I just noticed Severin Koller has an updated homepage. There’s a bunch of photos I haven’t seen or forgot about. So I think I know what I’m going to do tonight.
He’s one of my favourite photographers and a major reason I’m shooting film. I especially like his street and documentary work, but his portraits are wonderful, too. And his other stuff as well. Go check it out!
If you like what you see, I encourage you to check out his blog, which is one of the best sites on the internet. Just wonderful – and more personal – street and documentary photographs. He’s got such a great eye for moments – from subtle gestures to more obvious juxtapositions – and an incredible skill to capture them. And you can basically follow his life for the last decade.
I thought about it for a while before making the booking, because I thought it’s maybe a little decadent to do so. But Nicole quickly convinced me by saying something along the lines of: “You only live once. You like his photos a lot. Go, do it!”. So I booked the workshop, flights and accommodation.
Unfortunately, and to my surprise, the workshop was cancelled two days beforehand and one day before my flight on Tuesday. But lucky me, Severin contacted me directly and suggested to do a workshop just for me. Instead of the originally scheduled 3 days, the workshop took place on two days – one day meeting and shooting and one day in the darkroom. But that was absolutely fine with me, now that I got an exclusive one-on-one training.
So, here are my impressions from these days in Vienna. One roll was shot on my Olympus Trip 35, but most photos were taken with a Canon Canonet G-III QL-17. The films were either Ilford HP-5 Plus, Kodak Tri-X or Ilford FP-4. The rolls were developed in Xtol 1+1 and scanned with the Epson V200.
MoonlightCafé Wirr with Severin’s Vienna-Mag hanging on the walls.It was cold!
On Thursday, the first day of the workshop, we met at Café Ritter, had coffees and got to know each other. We then went out, walked on and around Mariahilferstraße and shot quite a few frames before having an early dinner.
First meetup with Severin at Café Ritter.Read More...
333/365: Spent the whole Sunday in the darkroom, developing my 7 rolls of film, compiling a best-of selection, making contact sheets, and finally hand-printing 3 of my photos.
Here, Severin is hanging the negatives to dry.
330/365: Met up with Severin and spent the day talking and shooting.
Last weekend my copy of severinkoller’s “Vienna” was delivered. It’s beautiful! And it’s very likely responsible for going through another film-phase again. Some negatives from yesterday are still waiting to be scanned. I also ordered more film and some additional home-lab supplies.
This photo was appropriately captured on film. And it is inappropriately not in focus, because I still mess it up with the Trip’s guess-your-focus-distance mechanism.
Olympus Trip 35, Kodak Tri-X, developed in 1:50 Rodinal for 13 minutes, negative scan with Epson Perfection V200 Photo.
I was walking around with my iPhone in hand, when I noticed the reflections of the trees on the glass. I was immediately reminded of this photograph by Severin Koller. So I found a random bike and made this imitation.
