wonderland l wunderland

Tonight’s the night – humming Neil Young’s classic we’re going into our wonderland movie premiere day … . After countless editing hours and very little sleep, our 30 minute video about last year’s road trip through America will premiere tonight in a movie theater in Kiel. Needless to say we’re quite excited …

If you’re in the area, come join us at 8pm at the

metro Kino im Schloßhof, Holtenauer Str. 162-170, Kiel

And while we’re at it: a huge thanks goes out to our friend Wolfgang Meis, who contributed the beautiful soundtrack – here’s a quick cell phone shnapshot of him while recording at Roland Studios …

Recording the wonderland soundtrack from Andreas Oetker-Kast on Vimeo.

emphas.is, the emerging platform for photojournalism, is now also supporting crowdfunding efforts for video documentary projects. The first one is a feature length documentary movie by photographer Alice Smeets: Beyond Good Intentions.

In the movie Smeets is scrutinizing the work of NGOs asking the question whether foreign aid is really contributing to development in crisis regions. Click here to check it out and find out how you can contribute.

To all the people who came to our wonderland artist talk at the Cultural Foundation of the Savings Bank of Schleswig-Holstein – thank you! It was great talking to you and discussing our project with you.

Photo: Angelika Oetker-Kast

And now on to finishing the video about our road trip through America last year – mark April 26th in your calendar, this is when we will present the project and premiere the short movie at the metro Kino in Kiel. But more about that later …

(please see below for English translation)

Es stehen ein paar wonderland-Termine an:

Dienstag, 27.03.2012, 18:00 Uhr: Künstlergespräch in der Ausstellung in der Sparkassenstiftung Kiel, Faluner Weg 6, 24109 Kiel – die Bilder hängen übrigens noch bis zum 04.05.2012.

Donnerstag, 26.04.2012, 20:00 Uhr: Vortrag im metro Kino im Schloßhof, Kiel, Holtenauer Straße 162-170, 24105 Kiel – dort werden wir auch zum ersten Mal unser Video über die Reise durch Amerika zeigen, das wir gerade fertig stellen.

Kommt vorbei, wir freuen uns darauf, mit Euch über wonderland zu reden, über die Bilder, den Film, über Amerika …

We have some wonderland dates coming up:

Tuesday, 03/27/2012, 6pm: Artist talk in the exhibition at the Cultural Foundation of the Savings Bank of Schleswig-Holstein, Faluner Weg 6, 24109 Kiel – you can still go see the exhibition until 05/04/2012 by the way.

Thursday, 04/26/2012, 8pm: Presentation of wonderland at the metro Kino im Schlosshof, Holtenauer Straße 162-170, 24105 Kiel – we will also premiere our short movie about last year’s road trip through America that night.

Come join us, we would be very happy to discuss wonderland with you, the pictures, the movie, America … – see you there.

One of my favorite book/exhibition projects is making a month long visit in Hamburg’s Robert Morat Gallery: Monalisas of the Suburbs / Monalisen der Vorstädte, by Ute & Werner Mahler. Go check it our if you’re in the area, it’s a must see …

And if you’re interested, have a look at their short video, or buy the beautiful book at Meier und Müller.

Our current exhibition wonderland is featured on ARCHITEKTURPHOTOBLOG … – thanks for the support.

Legendary photographer Robert Capa is often quoted as having said that „if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough“. Yesterday, John Mcpherson published a thoughtful essay on duckrabbit about what „being close enough“ could mean if you’re a photographer. „I used to think that this referred to physical proximity, getting into someone’s face, right up there close. It took a long time and many hard knocks for me to realise I was completely wrong.“

Sure enough, a vivid debate about his thoughts started in the comments … – give it a read, it might make you think.

Ethan Rafal is a photographer living in San Francisco who is currently working on „a ten-year, autobiographical project examining the relationship between protracted war and homeland decay, Shock and Awe is a meticulously crafted image, text, and found object journal that blurs the line between author and subject, and personal and authoritative histories.“

His project is up on kickstarter, was already featured as project of the day – but he can still use every help possible to come to terms with unexpected costs. So go there, check it out and support him if you like what you see. I did …

Photo by Ethan Rafal

„As one of the founding fathers of Israel once said, Israel will exist and will be an ordinary country like any other, the day it has its own prostitutes and criminals.“

Freelance photographer Pierre Terdjman lived in Israel for eight years and got to know a different side of the country. Away from the geopolitical conflict there’s a social story – and he’s about to tell it in his latest project United we were strong – for which he’s seeking support via emphas.is.

Photo: Pierre Terdjman

Last week, the World Press Foundation announced its 2011 winners – and Spanish Photographer Samuel Aranda’s picture of a Yemeni mother consoling her wounded son was awarded World Press Photo 2011:

Ever since the announcement a vivid discussion started on photo Web sites and blogs, mostly criticizing the choice. For various reasons – some quite nit-picky, complaining about the off-centered framing or that it would lack journalistic requirements such as providing answers to the notorious „5 Ws“. Other voices challenge the choice because it could be read as yet another photo referring to the Pietà. That it would only show the jury’s bias and instead of calling it World Press Photo it should be called Western Press Photo. Or that it didn’t really stand for the womens active role in the Arabellion, instead  „just“ showing a woman not only being clad in a traditional niqab but also once again „reduced“ to the traditional role of care taking.

Well, even though some of the remarks are interesting to read and well worth to think about I somehow feel we’re missing something here.

First: it’s a good picture. I can’t tell whether it’s the best but it sure deserves the attention. And even though it might not provide all answers it does raise questions  – and that’s a good quality in a photograph.

Second: Without having read any of the interviews with Aranda, I assume it was quite a tense situation, in this field hospital that used to be a mosque. And I assume further that he saw the situation and made the picture – intuitively. I bet he didn’t think of the Pietà while he was there or even when he was filing it.

Most of all: maybe we should stop our navel gazing for a moment and listen to the people shown in the picture or other Yemeni bloggers and photographers. According to a BBC podcast or an article in published in the Yemen Times they are very happy about the choice and take it as a support to their cause – check out Russian Photos Blog that provides a good summary. Fatima Al-Qawas, the mother shown holding her son, is quoted saying: “It makes me very happy to see this picture, to see also that it has won such a prestigious award. It makes me happy and very proud: proud for being a woman, proud for being a mother, and also for being a Yemeni woman. I’m very proud that this photo is going around the world and many people have seen it and will continue seeing it. And especially it makes me even happier because it’s Western people who have chosen that picture for the award.”

Any further questions?