Tag Archives: ocean

Nils Karlson – Earth Stands Still

Friends –
I feel I’ve let you down. You see, I’ve known for a few weeks now that Nils Karlson’s book, “Earth Stands Still”, would be coming via crowdfunding. I’ve known this whole time that it was going to be a triumph of pinhole minimalism. But due to some travel and a mixup, I’m getting this announcement out a few days late. To say the book is flying off the shelves is an understatement, and I’m so happy to see that Nils’s work is being received so well. So for those of you who miss out, I apologize!

You have to check out Nils’s work. What follows is the ƒ/D interview with him, along with some sample imagery. Have a gander, and then head over to his IndieGoGo – and fast! There’s barely any copies left, and it is a limited printing.

All photos ©Nils Karlson 2016[spacer height=”20px”]

ƒ/D: How did you discover your passion for photographing coastal areas in this impressionistic way? Is it a vision that you had been searching for? Did you start with some happy accidents that developed into something more? Something else?
NK: It started out with a rather usual approach, trying to record the scene as it appeared in front of my eyes. But I have never found a true connection to my subject by this. This changed when I stumbled over an excellent book – „Liquid Light“ by Fabien Baron – at the photobook exhibition in Cologne 2014. It featured the most minimal and quiet photos of the seascape I have ever seen: All long exposure images, featuring the horizon dead centre in a vertical frame. This became my starting point for this leg of the journey, and several concepts in respect of technical approach evolved from here.

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What influence has the shore had on other aspects of your life?
As long as I can remember I was drawn to the sea. We used to spend summer vacations at the North Sea, and I was always fascinated by the view, sound, scent, and feel. Today, I love the vastness, when you can see for miles and miles. In the densely populated area I live in, you will not find that. There will always be some kind of obstruction. Also the light has a unique character, especially in the very early or late hours. I travels through a lot of atmopshere, where it gets scattered and incredibly soft. Fortunately, my wife loves the sea, too – and it is a great place to bring our dogs!

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These sorts of minimalist impressionist photos leave so much space for the viewer to explore their own feelings in the scene. What do you find yourself getting from them?
The answer lies within he question – it is space what I am looking for. Vast spaces, where the eye can wander without obstacles. Silence is made of vast spaces bare of distraction, and silence might be the most profound factor i am searching for.

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You quote lyrics from the band No Omega in your book, a passage questioning modern society’s priorities. The photos in the book are like an epiphany of calm, while No Omega is anything but. Can you talk about how you relate this harsh music to your nature photography?
That’s a long, and probably confusing story, but I will try to make it somehow cohesive. Ever since I can remember, I had difficulties to filter sensory impressions, especially noise. This put a lot of stress on me, and the first device to control all these impresions was sister’s first walkman. Wearing headphones, I was able to control sound from the outer world as well as the crippling voice of self­soubt (latter one only to a small degree). This brought me to music, and to the drums when I was about eleven. The more ferocious and noisy the music, the better it works as a shield – bury the sound under another sound. It was a progression from bands like Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Jethro Tull over Anthrax, a lot of bay area thrash and death metal. As I found the lyrics of most bands well beyond cheesy, I expanded my vocabulary to hardcore and eventually lots of political grindcore and experimental bands. Listening to all that rather noisy music used to be my safety blanket. But after all these years, it started to wear off. When my wife and me had a vacation on La Palma (Canary Islands) in 2009, it was the first time I was confronted with silence. Actually, this trip was the foundation for pretty much everything I do in the photographic realm these days. Since then, it has become like a quest for me – seeking silence. I seek the most quiet dialogue with the landscape. When I crate these photos, I never listen to music. I don’t need to. The problem is that I do not find that silence where I live. That’s where I fall into old patterns and use music as a suit of armor. But still, I find the lyrical content of music to be a crucial factor, and I am always looking for bands who are passionate and authentic. No Omega is one of these bands, and I find myself in their music to a point which is beyond my means of written expression. Actually I have a quite braod taste in music, with a lot of Indie, old (and old­sounding) Emocore, and instrumental bands with a „cinemascope approach“ balancing the fury. I live in a constant state of contradictions existing simultaneously anyway, and I have stopped believing in the concepts of absolute truth. Embrace Ambivalence.

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There are many studies of the shore in this book, and I’m sure many many that didn’t quite make the cut. How do you choose?
Even in high quality photo books, I often miss a cohesive story, flow, and dramaturgy. My goal was to treat the book like a musical album. Have an Intro, build and release some tension, finish on a a strong, but subtle note. Creating an organic flow of light, colour, and atmopshere was the most time consuming aspect. A lot of strong and beautiful photos do not appear in this book, as they just did not fit into the flow. Other photos, which I found to be just „quite decent“ without context, proved to support the story, leading to a perfect sequence of images. Editing is hard though. Sometimes you have to push your favourite kid off the cliff.

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What technologies did you use to shoot these photos? Were they all pinhole?
For seascapes, I love to work with long exposures, whether in a normal camera or lensless.

In Earth Stands Still, one of the three chapters is dedicated to the vision of the pinhole camera. Isn’t it amazing how the very stripped down to the bare bones concept of the pinhole camera yields such atmopshere and mystery? Throughout the few years I am using pinholes, I have tested a lot of different cameras. The difference in the way they render a photo is stunning, having each a distinct characteristic on their own, just like some lenses. Also, I find it to be fascinating to work without any kind of finder – everything is more of a guess, from composition to the inaccuracy of the manual exposure. The pinhole rules out all the „merits“ of the technical revolution, and becomes much more a part of the person using it.

Another technique I use to depart from the scene in front of my eyes towards the image inside my head, are intentional camera movements. These are inspired by Australian photographer Steve Coleman and other artists he featured on his blog. Ethis technique benefit from happy accidents, though I also practiced different movements with a small digital camera before transferring the knowledge into the realm of film.

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Get Inspired – Week of June 22

This week we bring you 6 photos representing some of the best that we’ve found on the web in the last week. Part of what we enjoy about curating these images from far and wide is that they truly are from the far and wide – from the Far East of Korea to the Baltic States region of Lithuania, and points in between.

So kick back and take in these scenes. Find something new in their work and open yourself to a new way of seeing!

 

beim “Opfermoor” (ohne Eiche)
[singlepic id=227 w=600]beim “Opfermoor” (ohne Eiche), ©Katja Fleig 2015[/singlepic]
Katja Fleig made this wonderful capture of a wispy bog scene in Germany using a Holga WPC loaded with EFKE Aura IR820 film. You can find more of Katia’s work on Flickr.

 

img058
[singlepic id=226 w=600]img058, ©Michele Welponer 2015[/singlepic]
Michele Welponer is an Italian photographer that captured this serene scene in Trentino, near Caldonazzo lake. Michele used EFKE 25 film in a handmade wooden camera. More of Michele’s work can be found on Flickr, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

Caution Tape
[singlepic id=225 w=600]Caution Tape, ©Ross Togashi 2015[/singlepic]
Ross Togashi wielded his self-made wooden pinhole camera and Kodak Ektar to make this sweeping photo, part of his series, “Pinholes at High-Tide”. He’s wonderfully conveyed the sense of the tide rushing out at your feet after the wave has receded. You can find more of his work on Flickr.

 

Biking Mangrove
[singlepic id=224 w=600]Biking Mangrove, ©Ross Togashi 2015[/singlepic]
This is the second photo today from Ross Togashi, this one from his series “Pinholes Makai”. You can feel the heat and humidity, and dream of how this bike arrived in this situation.

 

A Feather
[singlepic id=222 w=600]A Feather, ©James Shin 2015[/singlepic]
James Shin made this photo in Ganggoo, Kyongsangbukdo, Korea just after sunset, with an exposure of about 2 minutes, wonderfully capturing the sense of soft darkness at sunset on the shore. You can find more of his work on Flickr, his personal website, or Facebook. He was also interviewed by Parallel Planets.

 

1+4
[singlepic id=221 w=600]1+4, ©Arturas Meskauskas 2015[/singlepic]
Artūras Meškauskas is a photographer based out of Panevezys, Lithuania, that we’ve featured before, and here again we find ourselves very impressed by his vision. He made this photo of his hand in January 2014 using a MO Pinhole 6×6 with Shanghai GP3 100 film.  You can find more of his work on Flickr and Facebook.

 

 

Get Inspired – Week of June 15

Today’s post represents the first in our new format change. In case you missed the announcement and the reasons why, you can catch up here. Every week, we at ƒ/D are going to strive to bring you the best we’ve found in the world of pinhole photography. We scour the archives of Flickr, 500px, Behance, personal submissions, and other sources to find great work being done.

This week we feature some great photos from all corners of the world. The photos below represent some great examples of the fun, the fantastical, and of paradise. Enjoy!

Islands and Islets
[singlepic id=203 w=600]Islands and Islets, Holga-120 WPC, Kodak Ektar, ©Peter de Graaff 2015[/singlepic]
Peter de Graaff made the capture for Islands and islets during winter 2014 at North Head in the Murramurrang National Park near Batemans Bay, on the south coast of New South Wales. The Tollgate Islands are visible in the distance and some islets nearby. The sand on the beach here is incredibly orange and was mostly deserted except for a few kangaroo tracks.

More of Peter’s work can be seen on Flickr and he’s a regular contributor on 52 Rolls. Peter can also be found discussing photography on Twitter.

 

Austria
[singlepic id=204 w=600]Austria, ©Csaba Kovacs 2015[/singlepic]
Csaba Kovacs is a talented Hungarian photographer that we’ll be doing a more in depth feature on in the near future. He has a wonderful eye for pattern and shape. Csaba can be found on Flickr and on his personal website.

 

Encounters
[singlepic id=205 w=600]Encounters, ©Phil Chapman 2015[/singlepic]
Phil Chapman’s image was inspired by the indie game limbo, and his goal was to make something that had that atmosphere and feel. He constructed the scene out of black card ( the robot ) and ripped black sugar paper ( the trees) with layers of tracing paper creating the fog and distance. The toy figure is from resident evil 2 and is another video game reference.
Phil’s camera is also homemade and the exposure times were roughly 2 minutes per shot. More of Phil’s work can be found on Flickr.

 

Pinhole 60
[singlepic id=206 w=600]Pinhole 60, Zero 2000, ©Katharina Korn-Sippel 2015[/singlepic]
Katharina Korn-Sippel’s still life of fruit has that perfectly peaceful feeling that has attracted many eyeballs to still lifes over the years. More of Katharina’s work can be found on Flickr.

 

Synchronized Swinging
[singlepic id=207 w=600]Synchronized Swinging, Diana Pinhole, TMY, ©Kyle Wilcox 2015[/singlepic]
Kyle Wilcox made this stunning capture with a 2 or 3 second exposure on TMY using a Lomo Diana Pinhole camera. While he sat on a swing next to his son and tried to match his speed while he braced the camera on the chain and opened the shutter. More of Kyle’s work can be found on Flickr.

 

Get Inspired – Atlantic II

Today’s featured pinhole image is a calming shade of blue.

Atlantic II
[singlepic id=166 w=600]Atlantic II, Twinings Tea tin cam, Kodak Ektar ©Artūras Meškauskas 2015[/singlepic]

Artūras Meškauskas, a Lithuanian photographer from the city of Panevezys, made this wonderful image with his homemade pinhole camera that he fashioned from a Twinings Tea tin and expired Ektar 100. I’ve got to say his appears to be the best tea tin camera I’ve seen. This scene was captured in 2014 on an autumn holiday in Gran Canaria.

You can find more of Artūras’s work on Flickr and Facebook.