DEFINITION 024 | THE EXPLORER
BY BERT STEPHANI
As a kid I devoured books about polar expeditions, climbing Everest and dangerous travels in the rainforest. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew were my television heroes and I listened to the cassette tapes my aunt mailed to my parents while she lived in the Congo. I was destined to become a famous explorer. But as I got older there was the preparation of the basketball season that prevented long travels during the summer, work got in the way and then came a family that I just love being with way more than the highest mountain or the deepest abyss.
I still managed to see a nice chunk of the world and explore different cultures and places. During my twenties and thirties it bothered me sometimes though that I never completely released my inner Indiana Jones. But I also started to understand that my childhood heroes all paid a big price for following their passion, a price that I am not prepared to pay.
It’s very unlikely that I’ll discover a new dolphin species, be the first to climb Everest while playing a saxophone or swim across the Bering Sea in just a pair of Speedos. But like in sports, exploring doesn’t require you to be setting new records to enjoy it.
During the lockdown I got restless and started to understand that I really need a healthy dose of adventure to stay sane. Luckily I rediscovered bicycles as a way to explore. In the early nineties I got hooked on mountainbiking. Back then it wasn’t about trails and bike parks, it was about the adventure to go places where a normal bike couldn’t go. It wasn’t about speed or distance (although I experienced plenty of both), it was a way to see something of the world, hang out with great people and it wasn’t bad for my health either (except for the crashes).
Somehow, I found all of that back in the last month or so (minus the fitness and adrenaline kicks). I started taking a camera with me on my rides. It makes me stop more often and enjoy the moment. I’m exploring again, exploring how to explore on a bike again.
All images shot with the X100V
DEFINITION 023 | THE HAPPY PLACE
Definition 022 | On the times, and changing
To suggest that there’s been a lot going on in 2020 so far would be, well, the understatement of the year.
We drove inland from Sydney on the weekend to visit a friend (now that we’re allowed to travel locally), passing through lands that were scorched by the bushfires in December and January, flooded with rain in February, and quarantined for coronavirus ever since.
But what I was thinking about on this trip was, ironically, the things I didn’t need to think about. The many, many things that are just easier for me, as a whitefella in Australia—even as a recent migrant…
Definition 021 | 39 Last Street
Photography and words by Jonas Dyhr Rask
Camera slung across the chest, closing the door to the apartment behind me, getting hit by the pulsating life and sounds of the vibrant city life.
It was how I really started photographing those 9 years ago. I bought myself an X100 camera, and immediately hit the streets. It evolved from there, that’s for sure. Over the course of two years I got sucked in deeper and deeper. It was almost like an addiction. It was an addiction.
I would get lost in it for hours, days even. I still do.
Street photography has become such an integral part of me, that when I’m not able to practice it at least twice a week its like holding my breath past capacity. It feels like I’m choking.
It doesn’t have to be thematic. It doesn’t have to be documentary. It just has to be.
All the time, it has to be.
Today was the last chance to go shoot in the city before I turn 40 on friday. Looking back at my 30’s they contain all my photographic experiences. When I was 30 I shot my first street shots. It’s crazy to think about, so I try not to. I don’t want to dwell. I want to push forward. Look forward.
So today, I did what I do at least twice a week.
I drive to the city, camera slung across the chest, closing the door to the car behind me, getting hit by the pulsating life and sounds of the vibrant city life.
I breathe.
I photograph.
(all shots shot during an hour this afternoon. Shot on the X-Pro3 with the XF35mm f/1.4)
DEFINITION 020 | NOTHING COMPARES 2 U
Definition 019 | In Vino
By Vincent Baldensperger
Lui c’est Simon. Aujourd’hui je suis son hôte pendant quelques heures pour sillonner son vignoble, l’accompagner dans ses travaux quotidiens. Je fais le plus beau métier du monde, ça c’est ce qui me trotte dans la tête une fois encore à ce moment. Passion dévorante pour toutes les formes d’artisanat, là où la main de l’Homme sublime la terre et la matière, sans artifice. Fidèle observateur, attentif, émerveillé souvent et jamais rassasié.
Ce matin de mai, 8 heures, hautes pressions, azur jusqu’aux Pyrénées et petit café aux pieds du château avant de débuter mon reportage. Journée consacrée à l’ébourgeonnage, une petite équipe nous devance sur une parcelle de Merlot. Il faut suivre un sentier, longer les premières parcelles dans le silence, l’herbe pleine de rosée sous les pieds… descendre enfin vers un lac, saules pleureurs, grenouilles, aigrettes, et sur l’autre flanc du vallon quelques brebis. Décors sonore. Sur cette petite parcelle, 5 personnes dos courbés, à genoux, couchées parfois s’activent méticuleusement pour mener à bien cette étape printanière. Chaque pied de vigne est observé puis débarrassé de ses bourgeons et jeunes rameaux envahissants. Là encore j’observe et j’apprend, concentré sur tous ces gestes. Un seul but en tête, saisir au mieux et sans intervenir le sens de ce savoir-faire. Quelques heures d’observations, suivre l’un puis l’autre, chantonnant, sifflotant pour s’encourager sous le soleil jusqu’à toucher au but. Deux, trois rangs terminés et une pause avant d’y retourner. 11 heures. J’entends leurs voix faiblir. Aux côtés de Simon, petit tour de lac avant de remonter vers notre point de départ. Là, entre deux rangs de Syrah, deux ceps à déposer sur le bord du sentier…
Lui c’est Simon Gerber, vigneron bio dans le Sud-Ouest de la France, à la tête du Domaine de Ribonnet où se cache une cave d’exception créée par Clément Ader.
Definition 018 | Travel
PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY DEREK CLARK
Apart from not being able to see family and friends during this pandemic, the two things I miss most are street photography and travel. No matter if it’s trains, planes, or automobiles (boats too), I love the feeling of going somewhere! Of being on the move! It’s probably the possibilities of what might lie ahead, a blank notebook, memory cards to fill, miles to walk and explore.
I love the feeling of being self-contained, only carrying what I need and only needing what I carry. Headphones, iPad, notebook and pen. Two or three small cameras and the bare minimum of lenses. I know when I’m in the right place because I don’t want to go home. But still - I could keep moving, exploring, discovering all things new.
Who knows what travel will look like in the months or even years to come. Maybe it will go back to normal, maybe it never will. Hopefully, we won’t feel like other humans are a threat for much longer. I for one miss being in a crowd with a 28mm or 35mm lens.
TO THE BAT CAVE. Depending on where you get your information - Covid-19 might be their gift to us…or their revenge.
Definition 017 | Seedling
By Patrick La Roque
Imagine a dot. It might symbolize a beginning, the flashpoint from which our universe expanded. Or it can signify the end—a period, in the last sentence of a diary. Every day is a dot right now. And I’ll be damned if I know which side of the timeline it represents.
The other day I saw a young child reunited with his grandpa, on the evening news. The scene had been shot in Italy, as the country slowly attempts a return to normalcy. I felt a lump in my throat. Sure, I can be sensitive...but this was odd.
Today’s my birthday—May 5. Usually the trees have turned a soft green, not yet full of leaves but a promise. Not this year. Like us, nature seems to be waiting; and there’s a frost warning for tonight. So as you may have guessed, the images in this essay are a trick of the camera’s eye: blown-up, even the smallest bit of life can fill our hearts.
Imagine a dot.
Let’s call it a seed.
Definition 016 | Forty-Five
BY BERT STEPHANI
Today is my 45th birthday. I don’t find that particularly old, nor young. For once having a brain that doesn’t understand numbers, is a blessing I suppose. Don’t ask me to come up with resolutions. Don’t ask me to look back onto the past 45 years.
I just want to be ... now ... in the moment.
I’ve been working on lockdown-stuff on my blog, social media, YouTube and a webinar, but not today.
Today I just want to be ... now ... in the moment
Strangely, my birthday is probably the most normal day I’m having since all that virus-craziness started. I’m enjoying the attention from my family, friends and colleagues ... just like I did on any other birthday.
And that’s a blessing. You know, just be ... now ... in the moment
