ROMANESQUE ARCHES

Stockholm City Hall, Colonnade

Although this is not a view from my kitchen window, it IS a view, and a rather formidable one. And it occasions me to tell an intriguing story.

As I already mentioned in an earlier blog post (A Ship has landed) I am busy at the moment preparing a book for the printer (Stockholm/Brussels: a retrospective in fine prints). Whilst producing, and printing out the some 120 proofs of pictures from my Epson printer, which took around two months, I got heavily involved with the content of those prints.

You have to realize that most of those pictures were taken decades ago, and I had long forgotten the motive for and feeling connected with their taking. But gradually it dawned on me that the prints, whilst at the surface dealing with ordinary city landscapes, seemed to convey ever more subliminal messages, the longer I worked on them.

Granted that these photographs had been taken within a period of some forty years, concurrent with all the challenges, crises and other events shaping my inner self; is it surprising that they appear to contain meaning other than showing facades of buildings and shadows cast on stone?

With this new awareness I started to re-assess my motives for producing the book. Whilst I earlier had thought of it as a means for simple self-aggrandizement, I increasingly hope that the views contained in the book may also serve as conveying subliminal messages (on a subconscious level) from my inner being to the inner being of others, so to speak.

 I have always believed this to be possible, although seeing as main conduit for such messages the metaphors contained in modern poems, music and abstract paintings. Could it be that my pictures in a similar manner may tell a story about me, the man I really am with my inner thoughts and troubles, to at least some viewers acutely attuned to reading pictures?

Riddarholmskyrkan, Stockholm's oldest church,
seen through the Colonnade

To emphasize this point and entice the readers of my book to search for inner meanings in my prints, I designed the back cover of the book as a combination of a strong poetic metaphor and one of my pictures. The picture is the one I put below the title heading above. The metaphor goes as follows:

An angel without face embraced me

and a whisper made my body tremble:

"Don't be ashamed that you are human, be proud!

Vault after vault opens endlessly within you.

You will never be complete, that's how it's meant to be."

Thomas Tranströmer, Romanesque Arches

Now to the story: Affirmation came last week, quite out of the blue. My provider of fine art paper for producing fine prints and proofs was asking me, what I intended to do with the huge supply I had ordered. To make a long story short, I sent him a PdF document of the manuscript with the pictures included.

Two days after, I got his e-mail answer, to which was attached the view you can see below. After having looked at my back cover and found that he appreciated Tranströmer's metaphor, he decided to learn it by heart and read it to a friend lying in hospital. When entering the friend's room there he suddenly saw a familiar view on the wall: the same view as he had seen on the manuscript's back cover as companion to the poem.

Painting of Colonnade, hanging on hospital room wall

Deeply touched by this miraculous event he asked me to produce for him a fine print of my back cover picture. It appeared that his friend was terminally ill. The fine print, together with Tranströmer's metaphor would be a consolation to him and help him keep his friend alive in his memory forever.

After having learnt this, I stand a bit taller. Even if he were the only one ever seeing a meaning in one of my prints, I would feel richly awarded. Now I can proceed with publishing the book with confidence. It has achieved its aim, even if not a single copy of the book will ever be sold and they all will be mouldering away in the caves. But why don't you have a look at the book? It can be seen and ordered from my website emsvision.com and bought, in Sweden, at BOKUS and Liten upplaga.

Self-portrait, Parc Woluwé St. Pierre, Brussels

STOCKHOLM WINTER

The holidays period has elapsed and we are entering the "dreary season", if I may say so. However, even in January, Stockholm is full of surprises, as concerns the weather at least. Even if the sun is sneaking above the horizon only for six hours or so, this leaves still plenty of room for picture taking.

Hammarby Sound at noon on 22 January

A surprise this year is its return to normality. For three winters now, this was not the case. Last winter was unusually warm and snow-poor, whereas the previous two winters were unusually cold and snow-rich. This year promises to bring us back to the normal Stockholm winter, with temperatures hovering around zero (Celsius) and snow falling only rarely. Usually, one or two days of snowing are followed by several days still cloudy, but dry. Eventually all whiteness is gone and thereupon snow starts falling anew.

Hammarby Sound at noon on 16 January

To show you what this does to the view from my balcony, take a look at the two pictures above. The first was taken three days ago, just after a period of light, but steady snowing. As result, a nice carpet of white "downs" is covering the scenery. Furthermore, the absence of ice on the channel testifies to mild temperature prevailing, hardly below zero.

Now consider the second picture. It was taken just six days earlier, at noon like the other one. No snow in sight! You have to look hard to see the very last traces of an earlier snowfall. If you double-click on the picture, it becomes larger and you can just barely identify tiny heaps of snow at the far left of the quay.

The days when the snow is melting away are harsh on us old-timers. They put heavy demands on the municipal snow clearing services, which they do not meet. It would be ideal to clear the snow off the sidewalks as soon as the snowfall has stopped, but this is never done around my quarters. Instead, we have to wade our way through and upwards a steep slope along Luma Street to get to the tramway. This is not difficult to do in fresh snow. The problem arises in the days that follow.

For instance, since 22 January, our sidewalks on Luma Street have been left completely untouched by the communal services. The snow trampled under our feet has become ice and the slope is at times almost unascendable and, which is worse, undescendable. Fortunately, the street itself is still being cleared, sanded and salted, so we choose to step out to it, in harsh competition with the cars, to climb or descend the slope. Shame on you, communal services!

The cycle of snow-fall and slush-meld will repeat itself a couple of times more this winter, I am afraid. The more reason to enjoy a world carpeted in white as long as it lasts. Soon enough, spring will arrive and bring us a new world of color; I will be ready to meet it, with camera on standby and full of enthusiasm for new pictures to show you on this blog!

A SHIP HAS LANDED

A year goes to its end, a year full of challenging tasks from my part. Why challenging? To answer that question, I have to go back in time, to spring 2008.

Back then, I was in a quandary: should I retire from my position at the EU Commission in Brussels? My ordinary retirement date would be 31 December 2009, but why wait so long? Moreover, given that I could retire earlier, what should I do with the seemingly endless spare time that I would be facing, stretching at least five years into the future?

To make a long story short, I decided to leave work in May 2008, since I felt I was still in reasonable shape and ready to take on new tasks. The main task I had in mind was to take count of my challenging life as European migrant and to report back my findings to a (hopefully) interested public. For that I had to re-invent myself as digital photographer and designer as well as author, since I felt the urge  to make something of the thousands of negatives that had been resting peacefully in cupboards, awaiting their ascension to pictures in print.

Once the decision was made, I scheduled an appointment with the Head of the Commission's Unit for Capital Movements and Financial Integration, where I had spent my last working years. Into his room I strode, with a big photographic book in tow. It was a rather heavy tome, called "Ansel Adams at 100", the ultimate retrospective of a famous photographer who happened to be my spiritual mentor. With a heavy "thud" the tome landed on his desk and he was rather surprised to see it. When I opened the book, he was amazed further to note two of my own pictures inter-leaved on the mid-spread.

I asked him whether he thought that my pictures would deserve to be placed in a tome like that. He was too polite to say "No!", so I immediately followed up by stating that I had the intention to produce a book like Ansel's, but that it would take me at least five years to do so. Finally I asked his understanding that I had to leave the Commission forthwith, in order to finalize this great project within the life-span that remained to me.

The Head of Unit was flabbergasted and sorry to see me leave, but I was quite satisfied to have managed a grand exit. Since that day, I have spent an unordinary amount of time on this project. I am glad to say that I eventually got my act together and managed at long last to see this project to its fruition. On the desk in front of me lies now a manuscript containing some 60 pages of tales from the two cities – Stockholm and Brussels – where I spent most of my life as grown-up, inter-leaved with some 120 pictures I have taken there during my life-time. Once printed, this will turn out as a tome as heavy as "Ansel Adams at 100", quality comparisons aside ;–)

I should be a happy man, were it not for the small matter of financing! High quality printing of black/white photographs is very expensive. So some time will have to be spent after New Year to find sponsors for the "grande oeuvre". I will be looking for organisations or agencies willing to share part of the printing costs and who will receive, as reward, a commensurate number of copies, to distribute to their contacts. All good ideas in that regard from you kind readers are of course welcome!

UPPDATE: The finished book can now, from abroad, be ordered from my website emsvision.com. Swedish readers can buy it from BOKUS or Liten Upplaga.

But why worry about the future? There are more imminent pleasures to savour! New Year is approaching with "Siebenmeilenstiefeln". The champagne is in the cooler; snacks already on the table; neighbors are gathering on their balconies; and some timid sparks of light are announcing the great spectacle of a firework, which we are privileged to admire over Hammarby Sound whilst another year is taking its first timid steps. So let me take this occasion to wish all the hardy readers of this blog:

A very Happy 2015!

FOGGY BOTTOMS AGAIN!

Sailing ship in fog on Hammarby Quay

As autumn is approaching, we are experiencing a nice interlude, usually called Indian Summer. Even now, in the second half of September, temperature lies around 20° C in mid-day. This is not the ordinary way of life here, although it now occurs for the second time in a row. You may recall the blog post Aurora's last pink laces from just a year ago, with similar weather conditions. 

This rare post-Summer phenomenon is caused by a persisting High on the continent, which is shielding off Sweden from cooler air, encroaching on us from the Atlantic West. Of course, high atmospheric pressure this time of year cannot prevent Stockholm from cooling off considerably after the sun is setting, which it does earlier and earlier in autumn. As a result, day warmth is accompanied by heavy morning fog, which takes a couple of hours for the sun to chase off, for nice weather to re-appear around mid-day.

Fog over Hammarby Sound

Come to think of it, the fog clearing and letting through the sun provides me with a suitable metaphor for considering various conditions in life. Is it not often the case that we fumble around in foggy circumstances, not really knowing what we are doing and where we are heading? And does it not happen, at rare occasions, that uncertainties suddenly dissolve and clarity of insight follows?

This need for clarity of course becomes the more pronounced the more we advance in age. Youth is mainly guided by instinct and drive. Or, to put it otherwise, even a blunt ax can fell a tree, if only applied often and vigorously enough. The exigency for sharpening arises for us old-timers, since pure force and endurance is no longer available.

The back-page of the Financial Times Weekend Edition, my favourite newspaper, comes to mind. Two columnists occupy this place of contemplation. One of them, a vigorous youngster, is ever busy with locating opportunities of improving the world and himself. His column is called The Fast Lane. The other writer, much older and more sedate, is in his column The Slow Lane ever looking and longing for clarity. I have to admit that I find the youngster more stimulating to read, maybe because he let's me re-discover a younger man in myself.

But, however we try and labour, there will come an end to all of us, bringing us ultimate clarity, I trust and hope.

THANKS FOR SMALL GRACES

Looking out of the window this morning, I am greeted by this gray-on-gray scenery. Usually, it would be a cause for depression, but not this morning! Not so long ago, Stockholm was under the curse of sweltering heat, with temperatures approaching 35°(Celsius). Worse still, humidity was at the extreme, with all types of exercise a challenge for us old-timers. 

Fortunately, this demanding trial seems to have passed, and cooler tides are beckoning. Low pressure zones are queueing on the North Atlantic, eager to invade Scandinavia, one after another. But this is still Summer! Even if the mornings may start with black clouds, the days are pleasantly warm, letting the sun break through the clouds intermittently, to keep us in good mood and shape. We are not yet in November, when there may be weeks without the sun. Best to enjoy the warming rays whilst they are with us!

GOLD RULES!

I am gradually running out of themes for this blog, having written exactly 50 Chapters (including this one) up to now. But I will never run out of views, as can be seen above.

This morning, the sea gulls held a breakfast party outside my bedroom window. I sleep with windows open, especially in the summer heat we are having at present, with almost 30° in midday and above 20° even at midnight. So a chorus of shrieking gulls was a sure thing to force me out of bed. It was exactly 4 am and I lurched out to the balcony to admonish the damn birds. They all disappeared as soon as I appeared but, instead, I discovered that the sun had decided to show its face at that very instant. Back in to get my camera and, "Clapunck!", here it is, the picture of the week!

What has Gold to do with it, you may well ask. Well, I am not thinking of the price of that noble metal, even if it happens to be on the rise again, to please some of my friends who love to have it in their portfolio. I am a poor soul myself, with no funds to spare on such exquisite investments ;-) Instead, I am a photographer and as such hold the "Golden Rule" in high regard.

The picture above is a good example of this. You may notice that the sun is placed at the upperright third of it. Thus it is placed accruing to the "Golden Rule" which states that objects placed at upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left THIRDS of a picture demand special attention by the viewer. Something to keep in mind when portraying you loved ones with the iPhone!

On a completely different track, I have begun to worry about, how to organize a good 70 years' party. My birthday is late in December, so this would not work as a date. Instead, I have decided to postpone it to the Pentecost weekend (23-24 May 2015). Since I expect a sizable crowd to attend the event, I think I will invite everybody to a nice luncheon out in the Baltic, why not in Waxholm. But how to ship people there?

Whilst I was thinking about this last May, about a year before the event, I suddenly saw a small steamboat accosting the quay just below my balcony. What a revelation! Why not hire one of those boats to carry us directly from my apartment to the restaurant. Wouldn't that be a good idea? And have you noticed that the boat is also placed according to the "Golden Rule"?

PINK COTTON BALLS IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA

Pink cotton balls in the blue

This morning, I woke up a bit early, as often happens in late spring, when the sun is rising ever earlier. It was around 5 am and I tip-toed out to my balcony on shaky feet. Still half-asleep, without my glasses, just savoring the clear and calm atmosphere of an early Sunday morning. 

Leaning on the balcony rails, my eyes turned downward. To my myopic surprise, I thought to see cosy pink cotton balls playing early games in the deep below. Back inside to fetch the Nikon and document this scene! I was lucky to be without my glasses. Being extremely near-sighted, I just about could make out the fuzzy balls and click on them. With my glasses on, I surely would have examined the structured view of Hammarby Sound in its entirety, and disregarded the romantic color play below my toes. 

What did the sky look like to provide me with such childish pleasures? Well, I went back again inside to fetch my glasses and get a sharp look at the world. To my surprise, I had to stretch my neck upwards considerably, to identify the rosy clouds up there in the sky that caused the color play below my toes. How lucky I was to get them so conveniently placed for my near-sighted appreciation!

Rosy clouds over Hammarby Sound