Thomas Herbstreuth - Phone stuff

For a number of reasons, I didn't use a camera for many many years. I had phones with a camera though for the last 15 years. So, technically I never stopped taking photos.
Showing some of these will take a while because I keep thousands of photos from several generations of phones.

After a rather rigid selection, I ended up with a handful of shots for now. I picked the ones that show some photographer's intent. Except one that has another story.
The technical quality varies and is pretty much determined by the age of the phone.

It was interesting to look at the outcome. I seem to have a preference for a certain type of building and a certain lighting mood.

And then there are of course the toilets...

I probably should explain this, because without explanation this is creepy. Probably even with the explanation...

Many photographers have a subject they pursue all their life. Joel Meyerowitz took a lot of fotos of swimming pools. Bernd and Hilla Becher shot water towers and mine lifts and what did I do?

I took photos of the toilets in the music clubs of my youth.

I sometimes imagine someone going through the negatives of my analog times, trying to understand what drove me to shoot grafitti covered clapboard doors and seedy seats. At that time I even bought a small Rollei for this because its shutter was silent enough to keep me out of trouble.

By the way, I had to learn a similar thing with the iphone as well - before shooting in the loo, make sure to switch off the sound. People look at you strangely. Imagine sitting in a cubicle, minding your business and you hear the iphone camera click from the cubicle next to you. That cannot possibly be good.

By the way, did you know that the click sound of the iphone is taken from a 1970s Canon AE-1?
Now you know.

One day I'll digitise my analog stuff, but that will take a while. What is left from this time is a habit of checking the tile department whether it is worth a shot.

No worries, otherwise I am quite sociable.

The other thing I noticed is that I am really drawn to golden light. Preferrably against dramatic evening or morning skies. The friction between the light temperature of artificial and natural light makes me reach for the phone.

Interestingly enough; there are only two pieces that could be halfway regarded as street photography.
Right the first one with the nice shoes and further down the dog in the car window.

Taking photos of people with a phone! I don't have the guts. Now this is genuinely creepy. So, what is left?
A lot of architecture and static stuff. Inanimate objects don't confront you when you point a phone at them.

Barcelona

Vienna

Heidelberg

London

Mannheim

Barcelona

Jorba (Spain)

Igualada (Spain)

Montserrat (Spain)

London

Frankenthal

Mahabaleshvar (India)

Dubai

Cluj (Romania)

Mannheim

Barcelona

Mannheim

Leipzig

Mannheim

Pune (India)

Darmstadt

Mannheim

Berlin

Pune (India)

Stuttgart

Frankenthal

Stuttgart

Tübingen

Prague

Vienna

Frankfurt (Exhibition Jim Rakete)

Stuttgart

Copons (Spain)

Barcelona

Sitges (Spain)

Stuttgart

Zug (Switzerland)

Santa Coloma de Cervelló - La Colonia Güell (Catalunya)

Split (Croatia)

Ludwigshafen

The abundance of Mannheim pictures has a bit to do with Corona. After a day of talking to my computer, I left the house on many days and did long evening walks.

The other photo with a story is this completely bland photo from Jorba. Someone had sprayed one of my favourite poems alongside the hiking path. The photo had to go into this collection as does the poem.

This is the essence of streeet photography.

“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”

Antonio Machado