playing at the mall © Lilly Schwartz 2012
This picture was taken yesterday at the Gesundbrunnen Center. As you can see this is a pretty normal mall and there is not much to say about it. I was sitting on a bench watching these kids playing with soap bubbles. I took a few pictures and they got really interested in my camera. This little girl posed for me while the others were running around. I really liked her attitude.
I saw a documentary the other day about street photography and after watching Joel Meyerowitz really shooting offensively just half a meter away from people, I decided to get a bit more bold with taking pictures in the street. People in Germany are a bit uptight about street photography, so often you get some weird attitudes, but I actually think it’s also about the quite threatening SLR lenses. This is actually why I decided to get into rangefinder cameras. My dream is obviously the Leica M9, as I have mentioned several times already, but until I can afford this awesome piece of technology, I will start shooting with a soviet Leica copy, the Zorki 3C. I bought one of these models off the bay and I can’t wait for it to arrive, hoping that it’s still in good working order. Soviet technology was built to last, so this model is hopefully still fine after more than 50 years (the model was produced from 1955-56). Still, whenever I buy something off the bay I’m a bit worried that it’s going to be a big hassle and with this one even more, since it’s so easy to break: Forget cocking the shutter before changing the shutter speed and already it’s a case for repair. I hope I won’t start my experience of shooting film with disassembling this thing to see whether I can repair any damage it might have (although admittedly it might be quite a bonding experience to do that). Since the Zorki 3C doesn’t have a light meter – and even if it did, it probably wouldn’t be working anymore – I also ordered a cheap GDR selenium light meter. I’ll keep you updated about how all of that goes of course.
Finally I have caught up with uploading all my pictures. Can’t even say how long it took, but yes, it took a while of posting 3 pictures a day. From tomorrow I’ll be back to one picture a day!
So cute! Good luck with the Zorki!
Wish I could learn to be a bit more bold with street stuff, too…
I hope my new camera helps me! The SLR is just too threatening.
If you read the notes of famous street photographers, they always have “be more bold!” somewhere in their diaries. Seems normal to feel like that!
This is a delightful photograph. I don’t particularly like going to malls – too much sensory bombardment and people don’t seem to be enjoying themselves all that much – but these children obviously knew how to turn going to a mall into a fun time. The girl seems to be inviting the viewer to share her enjoyment.
I also don’t like malls to be honest. When I lived in Düsseldorf years ago I was actually proud that there was no typical mall around. Since I moved away they built one though, how disappointing! Still, sometimes it’s actually convenient.
And these kids definitely knew how to have fun there.