If you follow my photographic adventures you undoubtedly have seen quite a few shots of this street sign from Berlin. I figured since today is my last day in America before I finally go back to Ireland to join my wife it would be a perfect time to give the full story behind this shot and share my most meaningful photo I have ever taken. After all, this one photo represents everything I have been working towards these last six months and makes all the suffering of forced separation worth it.
Around the end of January this year my wife and I were in Berlin, Germany to register for our upcoming wedding. Since my family has always traced it’s heritage back to Rudolph Diesel, the inventor of the Diesel engine, we always wondered if there was a Diesel Street somewhere in Germany. Susi’s dad informed us that there was actually one right there in Berlin. We rushed out to a book store and bought a road atlas to send to my family with the street circled in it for when they come for the wedding. We left Berlin and returned home content with the knowledge of Diesel Street.
Months passed and the next time we were in Berlin was for our wedding this last August. The idea of finding Diesel Street had taken a back burner to everything else going on until we were at the reception. During her dad’s tremendous speech, we were presented with an A4 sized picture of a white street sign that read Dieselstraße. Upon closer examination we saw that our names and a heart were on a piece of paper hanging from the bottom of this sign. The family had went out of their way to find this street, clean the sign and hang our names under it, which wasn’t a small task since they sent the shortest person they could. Now we had to go and find it.
Oliver John Bayer was born on Tuesday October 6, 2009 at 3:47 in the morning thus solidifying my status as Uncle DJ. Now there is a long running tradition in my family of giving relatives funny names. It all came about because my sister could never say anyone’s names properly when she was a child we can’t be sure if Uncle DJ will actually stick. Oliver’s mother predicts something along the line of Dunkle. We will have to wait and see.
My sister asked me if I wanted to take some pictures for her since I have become the photographer of the family and I said sure. I didn’t want to disappoint so I opted for the fancy cameras over my beloved plastic ones. It was going to have to be done indoors after all and I am notoriously crappy at these kind of pictures. So I loaded up some Kodak Portra NC 400 in my trusty Minolta SRT 201 and Yashica Minister D and headed over to the hospital. There was great light coming in through the huge picture window in the hospital room that I thought would be great. Unfortunately the wee man had to feed and the tired mom had to sleep so the photo session had to wait.
They took the little guy home a few days ago and the chance came again yesterday to take some good photos so we set him up in his little bed and I started sapping away. A lot of the shots were underexposed but the ones that weren’t are perfect. I had the idea of sticking a plastic magnifying glass on the lens of the SRT for some obligatory close up feet shots as well. Surprisingly the little guy was quite well behaved for most of the time. I am quite pleased with how the shots turned out, although I will gladly pick a crappy camera over ones with so much choice. But the only thing that matters is that my sister is pleased with the results and hopefully I was able to give her some nice memories that maybe have a little more heart than the thousands of digital shots they already have.
I am really liking this plastic magnifying glass. I think it made a really dreamy intimate photograph that I hope will mean a lot to the family as time goes buy and his tiny little feet and hands get bigger. I would hope that maybe they would see that the slight inconvenience of film over digital is worth it in the end when you can capture such warm moments. I hope you enjoy these photographs as much as my very proud family does.
The flood of zero emails I got about why I haven’t been doing my photo-a-day(ish) thing anymore got me thinking. For one, did people actually care? And two, maybe I should officially bury the whole thing. The fact is the project has really run its course. I originally decided to post a photo every day as a way to pass time while I waited for my visa. Kind of a zen like exercise to make the sands of time slightly less harsh. And in all respects it worked. It gave me something to do and gave me an outlet for all my thoughts. More importantly it gave me a way to share my world with my wife who I haven’t seen in a very long time. Most of the stuff that I wrote was for her anyways.
Now that I actually have a ticket booked for home I haven’t felt the need to post something every day and I also haven’t had the time. Now there is actually a date when I will get home, October 16 at 9 o’clock in the morning. The need to pass time has become a little diminished. In fact I actually have another project that I am doing but I can’t reveal anything for a while and it actually involves two different countries and no computers, but more about that in a few weeks time hopefully.
Now, if you look at the photo in this post and you remember from this post about a month ago I said that one of my favorite pictures was yet to come, well thats it at the top of this post. I think the fact that I will be home in 13 days is reason enough to share it. Some of you might have seen it already on Flickr and I am sure most of you have seen the plethora of other shots I have of the same thing. But this one in particular strikes a very emotional chord in me. It feels like it was just yesterday that I married my beautiful wife and I remember vividly the magical time we had in Berlin. I wish I could live in that time of our lives but sadly life had other plans and it has been our destiny to suffer through this separation. This shot captures everything that was special those almost six moths ago. The light coming through, the sense of joy and exhilaration, the care free feeling while we waited to embrace the happily ever after. I truly love this shot and on an emotional and spiritual level it is the best photo I have ever taken. Its quite long so stay tuned for the full story of how this lone street sign came to be so important to me and my wife.
Why the big smile at the top of this post? Well…After one hundred and fifty two days the moment I have been waiting for has finally arrived. Today the UPS man came knocking on my door to deliver a slightly battered envelop filled lots of paperwork and one passport containing one family permit allowing me to go to the UK to join my wife. The wait is over! Life has just taken a turn towards happily ever after. I can finally go back home to Ireland and start working and living again.
This whole time in the US is not a loss though. It turned out so that I got my visa around the same time my sister is going to have a baby. So now all that has to happen is for her to go and have the baby already. Granted it does make me a bit impatient since I have to wait for that now. But if I wasn’t already here for it I wouldn’t have a chance to see my yet to be born nephew for a very long time. So its a good thing really that I had to wait this long. I also bought about fifteen cameras since I’ve been here, so thats good too. (Now I just have to figure out how to get them all to fit in my luggage.)
I thought for this post I would include some photography of mine that represents why I have endured this very long wait. So please enjoy the lovely sentimental images, I hope they are as beautiful to you as they are to me.
A while ago Nic from 4CD took pity on me and my situation and decided to send me a little care package to keep me shooting while I am stuck in the States. Part of that package was an assortment of plastic cameras, one of which was the Rainbow V Ultra Wide and Slim. I already fell in love with the original Wide and Slim and this camera is no different. The only thing that has changed, like all the Viv clones, is the colored and rubberized plastic body. Being rubberized it makes the camera feel a bit more robust, though I suspect it is just a feeling.
I decided to test out this camera with some Kodak 400 VR Plus redscaled, homemade of course. This is my first foray into the world of redscale. It came about because I was bored one night and had a bunch of empty spools. I got some tape and got under a big duvet and wound the film backwards into an empty spool. Easier than I thought actually though I was a bit worried about the duvet being light tight, which it wasn’t. It turns out that it was light tight enough, there were a few foggy bits along the sprockets but every shot turned out great. Check this tutorial out if you want to do this yourself.
The photos that I got from this combination really made me happy. It was like instant vintage. They have this aged and timeless look to them that really makes me want to keep redscaling. The Rainbow V has the same great 22mm lens as any Ultra Wide and Slim and paired with the warm tones of the redscaled film this combination has a good chance of becoming my new favorite. People often say the Ultra wide and Slims are the poor mans LCAs. Since I have been lusting after an LCA for a long time I think that this camera and film partnership has a good chance of filling the gap until I can muster up the money. I will definitely be doing more redscale and trying it in different cameras. This may be a way for my lo-fi heart to fall in love with my various not-so-lo-fi cameras.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do and there is more to come.
