Dienstag, 25. August 2009

In Motion


As a kid growing up in the country, I lived life outside: alpine skiing, skating, cycling, running, jumping, swiming and climbing up mountains. In my teens, that meant also playing tennis, competitive track and field as well as playing volleyball. But it was in high school, that I gravitated away from track and field and alpine skiing and I found my way into dance, a long standing wish since childhood. I spent several years attending jazz- and modern dance classes as well as pantomime.

The discipline I learned through sports pushed me to participate in new things. I always had an insatiable love for trying new things and discovered a passion for photography and filmmaking. At that time I consequentially learned to "dance" with my camera. At first with small movie cameras, later on with a photo camera I enjoyed experimenting with all kinds of movement whenever possible.


As Autumn Wanes 2008

Evanescence of life and beauty in mind I shot this portrait of a morello cherry tree by moving the camera with a long shutter speed at low light, so that the tree appears in disintegration.

When cutting a film I spend a lot of time looking closely to any single of the 24 or 25 photographic images of which one second of motion picture exists. And I get absolutely impressed with these usually unseen and often blurry jewels of film frames.


Noir 1987

Life consists of movement. If we see something wonderful or remarkable most of us like to capture it in a photo. It can be interesting to watch a picture of such a single moment where life gets "frozen", and we are able to study the details. I still remember my amazement about gazing at an ordinary bee approaching a flower.


Approach For A Landing 2008

However looking at a picture "in motion" the details of single moments become indistinct and get transformed to a bigger something. It´s somehow an illusion of visible reality and often provokes different kinds of emotion.


Momentum 2009

The picture above consists of two photographs. I took the first one during our perseverative trips between Austria and Hungary. This strip of land on the Hungarian side of the former Iron Curtain, also known as border zone, is covered with deep forests full of mystery which still remind me of all the anxiety when crossing the border to a Eastern European Country in the past. Times changed and due to the European Union we are now allowed to go to any member country without any passport control. I liked the blue and green colors of the wood passing by but also wanted to add some bright color. As you also can find yellow canola fields in this area which emanate warmth and cheerfulness, I combined these two images to create a whole new one.


The Vineyard 2009

Only some miles away, when crossing the border to Austria, you will find a totally different aspect of the same landscape. Few if any forests or trees between the huge fields, acres and vineyards. Every single square mile seems to be cultivated by human hand. Strict geometrical structures dominate and nature´s charming wilderness has already disappeared. Nonetheless I like this picture of a vineyard "in motion" very much as it corresponds to my preference for playing with geometrical structures very well.

Mittwoch, 5. August 2009

Growing Our Own Food I - "The Grave"



First Harvest

I can´t remember how long ago I decided to prefer organic food. Being vegetarian since childhood my bill of fare for a long time was limited on mashed potatoes, rice, bread, polenta and various kinds of deep frozen vegetables. I am still horrified thinking about the times when searching the menu in a restaurant without finding anything eatable aside from cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins and apricot dumplings. Time passed by until dumplings with egg and baked mushrooms showed up on menus, on which I wasn´t keen anymore after stuffing myself with it for years. Finally I have learned that I just had to accept my fate growing up in a culture being obsessed with meat.



The situation turned out to become even worse when I noticed that apples didn´t taste like apples anymore, that apricots tasted like water with a whiff of bitter citron. Not really a surprise after being picked unriped and travelling hundreds and thousands of miles cooped in refrigerators. Even simple bread wasn´t made from flour, salt, leaven and water anymore. More and more bakeries converted to convenience blends.



For whatever reason it was obvious to grow our own food when we came to Hungary. And this is how we started:


"The Grave"

Whenever I am talking about animals my husband´s thoughts are focusing on how they would taste being roasted. He is confident of driving me crazy about that. Now, even though drenched in sweat, he is digging over the black and fertile but compacted soil bit by bit. It´s hard work and at the end a tiny acreage occurs, looking quite ridiculous (and also a bit like a small grave - to be honest : - ) amidst the former large acre. But it was just a modest beginning. At this time we predominantly were busy with renovating the houses. After removing a lot of junk from the compost heap the former owners had left, we cover the patch with compost soil.


Compost Heap left behind

My husband grew up on a farm and has learned much about farming in early life. But I am just a rookie and never wouldn´t have dreamed of gardening or farming. Now I hold some small bags of vegetable seeds in my hand, waiting to plant the first carrots.