blutbad © Lilly Schwartz 2012
After I was unlucky with my application for PhD funding at one of the so-called Clusters of Excellency at the FU Berlin recently, I’m still not willing to give up on my project. Funding is very scarce recently, especially in the humanities, so it’s obvious that I have to try different routes. So, although I still don’t have funding, yesterday I was on my way to a research seminar out at the Freie Universität. The campus lies almost on the other side of town and it takes me about an hour to get there. Before I was on my way, I went past a photography studio to ask whether they could get my film roll developed. Unfortunately they don’t have their own machine anymore, which means that I would have had to wait two days. Since I’m travelling to the Düsseldorf area tomorrow, I wouldn’t have been able to collect the developed film. This is really the annoying bit of shooting film, because I really want to see the pictures now! I guess I have to get the roll developed when I arrive in Düsseldorf.
Everything considered I didn’t have much time to shoot yesterday, so I took pictures on the commute, which I normally don’t do. When I saw this picture earlier I had to laugh, since I actually just wanted to take a picture of the girl reading. I took it through the train window just as the train was about to leave the station Beusselstraße. Inadvertently the pretty-girl-reading picture turned out somewhat sinister, since what is written on the trousers of the guy walking down the stairs actually means ‘bloodbath’ in German. Very strange.
Well seen and taken. I’m imagining the girl alone without the intruding legs.
Thanks Kenny! Yes, I was hoping to catch her alone as well, but in busy street scenes like this it’s hard to always get it your way …
I understand completely. It would be easy to feel shut off from a scene when sat behind a window like this. Better to have than to have not.
Great shot Lilly…I held up a piece of paper to block out the guys legs. The photo works much better!!!
Thanks David! I actually tried to crop the guy out of the picture, but the problem is the framing. She would be sitting too far at the edge then. And although content-aware fill in Photoshop is pretty good, it’s not good enough to cope with such a big area.
Yes it’s too bad he is not one step higher and then it would have been more balanced. If only the train was there 3 seconds earlier…
I have another picture of her with two people in the frame, similarly badly positioned. It’s just a really busy spot. It’s the frustrating issue of *almost* having the picture you wanted.
It makes you wonder what she is reading lol Too funny!
Haha, you think her reading material is related to the ‘bloodbath’? 😉
It’s a fascinating capture, Ms. S.
And kind of funny… if I was the guy walking down the stairs and I saw a person seated at the bottom I think I would be much farther over… all the way up against the railing (almost as a courtesy). Of course, I probably wouldn’t be wearing ‘Bloodbath’ pants, either, though.
🙂
Oh… I was also going to mention if you have the space to do so b/w film chemistry is still fairly reasonable (when compared to the price of film processing – over here, anyway) and it’s kind of fun to do, too… I think you might enjoy it!
🙂
That’s definitely the plan in the long run! For now I’m still testing the camera, shooting with bad cheap colour film (2 for 1.75€) and sending it to a big lab (0.95€ for colour, 2.95€ for b/w). I’d never send any b/w there though. In a good lab they charge 4.95€ for both b/w and colour. Quite a difference! I think with those kind of prices I’ll quickly learn how to develop myself 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Well, bad style can definitely go with strange behaviour. I mean ‘bloodbath’?! They advertise these clothes as “The only genuine street and ghetto wear in Germany” … yeah right …
Lovely image! The soft hues work really well. 🙂
Glad you like it Richard! Funny, I just realised that I remember this picture in black and white and not in colour! My brain is starting to work only in monochrome 😉
Haha… Some images suit colour though, while others only sit well in monochrome. I never set out to take a black and white image, it’s only when I look at the result I can see what does (and doesn’t) work.
Before I started shooting in RAW I definitely liked to think in monochrome. It makes you plan your pictures more. Now I can do that with shooting black and white film with my Zorki. Still, some shots only work in colour. I also like naturally monochrome views like winter landscapes.