Today I gave my new Leica a good workout, three rolls of film full and another halfway through. I already managed to mess up though and opened up the back without rewinding the film for the second roll. I wonder whether any of the pictures are going to come out now. A shame since there were some nice ones on that. Ah well, I was just tired after having a long day, which included travelling and a doctor’s appointment. Well, the solution to the screwed up roll was obviously to go out and shoot some more, in this case a roll of CineStill in the most miserable rain. And of course we had to use the chance of visiting my favourite bookstore in Berlin which is open until 12pm these days.
By the way, shooting the Leica is plain lovely. Smooth, swift and clear focus, and the shutter has such a lovely sound. It’s also quiet enough to shoot it at 1m distance without getting noticed. It took me a little while to get used to the light meter, but I think I almost got the hang of it now. In any case, this camera will give me tons and tons of joy!
The pictures I show you today were taken last year and shot in the immediate context of my down below project. I was working my favourite subject – the subway – and I was systematically photographing to finish the project as I knew that I would be leaving the city and couldn’t continue the project at my normal pace. For a couple of weeks I was just down below, riding the subway, switching trains at every station and looking what I could find. These are some of the shots that stayed with me of that period of riding the subway with a mission. The project contains many more shots that have survived my editing and re-editing.
All pictures taken with: Olympus Pen E-PL3 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH.
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
The man on the right is such a presence!
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
Rituals of greeting. Moments later they were kickboxing with each other. I guess that’s where they know each other from, since it was all friendly.
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
This one portraits the poverty of rich people, if you get my drift.
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
If I had any say with the focus it probably would have fallen onto the laughing guy, but like this the autofocus made it a lot stronger. I probably wouldn’t have liked this half as much if the focus wasn’t on the hand of the guy on the right.
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
Children are great, they can even turn something as simple as a glass window into an other-wordly object.
© Lilly Schwartz 2013
Such strong looks! One was looking at me as I was walking past, the other at my camera. Being caught in this double gaze makes this picture rather special. This almost never happens!