PARANOID (31.05.08)

Lost in my truck driver editing. Since days, now. My mind brought me back to school and I thought of the super-teacher motivating me never giving up during the "boxe" project. The first time I proudly showed him my reportage, after one month of shooting, he put all the prints in a box, closed it and said: now you are ready to start your project. Today I think I'm exactly at that point again: zero. Put everything in a box, take your camera and start your truckdrivers project. But how comes I got no "real" work and still no time for really taking one month and live on europe's highways. I have been a week around with this driver, fifteen days west bank, a wedding... run out of money and spent almost every minute of this last month editing stuff!!! Or preparing a still unexisting exhibition with Aglaia. Or planning my web page. Computer, computer, computer. A sense of beeing useless. A bit sad. It feels like when I went to school as a kid: what I do is enough, but never excellent. "Your son could be more, he just doesn't want...". What is it? What have I to do? Loneliness is one part of the solution I guess. But who wants to be alone? Or is there just a normal thing going on here. I guess the only thing to do is to start from zero the truck project. In black and white film?

ROAD TO PEACE (12.05.08)

After all this words you can take a look at the sequence of selected pictures from the trip to the West Bank, by clicking (HERE)

You speak french? For a betther understanding please click once on the small picture wich goes bigger: click on it. Now choose the picture interesting you. On the right side click "descriptif" and you'll see short but precious infos to read.

About the post song-title: listen (HERE) and read the lyrics (HERE)

BACK IN BLACK and white (07.05.08)

I had nightmares about empty film rolls. Almost had a heart attack discovering the price of professional processing. But the contact sheets seem ok now. I really like some pictures on it. Balck and white is wonderful. The sensation of holding something real and precious is great. And the way you shot is different than digital. 

No story. A portfolio. A "carnet de route". Without having seen anything a wine producer and art lover (and friend) wants to have an exhibition of this pics somewhen in autumn. No magazine seem interested and since our exhibition in berlin has been "postponed" to betther days no hurry for editing. 

Scanning negatives in 30M would cost 50 ChFr pro picture. A thousand bucks for 20 scans? 

This morning my mom told me (she's my news source!) that since Switzerland is not invited to Israel's 60's celebration (I like my passport again) a group of politicians and professors will take a trip to palestine on their own costs. Occasion for publishing a recent portfolio? So I will probably take a train to Lausanne and do my scans there, wich is less expensive then at the pro's lab! Everything has to be ready before the 14th (day of celebration). Let's hope. 

By he way now discussions with collegues and friends are about war photography and ethical donnowaht, and classical photography, and doing this in YOUR way, and different...

First of all I have been to Palestina. But NOT in Gaza. I have been in the West Bank. There I did a lot of classical stuff on check points and soldiers and beautiful arabs... and kids with stones. Wich is not Club Med but there was no big danger. I did it black and white. It has been my personal project. That means that I payed for everything and I did what I wanted. Wich sometimes leads to a personal vision of a known cliché but sometimes also allows you to have pure pleasure and truly let go of all intellectual pressure and do what YOU REALLY like. It has been my holydays with Aglaia, we had fun and we played the game for our common art project: I tried to find dramatic moments to make the place look scary and with her fiber art skills she will draw what more there is to be seen... and told. So let's keep the photo school discussions for a next occasion!

Now my mom called in for letting know that trucks are stuck on the highway down here in Chiasso. Some are tuned on the police frequency: I have my mother knowing betther :)