by Werner Eickenscheidt
"Most of my pics are made just around the corner..."
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In a quiet moment
Taken within our partyrooms where I do a lot of shots from time to time. I like
the light and the calm and peaceful atmosphere when nobody is there. Very often
I go there for a handfull of pics and then forget the time and come back with
more than a hundred.
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Floating
It's one of my experimental shots, moving the camera around a bit. I did some
post processing to add the curves, to give it some additional movement.
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April wind
Done on the first of April on top of a hill. There was a strong wind blowing, so
that I couldn´t fix the flower with my camera. When I saw the photo (which
wasn't too good as a photo), I immediately had the idea to work it over in
photoshop, to express the feeling of the moment when I captured it.
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Island dream.
Another experimental shot, another ps work. One of the macro shots from some old
record covers, moving the camera a bit. Once I saw it, I got a holiday feeling.
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The power of the moment. All photos are taken by Werner
Eickenscheidt
http://www.pbase.com/wennere_01
This is not an interview. It is a conversation, sharing thoughts...
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Elena: Have you experienced moments when suddenly you see something you
know in your heart, feel it, but cannot formulate, explain, or name it?
Look at the photo on the right. Time has stopped, but not for everybody. Time
has stopped only for Her! Concentration of the moment... One second journey
inside of yourself to understand something important, and, then..., back to
life: working, hurrying, talking...
This photograph invites reflection upon my belief about the importance of the
moment.
I think about name for
this collection of photograhs.
Werner: I would call it simply Things are much more simple in many cases.
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One moment in time
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| The pic was taken at the Thames in London, in
front of the former County Hall. I liked the two girls sitting there in a world
of their own, relaxed and contemplating, while being surrounded by people in a
hurry. In reality I think they were tourists in a similar situation like me in
that moment. I had just left the County Hall thinking about what to do next,
when I saw them. I think they had a stop for a moment, exhausted by what they
had visited before on the one hand and excited about what to see next on the
other. Think the girls book was a tourist guide.
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Elena: Please, click to enlarge these photos.
I truly believe these moments will preserve the feeling of our
century and times.
These moments are timeless because they are about US. They are about the great
carefree days of childhood when we were playing in the sandboxes and sharing
Twinkies, about days when we were thinking we would never make mistakes,...
and... about the bottom line: "We are not born wise; we get that way by
living."
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Painting hearts |
Game over |
Santa Claus invasion.
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Werner: Two little children within our community, painting hearts all over the
pavement, in a competition to show who's the better artist. That's what I like
about children: Once they notice me with my camera, they start joking and
posing. The next moment they have forgotten me, concentrating on their play,
and then you can take pictures like this.
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A soccer boy within our community. We always make jokes together and this is a
rather unusual look for him. The real story is outside this pic. The football
game was over and he wanted to be captured. But then forgot me for this moment,
concentrating on closing his shoes, still watching the ball, thinking about the
goals he missed. Though taken with my old simple camera it's still the best
portrait I've ever made for me.
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This Santa Claus was hanging on a parachute in a street market. Spent a
quarter of an hour to capture passengers passing by and looking at him. I like
the look of the man. I like the idea that both are looking at each other,
irritated by what they see. The man seems to be a muslim who is not sure what
to think about all this christmas habbit.
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London reflection
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Elena: Do you have a favorite category of photography? What is
one of your favorite places to travel to take photographs?
Werner: No, taking photos and creating computer effects pictures, are both a
creative process to me, different but equally satisfying. I also do not
prefer a specific kind of photo. My main aim is variety, to achieve progress
with any kind of photography. The only exception are reflections: wherever I see
a good one, I have to capture it....
...London, my favourite city way back from the past. It's pure pleasure to walk
around there and capture all those things I love, different from my normal
life, but still familiar at the same time to me".
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Elena: I have never seen such warm and cozy images of London. Do I see this
reflection as a missing piece of wet rainy glass grey London? :)
Werner: The effect of this is difficult to explain: The shot was
taken within the open wing of the glass door of the former County Hall at the
Thames opposite Big Ben. The door was wide open and the glass wing was leaning
against the marmor wall of the entrance. The glass of the door was totally
clean. It´s the structure of the marmor wall directly behind the glass that
gave the pattern of this pic and made the reflection shot possible.
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Elena: From where do you get
your inspiration?
Werner: From everywhere around me. From people, things and situations I like in
the neighbourhood of our community, above all from children's activities. And
from long walks through the nearby fields and meadows. This gives me the
patience to forget everything but photography for hours.
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Elena:
Just as though when I am looking at these reflections: We WANT to see superb
scenic locations, breathtaking images of something, but our inner-self NEEDS
the details and moments I found in your photographs: the last leaf,
unusual cosmic coloring of the ashphalt, reflections of somebody's weekend.
But let's let Werner tell us about his photographs. His descriptions fit his
images perfectly, and needs no editing on our part.
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Another rainy day
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Metal reflection |
London speed bus
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This is one of my all time favourites for different reasons. Went out that
morning after the morning rain. Had intended a long walk and then I saw this
just in front of my door. Took the pic and went back to upload it. Five minutes
later I got the first response from India. It was the first response ever I got
on pbase. There were a lot more to come for this that day. It was great
encouragement.
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A metal box in the middle of the market place in local
suburbia, containing sand for the pavements in winter. The surface was ice.
That made the blue tone of this reflection.
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This picture was a surprise to me. I had not intended it.
The remaining light late that evening wasn't enough to capture the Westminster
Bridge. So I opened the lense for nearly a second and got this result.
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The wheel |
Plastic world |
Double wheel
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| Different shots of the same object taken at
different times. Sometimes an object gets my special attraction, so that I have
to go there again and again to take some more pics of it, looking for new and
different points of view. This happened with this wheel, which was part of the
Bochum christmas market in the center of the city. These pics where funny,
because I had to bring myself into an unusual position to take them surrounded
by a lot of people wondering about the crazy guy with the camera. Well, for a
good pic I don´t care about it, and Double wheel is one of my favourite
reflection shots, because it takes some time to figure out what is real and
what is the reflection.
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Elena: We asked Werner to tell us about his
life in photography. I want to name his story:
Werner: I live in the middle of the former industrial (coal mining) area in the
western part of Germany. Since I can remember I was always more interested in
the visual aspects of the things around me than in functional or technical.
Understanding the world as a child was mainly thinking in terms of beauty,
forms, shapes and colours. As boys we all had a collection of small 'matchbox'
cars. I painted them, changed forms and colours, to find out how they would
look better to me. Others tried to open the cars immediately to have a look at
the engine.
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My first camera I got when I was about ten, a
very simple one called 'Agfa Klack'. Since then I had a camera for most of my
life, but only used it like most of the people do: For the extraordinary and
beautiful moments of life, for holiday pics, just to have something that brings
back memories.
A few years ago I started taking photography more seriously. I did a lot of ps
work during that time, for my cd-covers, for programs on the pc and for some
web-sites. Because I didn't want to use foreign material any longer, I had to
produce my own. About the same time, I went back to a quite unusual housing
community, where I had lived many years ago. Life here means a much closer
relationship to friends, neighbors and children around this area than it used
to. I like to be part of it, to join in all the different activities and to
capture the people and things here I love. It has given a new quality to
photography for me. So most of my pics are made just around the corner.
For a half of a year, I have my own
pbase photogallery on the internet. It's a new experience to
show my pics there and share them with other photographers. I feel that their
comments and the visit of their galleries has improved my style of photography,
and has inspired me more than anything else.
While I'm writing this, I can see the neighbor's kids playing outside in the
beautiful spring morning, and I would like to have a look at my favourite
galleries and to go out to capture the children playing at the same time.
That's how it used to be.
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Elena: We have met two kinds of
photographers: the ones that believe that a picture should be "good enough" as
shot and others that use filters and image manipulation with Photoshop or some
other software to get a better/corrected result. Which group do you believe is
"right" in regards to the way a photograph is presented?
Werner: To me there is no "right" or "wrong" in this case. I enjoy both. Once
we have taken a picture we have already started to change reality and to create
something new, even in the case of documentary pictures. In many cases we
capture only the beauty and select the ugly from reality, for example. There is
also always a story before and after the moment of capturing and beyond the
frames of the pic. Manipulation with Photoshop is only another way to create a
new reality, coming from our imagination, our fantasy. And as the pic belongs
to the photographer, it´s up to him to decide what kind of presentation he
prefers.
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Elena: Do you have dreams that
you would like to realize?
Werner: A portrait session as a mutual process to realize my ideas as well as
those of the model. A series of summer nights shots in the city. To capture an
eagle flying. And, and, and….
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Werner, FeaturePics is very thankfull to you for the opportunity to present
your photography on http://www.FeaturePics.com. And we will wait for a chance
to publish your Image of an eagle flying!
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