So this is it. Our first blog post together. Last Saturday we Sascha and I met up in Cologne to do a photowalk together, our first in two years. The night before we discussed our possible routes and what we wanted to make images of. Both of us are interested in doing street photography, but European and German laws have become increasingly restrictive over the years that we did not want go full-on Bruce Gilden, even though in an art-context such as this, it should be ok to do more upfront street shots with people. But enough of what we did not do, on to what we decided on. We settled on the scenic route through Cologne,starting with the Cathedral, as it does afford some interesting perspectives, then we went over the Deutzer Bridge to get some midday panoramas…. but see for yourself.
In effect we worked from noon to after sunset, working the streets for images that represent the aspects of Cologne as we saw it. Even though we both walked the exact same streets together, our images are very different. The difference does not only lie in the fact that Sascha’s are in black and white and mine are in color, though. We see very differently, too. Here details are extracted from the scene and put in a figure / ground context: legs separated from the people and set as lines against the ground, shadows only as symbols of people, the soap-bubble singled-out between the cathedral’s two towers (the cute-eye-of-Sauron-shot, as I call it). My shots have more overview, are in a way more representative of the space they were taken in, less mysterious, more naturalistic in nature.
Both ways of seeing are hopefully delightful to you, both in their very different genres and styles. Let’s start with Sascha’s gallery:
And here are Torsten’s pictures, we cut down the selection to ten images each, to keep the experience somehow manageable.
Enjoy!