I had long planed to take an action shot in front of the two Sihlcity parking lot spirals. Then, when I read that Radio24 and Blofelder launched a photo competition to promote Zurich as a dynamic and urban city, I headed over to the pump track and made it happen. I was stoked when I heard that two of my photos were actually selected and are now being displayed around the city from May 18 until June 1. If you live close to Winterthurerestrasse 524 or Seebahnstrasse 177, have a look! Check out the plan, to see the locations of the other 98 winning photos.
This winter has been absolutely fantastic. Lots of early snow, allowing us to tour around Oberalp Pass already in November. Then a little bit of a downer in December but just in time for the Christmas break big snowfall all the way down to the foothills of the Bavarian alps. Unlike last season, January, February and March delivered outstanding powder days with good options almost every weekend. My highlights certainly were a stunning powder day in Andermatt, making use of the the endless options around Gemsstock and a trip to Zermatt finally seeing all the massive peaks in real life for the first time. Now that it's warming up in Zurich, we're heading up to northern Norway for some more fun in the cold. But before we leave I emptied all the memory cards and uploaded some of my favourite shots from this season.
The annual exhibition of the Zurich students' analog photo laboratory is taking place from March 13 - 27 at University of Zürich (Lichthof) and from March 28 - April 2 at ETH (main building, ground floor). We are showing 30 black and white prints based on the gelatin-silver process, including three from myself. Below is a photo from yesterday, setting up the prints on the easels.
As a member of the team that runs the ETH darkroom, I have organised an exhibition entitled People in Black and White. Nine prints, including one of my mine, will be shown from 24. July - 10. August in the Photobastei in Zurich. The Photobastei features 1500 square meters of weekly changing photography exhibitions from stars like Henry Leutwyler, but also student projects. If you decide to go, make sure you also visit Heiko Heimann and his walk-in Camera Obscura (which does have a lens, but still...).
Around one year ago was the first time I held a Hasselblad 500 medium format camera in my hands. I remember when I first pressed the shutter and things inside the little box started to move. From that moment on, I was hooked. I was deeply impressed by this mechanical masterpiece without any electrical part, let alone the massive focusing screen with such a crisp image.
So the next half a year or so, I spent a lot of time browsing flickr for Hasselblad photos, reading up on different bodies and lenses for the V System and analog photography in general; different films, how to develop negatives, darkroom printing, ... well, and at some point I went on eBay. Then, last Christmas, I got myself a Hasselblad 501cm with a 150mm Sonnar in fantastic condition. Since that day, I have used my digital SLR twice. I developed my first film in the bathroom, joined the ETH darkroom, bought the Planar 80mm, a lot of film and spent my time learning how to shoot. I extremely enjoy it to be limited by only 12 shots per roll, static film sensitivity, prime lenses and no automatic light metering. It makes me think about what, how, and most importantly, if I take a photo. And that's great!
I have uploaded a few photos from a trip around Morocco in 2007. We flew into Marrakech and roughly followed this route: Ouarzazate, Dades valley, Tinghir, Arfoud, Azrou, Fes, Chefchauouen, Casablanca and Essaouira. The final two weeks we spent at the coast between Essaouira and Agadir (mostly in Imsouane). My best memories include the big culture shock in Marrakech's medina, the amazing all-white-and-blue architecture of Chefchaouen and being stuck in Imsouane doing nothing but surfing and eating tagine.
I finally managed to put together some of the photos that I've taken over the last couple of years and set up this small website. The current set of pictures are from recent trips to Indonesia, Ecuador, Portugal, Tenerife and the Alps. We'll see if I can keep the project alive and upload some new pictures every now and then. I hope you enjoy this website!
