Creepy

If you are in the mood for something really creepy click here and scroll down until you see the swapping image.

So much for the very dark side of Photoshop. Indignation aside I have to admit something: Time and again I also perform some minor digital surgery. I remove the occasional pimple or put some Photoshop powder on shiny noses and don't feel bad about it. At least pimples are only temporary phenomena and removing them makes the photographed person feel better. Of course I would never retouch a pimple/shiny nose that is evidence for stress, anxiety etc. if documentation is the purpose of my picturetaking ...

While I feel completely justified in the result of this digital intervention I am not so sure about the process itself. Looking at someone else's face on the screen at 100 percent magnification amounts to an intrusion into privacy. You get acquainted with impressive packs of pores which even the husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend of that person never noticed because pores are not what we usually lay our eyes on. You can explore the nature of wrinkles, the length of nasal hair etc., discoveries which are usually made by that person's mirror only. Looking too closely feels out of bounds and tender at the same time (just as this last sentence sounds irrelevant and perverse at the same time).

Watery

The profane act of using my Nikon as a stopwatch for a long time exposure of my Hasselblad aroused my well hidden romantic core. It happened in St. Petersburg last week. Me standing on a bridge, Nikon dangling from my neck, opening its shutter for four seconds just to tell me and Hasselblad how long four seconds are. While I usually delete pictures resulting from that process right away, I somewhat liked that unintentional image of a canal for its fluffiness and airiness. Which made me want to reproduce that effect again and again every time I met a waterway. The resulting series (which can be seen when clicking on the image above) is neither representative for my work nor for the impression St. Petersburg made on me (loud&dusty). Still it gives a hint at how the city could feel like if for example cars were not accelerating every time you set your foot on a zebra crossing. Et cetera.

Less watery images to come.