PORTISHEAD/ POLADROID – too many thoughts today … cleaning up the birdhouse while testing Poladroid while thinking about yesterday’s experience with the wonderful Portishead DVD while falling in love with Beth Gibbons while processing the new material while cooking some indian meal while dreaming of some days off with my girl (who’s NOT Beth Gibbons!) while drinking another pint while keeping my eyes on two monitors while doing so many things normal people would do over a week or so … and the most dissapointing fact today: I can’t read my notes I wrote last night…
//SEEARR//
A JOURNAL OF VISUAL THOUGHTS BY CHRISTIAN RUHM
thought #24
BLACK SEA – got this one out of the lab today … high-end scanned and it’s unbelievable! … I just cruised through every detail – a journey across every single grain and it reminded me so much of Fennesz’ wonderful last album (in a visual way) … no post-production needed – just pure photography … just this very intense material … I l.o.v.e. it.
thought #23
EXCLUSION ZONE – close my eyes … sometimes my mind’s a better observer. sometimes my heart’s a better decision maker and sometimes my soul’s a bloody dogmatist … these things could make me sad … while my USB stick is stuffed with material and my brain still pukes strange ideas. “let’s make a fast plan“, I keep telling myself without even having a clue … some days are strange … some days I have to wait outside the exclusion zone.
thought #22
LYNCH (ONE) AND WHAT HAPPENED – yesterday I watched this great documentary and (again) D.L. opened my eyes, my heart, and my soul … on the other hand I found out that I’ve to work much harder to get the results I want. I’m working on it … TM … well, maybe … I dunno…
thought #21
NOTE #1 – I wish there would be a wall where I could pin my thoughts from today … ’cause today there were so many of them and I have to look at them from a certain distance … bit by bit and little by little.
I’m in need of a huge wall … to organize my abstract thoughts … to understand my abstractions.
thought #20
POST A BILL – and spread it to the world … I’ve enough material for the next couple of weeks and another very special inspirational source is on it’s way … need to reduce ‘things‘, shorten them, and look at them carefully afterwards… they’re so fragile but they’ve so many stories to tell … listen to them carefully … no need to hurry … to be in haste.
thought #19
FALSE FRONT – the beginning of another series I started today in Berlin / Mitte while hanging around in thousands of very nice galleries. Lots of inspiration and a wonderful time with my girl … hey, it’s summer…
thought #18
“STUDIO WALK” – looking forward to new shootings this week … can’t wait to get new material … very busy at the moment.
thought #17
NEXT DAY… – everything was fine. Nothing to worry about … except lousy tourists all around … so we headed home.
thought #15
ON VACATION – Dear Follower! Over the next couple of days I’ll take a short break … get some inspiration. If there’s a chance to post some digital stuff … it’ll land right here … see You & stay safe…!!
thought #14
TILT // SHIFT – a warmhearted soul donated me her canon equipment including a magical tilt-shift-lens … first results shot last weekend. It’s a dream coming true … get the focus where I want it and send the rest of the story to blurred mists. Next week several shootings are planned and I can’t wait to see it “in action”… yeah!
thought #13
WIEDER ZUWIDER – …was the 2nd track I recorded with german lyrics. Today I decided that this track will appear on the “Marienbad Project”…
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tought #12
COMPOSINGS – I was not that into digital art to be honest … I stumbled upon it by accident: I took some pics out in the fields and while looking at an old building, I thought about “filling” up the blurred space created by the lensbaby … I tried multiple exposures and it wasn’t that satisfying … back home I photographed some structures in and around the house and layered them over the picture … it gave me the control that I was looking for. Now every short trip begins with several shots of the main picture followed by taking pics of structures to get the layers … the results are much deeper now and they tell a much more elaborated story … not every motiv needs it and there’s still nothing like a pure, good picture were’s no manipulation needed.
thought #11
BASELITZ – last August I watched a TV-special about Georg Baselitz on arte … I wrote down everything which came up to my mind … the day after I composed a track … simple beats, some athmo … just to carry the lyrics. I guess it was the first time I recorded german lyrics and I can remember it was quite difficult. The vocals were recorded in a “first take” and edited afterwards. With my tracks it’s similar to my visual works: it has to happen fast … or never. I can not wait. It has to be real, honest, straight from the heart…
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thought #9
QUEUE – way back in march this year I produced a series called “course of motions“. It was the first time that I tried to capture different moves with a digital camera and it surprised me that it worked very well. No more modification was necessary, just some contrast change … and that’s all. Today I tried a different technique … multiple exposures with a wrong white balance which I entitled “curse of motions” due to the fact that the results are much more expressive, explicit, and straightforward…
thought #8
signs – confusion … this is NOT an urban scenery … this is right in the middle of the woods, a bicycle lane, a wall … write your messages down … they’ll surely be recognized.
thought #7
R.I.P. – I never listened to his music, never understood his “change” and attitude towards beauty … but this evening I was feeling really sad and like older people do I tried to capture what was going on on the tele … “11A to 12A … this one’s for You, Michael … rest in peace.”
thought #6
DISAPPROVAL – never thought this could work … and I never thought B. would like this one. Although I’m quite happy with the effect of the two heads, I’m not sure about the composition… the beauty dish from above seems to be too soft for this kind of story … got to do better.