the Fudgemunk’s “Supply for Demand” rather unknown samples come in a limited run of 300 records. A good combination as Positive K would say. After having dozens of conversations with Lex on hip hop, art and music over the net for quite some time I had the pleasure to meet him in Paris last december. Sitting in some fastfood restaurant (it was the only place where we could stay longer without someone blaming us for not consuming more) I had the chance to listen to the whole album and some other upcoming projects … I loved each and every track I heard. And I don’t say this cause I consider Alex a friend and part of my extended and likeminded family. I mean it! And today in the morning my cellphone whispered something in my ear. Seems like they just arrived in someone’s postbox, “available very soon” …

Also make sure you check Kalhex (Lex, Parental and Le Makizar) debut LP “Kalhex” from 2009. A “sleeping” French Rap diamond from Paris. Great beats, great conscious lyrics … just great! ! Buy records! Support artists you like, so they can do what they seem to do best!

WAY BACK, BACK INTO TIME ...

Dear friends and family ... I'm going to start rolling up a little bit of my/our history. A history that somehow started before we even realized that it would become our's too... It was the mid 80ties, that should be the beginning of a long era in Gmunden's "Freestyle Sport" and "Creative Mindz" history ...

In the first photo (1987) you will find two of those guys responsible for lots of that ... our dear long time friends Gerald Loidl (first from the left) and former flatland world champion Richard Vobr (second from the left). Both part of the "BMX Team Gmunden". I sadly never met the others as far as I remember, but in the back you see another really good friend of ours, that would accompany us over the years in various shapes and forms: The Ghetto-Blaster! Blaaasting Hip-Hop into my ears from the first day I remember joining the Posse in 1994. There are lots of stories I could tell from here, but for now i just want to "HOLLAAA!" at those who cleared the way for generations to follow.



And that's what all you "Skaters and BMX-freestylers" out there that enjoyed this pre-heated nest in Gmunden back then and the ever growing skatepark and freestyle sport community should do too. Hold still for a moment, think back and ... "HOLLAAAA!!!"'

Without the effort of Gerald, Rick, Mario, Rudi, ... a lot would have turned out different i suppose and maybe the one or other would have worshipped anything else but a miniramp, skateboard or bicycle. I'm writing this post, because i think it's important, to bring into our mind again, that there was a time when new ramps and obstacles were not suddenly falling from the sky. A time when we used to build those wooden ramps on our own; having the will to create! (and of course we had a ghetto blaster in 1995, what did u think?!).
I can only speak for myself, but I think I don't do any wrong by saying that a part of this possee, the various groups existing within it and the freedom we all somehow experienced together changed and shaped my life. And I also believe that this time and this place where lots of us met, was also leading some of us to what they do now ...

... being free mindz, doing whatever they do, but doing their thing, making films, taking photos, doin graphics, producing, nerding on music ... and cars of course. KEEP CREATING my friends & DO YOUR THING!!!! Thx for one part in my personal "school of life" fam!!! And to some of our friends that got lost along their path, R.I.P ... I won't forget the time we all had together!

Originally posted on our rotaug collective website october 22nd 2010 ...