My Photographic Midlife Crisis - Chaos

PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY BERT STEPHANI

Over the last few months I’ve been very frustrated by my own work, I’ve been having doubts of where I want/should take my career and I bought the biggest lens that exists for my camera while I don’t even like shooting long lenses. All the signs point to a photographic midlife crisis. 

Sometimes I feel I’m getting close to grasp what it is that I want to do. But it stays just out of reach. Other times I’m completely sure that I found my new path. And then the next day I run into something completely opposite that I like just as well. I feel the need to make choices, be bold, but that’s a recipe for disaster if those choices are not based on some solid foundations. I question everything I do: shooting style, subjects, post processing, lens choices. I even doubt many things that have been the result of years of working hard to get it right. On the other hand, it’s not that I want to stop what I’ve been doing completely and jump into something very different. I know that there are many elements of my work that I want to keep, I just don’t know which ones. 

All this has led to chaos in my mind, relentless searching for information, writing down new business plans and many sleepless nights. Sometimes, I’m really considering to forget about it all and just keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the last years. But honestly that’s an option that doesn’t exist for a creative mind. I will just have to push through this somehow.

Lately I’ve come to see all this in a completely different way. When talking to my KAGE buddies and other creative friends, I found out that I’m not alone in experiencing this. We all go through these phases from time to time. I’ve come to accept it as a necessity for growing as an artist and as a person. I’ve even started to see it as a positive kind of chaos. I can’t fight it, nor can I force a conclusion. It just has to come through experimentation and reflection. 

For now, for most of my assigned work, I’ll stick to my old ways. On the other side of the spectrum is my personal work, which is all over the map as you can probably tell from the gallery in this article. I’m just shooting as much as I can, trying as much different things that I find even remotely interesting. Right now, the work is very eclectic and I know that I’m going to hate some of it very soon. But slowly there are also patterns that are becoming clear. For the uninformed user it may still look confusing but when I look at my recent personal work, there are keywords that come to mind like: nature, exploration, innovation, … 

I’m still very much at the start of this whole process but since I’ve started to accept and even embrace the chaos, I’m actually looking forward to how it will continue. I intend to bring you along for the ride and turn this article into a monthly series. 

It would be interesting to see what YOU see or miss in the images in this gallery, so don’t hold back in the comments. 

Constant States of Conversion

Text and photography by Patrick La Roque

The sun changes everything around here—the spirits stir, people freed by the shedding of their winter skin. As if we all get to be new again, every spring. For a few minutes I just stand on the sidewalk, looking up into the warmth, soaking it in.

These are strange days for me, heavy with what I sometimes feel are a few too many milestones. Last week I caught up to my dad; that is, I reached the age he was when he died. How fucked up is that? To realize you will always, from this point on, be older than your father, travelling a path he never walked? To understand—physically understand— how brief it all was for him...my god. I feel at once insanely lonely and profoundly blessed. 

Milestones? Yeah. No shit.

I guess I'm slowly realizing this is our reality: flux. Constant states of conversion forcing us to re-evaluate what we thought was true. We're the ever-changing light in the city, those moving shadows and shifting surfaces I love so much. 

Transient and forever renewed.

Field of Dreams

BY FLEMMING BO JENSEN

The past, the present and the future.

Connecting it all through the eyes of my loved one.

What I wouldn't give for the chance to go Home one more time.

Is there enough magic to grant me that wish?

Yes.

A roadtrip.

A first.

Unexplored territory.

The Place Where Dreams Come True.

Renewtown

Renewtown

It seems like a lot of cities of a certain age have a suburb named Newtown - or Villeneuve, or the local equivalent. The general rule seems to be that they're usually the second centre to be created, after the main downtown area becomes established; so, most often, they're just a little more than walking distance from the core of the city, but easily accessible by modern transportation.

Somehow though, that distance acts as a barrier just long enough for them to get a bit run down, to lag behind the modernisation or gentrification that hits the closer suburbs first. So, they're the last bastion of the independent shopkeep, the stores set up thirty to fifty years ago in the one location, who are still hanging on - even as the shopping malls and megastores spring up nearby...

Star(s) and Stripes

PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY BERT STEPHANI

Cuba has a complicated relation with the USA. The recent visit of president Obama was a very important step in reforging the historical bond between America and that little island off the coast of Florida. 

When I was in Havana in the beginning of the year, I noticed that the government still desperately tries to hold up the worn out image of communism/socialism. At the same time, most of the people seem to be sick and tired of it. After all, it takes only one little step outside "tourist Havana" to see that the system has failed in many aspects. The people of Havana are proud to be Cuban but a lot of them are at the same time longing desperately for America.  

The Cuban and the American flag share stars (well, just one star in Cuba's case) and stripes. In the streets of Havana those two flags seem to blend. Just like the idolization of the USA blends with Cuban pride. 

ISO 200 RHAPSODY

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY VINCENT BaldeNsperger

Blé adolescent
Terre en overdose
Barcarolles animales
Vent d'ouest
Eclipse coquelicot
Signature d'une hirondelle
Aube lumineuse

Adolescent wheat
Earth in overdose
Animal barcaroles
Western wind
Poppy eclipse
A sparrow's signature
Luminous dawn

When the Sun Shines in Britain

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN MULLINS

This weekend, the United Kingdom saw sunshine.  

It was a newsworthy event, as temperatures soared to a dizzy 21 degrees for the first time (it seems) sense 1955.

In a nod to the great English photographer, Martin Parr, I have been working on an ongoing personal project that I have subjectively titled "Britain Burns".

For the purpose of this month's Kage theme, A New Light, I wanted to shoot some images for us that formed part of my personal project but also showcased the incredibly British attitude towards this "New Light" - the sunshine.  Whenever it makes its rare appearance it seems the same things happen.  And they always happen in a very British way.

It seems that we Brits are born with this natural urge to acquiesce to the sun whenever it puts its hat on.  I see it as a rite of passage as Britain Burns and we have an inane propinquity with each other when this rarest of events unfolds before our eyes.

I am very aware that at the time of writing this, the area of Alberta in Canada is struggling with a very serious issue and the timing of this post is coincidental.  Whilst we in Western Europe embrace the heat on this day, my heart, prayers and thoughts go out to those in Canada who are affected by a burning of a very different nature.

All of these images were taken with the Fuji X-70 and the Wide Angle Converter which for me has presented another epiphany in terms of the way I can shoot candid street photography.

Review: The Little Strap That Could (Domke 1" Gripper w/ Swivel)

Text and photos: Charlene Winfred 

The Domke 1" Gripper Strap with Swivel once saved me.

In 2013, not long after arriving in Mexico City, I'd made the mistake of getting into the Metrobus - as the name suggests, a rapid transit system on wheels instead of rails - at rush hour. 

It was packed. I'd sardined into the bus with everyone else at the station, back against the doors, with both shoulder bag and camera (the good old X-Pro1) slung across my body to make sure they stayed with me. Arriving at the next station, the doors opened to disgorge the flood of departing bodies and take in a fresh wave of incoming ones. As they were closing, a guy who had been fighting his way to get out darted past, catching me full in a shoulder as he exited.

I started to tip over onto the platform, yelping.

A couple of arms shot out to help. One of them was grabbing for my shoulder but missed and caught the camera strap instead. It held and hauled, stopping my fall in its tracks.

"#^#&*^%#&^%&*" I'd thought as the doors closed where my neck had been before, half suspended by the strap and the good Samaritan hanging on to it. "It's going to snap."

But it didn't. Camera, strap and I were still attached to one another.

Tough strap for a tough camera

A few people have come across my beat up old X-Pro1 and read about the inadvertent torture testing it went through in the years I fell over all the time. I never mentioned the strap I used with it, that I still use today.

I bought this Domke Gripper strap in 2011, a year before I threw my lot in with Fuji and got the X-Pro1. So it started out attached to a Nikon. 

Price

In 2011, it cost AUD $23, which included shipping. The price hasn't gone up by much, so  it's still incredible value for money.

Construction

I've always looked for straps that were tough and grippy without being bulky or flashy. I owned a couple of Domke bags at the time for all my working gear, and loved their unassuming, utilitarian design as much as their bomb-proof robustness. Domke camera straps are made the same way.

Webbing and Swivels: The webbing is made of specially woven strong-as-hell fibre, and its swivels, tougher-than-nail metal. It has borne the weight of an average sized falling human, and is still slinging.

Non-slip: It's slipperier now on smooth fabric, as the non-slip bits have worn over 5 years of use, but one of the things I really liked about this strap when I first got it, was how it was grippy without being sticky. On the underside of the strap, two rows of rubbery non-slip material are woven into the main webbing material, so it sat on my shoulder no matter what I wore, yet didn't pull at my clothing when I lifted the camera to shoot. 

The swivel factor: Brilliant. This just does away with tangling. As a bonus, the main webbing can be removed from the camera during video filming to lessen bulk and flap factor, and the harness clipped to tripods / shoulder rigs for a little extra security.

Length: This is a strap long enough to hang from a tall person's shoulder. I wear it at maximum length so that the camera hangs within easy reach of my hand while walking, and so I can sling it across my body out of the way like a shoulder bag when I cycle / climb rocks / do stuff that requires both hands. It's also very handy for winding around my wrist when I'm actively shooting.

Left: photo by Flemming Bo Jensen | Right: special camera suspension by Flemming Bo Jensen

Conclusion

The 1" strap suits X-series cameras much better than it does the bulkier DSLRs. This single strap has been on every camera body I've used since 2011, including all of the X-series bodies: X-Pro1, X-E2, X-T1, X-T10, and now the X-Pro2.

It is simply designed, well made and discreet. Like the X-Pro2 it is now attached to, I forget it's there when I'm working as it stays out of the way. I value these qualities in my equipment, so for me, the Domke Gripper with swivel, is still the perfect camera strap.

8XMAY2016

OUR PERSONAL CHOICES THIS MONTH