Part 3: The Way It Turned Out To Be (for now)

Life is wonderful in taking turns you would never expect it to do. All you have to do is keep an open mind. After my delirious debating in my head about which route I want to take in my future something beautiful came on my path. Kumulus is a center of art education where I live and one of the teachers in analogue photography became pregnant. She had to go on her maternity leave and needed a replacement. They ended up asking me!

Needless to say I accepted the offer and already gave my first class. Wonderful. To pass enthusiasm on to other people is maybe one of the nicest things you can do. Knowledge must be passed on in order to survive and I see it as my obligation to do so. This way I can gain some experience in teaching as I’ve never done anything like this before (except with a group of young children for only  a week in a camp kind of setting). It’s my first step into the direction I would like to go and from there we’ll see whatever else will come on my path again. It’s a lot more realistic doing it like this then having to set everything up myself. I’ll keep on building / expanding my own working space and will see how I take it from there.

So, that’s as it stands these days, not sure if you find it that interesting but thought a follow-up on my brainstorming would be the least I could write down here. Challenge life and it will challenge you in return!

January 8, 2010 | Categories: Atelier Contrastique | Tags: dreams | 2 Comments »

Part 2: Brainstorming v.s. Dreaming

In my head I’m working on some new ideas… I love photography, want to specialize in alternative processes as they are so interesting and extremely various. I want to share my knowledge and build a platform where people have the ability to experience, learn new things and experiment. These things are seldom possible in the convenience of your own house and my plan lies in the direction of building a place where this all will be possible.

My concept would contain (as far as it stands now) 2 large darkrooms: one for “normal” black & white printing up to being able to process 8×10″ negatives. And one for the alternative side of photography. Due to the different use of chemicals, raw mixing v.s. working in an as clean as possible environment, I’d like to separate the two. The darkrooms are meant to be used for rental purposes so that everyone has the possibilty to work in a fully equipped darkroom, besides my own work I’ll make there.

A fully equipped professional studio. With that I mean a large, preferably daylight studio with light rails on the ceiling, you name it. It’ll have to be a process of developing over time as it will be a huge investment though. This will also be used for workshop purposes as well as being rented. I realize there’s a shortage of working space where I live and this would provide many people with the means of doing “crazy” things which otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

A room which can be used for teaching, practicing the theoretical side of a workshop, playing documentaries etc. This place can also be used for cutting, finishing, retouching, mounting and framing photos.

Preferably a small place to eat or drink something, make a hot cup of tea or coffee but not much would be needed to realize  that. Could even be situated in the teaching room.

And last but not least, a place to create exhibitions. For my own work but also for other people, to attract people and make them aware of the place and other things besides the overly digital world of photography.

But, unfortunately, all that is missing are the funds to finance this otherwise awesome plan. I’ll have to figure a way out to deal with that but it’s quite a big deal and obstacle. The investment is huge, not so much the equipment as analogue stuff is practically being dumped out on the streets but the housing of the project. Will I be renting / buying a warehouse on an industrial area which means I’ll have lots of (parking) space but it’s in a non-personal environment, no control, have to travel to go to work etc etc?

Or will I be working on buying a big enough a house to create this all at home so I can work from my house, which actually was my goal for the future anyway for example when having kids etc? This  means an expensive house, a big house, huge alterations etc. While not even knowing if all this will pay off in the end. That’s the risk of undertaking and I like that in a way but we’re talking big stuff here. I’d like to try it but it’ll have to be a funded enterprise and I am not too sure how to accomplish that. But if this is the path I must follow something will come my way I suppose! If anything, the idea alone is fun already

Maybe to big a dream for a little girl but without dreams nothing would ever change.

November 19, 2009 | Categories: Atelier Contrastique | Tags: dreams | 2 Comments »