På en måde dør i sidste ende også østtyskernes historie. Jeg føler sommetider, at der dårligt nok eksisterer nogen østtysk historie i dag. DDR bliver kogt ned til to datoer. Etableringen af muren og murens fald. 1961 og 1989. Isolation og revolution. Landet står tilbage som nogle organisationer og forkortelser: FDJ, SED, Stasi, NVA.
Jochen Martin Gutsch
Journalist ved Der Spiegel – opvokset i DDR
PÃ¥ dagen i dag, hvor vi med rette kan glæde os over murens fald, mÃ¥ det være pÃ¥ sin plads at anbefale Ostzeit – geschichten aus einem vergangenen land. Her viser fem forskellige fotografer biller af livet i DDR, sÃ¥dan som det tog sig ud bag forkortelserne. Vi er meget langt fra den ukritiske “ostalgi”. Men vi fÃ¥r et bredt udvalg af hverdagen i DDR, primært fra 1980′erne: gadebilleder fra Berlin. Reportage fra en ydmyg danserestaurant. Eksempler pÃ¥, hvor forskelligt man kunne bo i element-byggeriet. Modefotos. En forunderlig serie om det, at leve sammen. Første maj reportage. Fodboldfans, dissidenter, kunstnere og minearbejdere. De spektakulære billeder fra “die wende”. Men først og fremmest billeder som viser, at livet ogsÃ¥ i DDR kunne leves pÃ¥ mange mÃ¥der – og blev det.
Det er paradoksalt, at jo mere vi bekræfter hinanden i hvor skelsættende en historisk begivende det var, at muren faldt, jo mere synes historien om de der levede bag muren at blive reduceret til stereotypier. Ostzeit er først fremmest en fremragende fotobog. Dernæst er den et bidrag til at holde fast i historiens mangfoldighed.
En stor del af bogen kan faktisk opleves på nettet hos Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (ja, sådan en findes). Men billederne kommer altså betydeligt bedre til deres ret på tryk.
Fotoagenturet Ostkreuz: Ostzeit – Geschichten aus einem vergangenen Land. Hantje Cantz, 2009. 288 sider, tekst pÃ¥ tysk og engelsk, 190 fotos i duotone. 29,60 x 26,70 cm.
Do you remember the scene from “The Graduate”, where the main character get’s a serious piece of advice from a friend of the family: “Plastics! Its the future!”. If not, see it here:
Now fast forward to the future, which in the mean time has become the present:
The picture shows an Albatros chick which has been killed by the bits of plastic its parents has fead to it, apparently believing it was food. Its not the only one. In the Pacific, an area the size of the state of Texas is filled with plastic waste. Se the rest of Chris Jordans photo-essay on the web-site of The Guardian.
The Adobe Lightroom Beta 3 has been released for download. I’ve been playing around with it for an hour or so, and my first impression is: no revolutionary changes, by a lot of minor improvements. Just to mention a few:
More intuitive import function
Publishing directly to Flickr – not with all the features of Jeffrey Friedl’s Export to Flickr plugin, but very well integrated into Lightroom itself
Improved noise reduction
New film-grain effect
More flexible layout of prints
Better performance in some areas, especially the adjustment brush
No revolutionary changes on the surface of Lightroom 3.
But lots of small improvements.
This is a rare occasion: an exhibition of Krass Clement. It is Nivaagaard art museum in North Zealand which shows a retrospective with pictures from the last 22 years.
Photo: Krass Clement – from the exhibition poster
I can only think off one criticism: the exhibition should have been larger. Fortunately for those of you who live far from NivÃ¥, there is a very well produced catalogue. If you come from so far away, that you even don’t know who Krass Clement are, take a look here – and then go get the catalogue.
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