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Thank you for stopping by and viewing my homepage

BIOLast update: April 1, 2006


IMPORTANT NOTICE:

As of April 1, 2006, CameraObscura will continue to feature B&W images but in addition colour photographs, since it will bring to a close but not delete any images at 'camera2' which before featured only and all colour images. While the 'Egmont' gallery remains active for dedications and other forms of art outside of photography.

I wish to thank all those who not only commented at camera2, but also added it to their favorite gallery. Thank you so very much for your support.


ARTIST STATEMENT:

Currently under development


LATEST NEWS: NEW

I had planned to update this homepage on a monthly bases, however this has not occurred in the last 10 months. In part due to having focused 100 percent of my time on photography, but also for health reasons.

In December 2005 I suffered a heart attack. All the symptoms but chest pain so I thought I was hit by the flu. Thirty days later, on January, Friday the 13 th of all days I am admitted to the emergency room and three days later find myself having a triple-by-pass open heart surgery. During my hospitalization I set up for this photograph that my son Armont fine tuned and took of my wife and me. 'True love conquers all adversities .

Still in recovery and rehabilitation, I am slowly picking up where I had left off in the summer of 2005.

With last year was the most productive and creative year I have experience and a staggering 22,831 digital photographs taken and in the last four months before the surgery being my most intense, all of which resulted in an average of over 85% that were kept and are now awaiting postwork.

Things will go a bit slowler, yet with a renewed outlook on life, I will be moving forward. In the future I shall be celebrating not only by true birthday in June, but also my second birth on January 16.

A new section 'Personal Links' has been added and will be updated from time to time.

The section 'Periodicals and Books' has been updated for the month of April. Last months and all previous reports are still available but are now archived in my article section.

We are still planning to write varies articles as time permits.

If your interested in knowing who is on my favorite artist list, you will need to go to the 'Egmont' homepage.

Notice: In regards to Renderosity and their concept of Rating or Vote and the various Top lists, I wish to note that I have no interests in these and therefore do not subscribe to this form of entertainment. I also wish to make it known, that very rarely will I vote for an image and when I do it is clearly marked as ***V***.
Frankly, I wish they would do away with it and only focus on Comments.


CURRENT PROJECTS: NEW

With an estimate 3500 images of the abandoned dynamite factory in Hercules, California, where the past several months a small crew has been demolishing the facility, there is now no more activity, not even any new construction. I still plan to edit and do postwork on a large number of these images, but still wish to separate myself from them in order to see with a fresh eye and emotions during the editing progress as I am still to attached to them, clouding my judgement.

The series Family Secrets which was photographed at the adjoining company owned buildings of the Hercules dynamite factory have unfortunately been vandalized and are now more securely boarded from further entree. I had hoped for a few more photographs, but that now seems impossible.

I have also shifted focus from industrial sites to more available locations which have character and charm while also more accessible to a general audience to understand.

For now, I search interesting places like antique stores, used furniture warehouses and recycling facilities, each with a wealth of material to be photograph and off the beaten path of everyday visitors.

In August of 2005 I shifted my focus on wrapping up the Berkeley Telephone Pole project in which I had photographed the remains of handbills that were stapled, nailed or secured by other means to wooden telephone poles and left to wither the weather. A number of these images were to have been submitted for a photographic competition. Instead, I started designing pdf e-booklets. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the file, please send me an instant message with your e-mail address. Please note, the file is 2.1 MB in size.

As the autumn of 2005 transcended into winter, my attention was directed towards nature. These images are currently undergoing postwork and are planned to be uploaded soon to this gallery.

In 2006, we continued focusing our attention to nature photography but especially towards trees within my region. With a special interest in the California oak trees, of which there are 30 different varieties dotting our rolling hillside. They are a favorite theme for west coast plein air artists for decades.


PHOTOGRAPHICALLY IN THE WORK's: NEW

Besides my focus towards nature and trees, I am also continuing to seek abstracts textures, including a series on different manhole covers.


UPDATES's TO THIS GALLERY:

Currently we do not have a scheduled plan but look forward to updating on a more regular bases as we complete the editing and presentation process which currently has back logged.


TECHNICAL DATA:

All images displayed at this site were taken with a Sony DSC-V1, 5MP digital camera and are full frame at high resolution and converted to 300 dpi, unless otherwise noted. Camera was set to aperture priority for f8 at ISO 100, with individual adjustments to the exposure index of EV between -.03 to -0.7 in accordance to the histogram display and desired effects wanted.
Back at the digital darkroom, all images are adjusted using levels, curves, and colour corrected, then balanced for proper brightness and contrast. Program used is Photoshop v5.5.
Images taken with 35mm slide film were scanned full frame, using a Nikon LS-2000 slide scanner at 300 dpi and then adjusted within Photoshop as mentioned above.
Prior to posting any colour image, it is converted to CMYK to normalize the saturated colours of an RGB mode and then changed back to RGB.

Additional data per image is made available at the time of posting.


BIOGRAPHY:

Born in Hamburg, Germany (June 25) my parents emigrated to the United States in 1956 and briefly settled in New York. A year later we traveled across the country using HWY 66 of which I have vague memories. We settled in Los Angeles before moving to the Bay Area. Since then I have returned to Germany to live and work there. Now that I am married and have two children, and live in El Sobrante, a small community in the Bay Area, I have, from time to time, yearnings to return home and also travel to other places.

Due to an industrial accident in September 2002, followed with surgery four months later, everything came to a standstill when things went wrong due the anesthesia and recover seemed to take forever. Not until December 2004 did things begin to improve and just in time.
With the purchase of an inexpensive 5MP Sony digital camera (DSC-V1) my world would change and reawaken the very reason why I became involved with photography.

My real interest in photography came in 1969 with the purchase of a canon ftb 35mm camera. Apart from taking the usual snapshots, I began photographing rock bands at the Hamburg 'Star Club', while the first major body of work came with a trip to a friends house just outside of Hamburg.

Interested in architecture and archeology, I set out to document over the weekend the closure and ruins of 'Eppen Pappier Fabrik'. These images of a paper factory would shape the very 'core' of how I would interpret the medium of photography.

As the years past, other interests took front and center, but photography was never far behind and when income became steady, an investment was made by upgrading and expanding the 35mm Canon equipment. This included purchasing medium and large format cameras and lenses. Now the shift from amateur hobbits to professional had been bridged, especially after landing several commercial jobs.

Colour played an important part in my commercial work, yet it was 'Black & White' that occupied my private projects. Studying the photographic works of Atget, Evans, Dorothea Lange and especially Irving Penn, along with a deep rooted passion for 'film noire' movies of the 1940's, I began to shape my ideas about photography.

Later with the responsibilities of family life, photography needed to take a back-seat. Not until digital cameras became affordable but also technically advanced that my interest in photography returned.

After about 1500 images of practice and experimentation, I started focusing on more control. It would take another 1000 before creative control was achieved and I found my stride. Now with more than 5400 photographs in 75 days, the 1969 epiphany found itself eclipsed at an abandoned dynamite factory on March 21, 2005.

Despite unresolved health issues, my mental state now found renewed vigor and the creative spirit soared to take on the new direction and passion that was once felt over 30 years ago.


PHOTOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES:

We must remember that what we photograph has had an influence to our own past, so permit me to list the names of those who have walked before me and influenced how I view the world through the camera lens. The names are in no particular order.

Irving Penn, Eugene Atget, August Sander, Dorothea Lange, Helmut Newton, Minor White, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Aaron Siskind, Edward S. Curtis, Walker Evens, Robert Capra, George Hurrell, Jarl Blossfeldt and Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee. Another name one should not forget is Jerry Uelsmann who did it all in the darkroom since Photoshop had not been invented.


ARTIST INFLUENCES:

Currently under development


PUBLICATIONS:

Some of my previous commercial fine art photography:

Art of The Trout Fly, Chronicle Books, 2004 (second edition)
Hallmark Merchandise, Hallmark, 2000-2001
Trout Flies, Calendar, FireFly Books, 1999
Trout Flies, Calendar, Chapters Publishing, 1997
Trout Flies, Calendar, Chapters Publishing, 1996
History of Fishing Flies, Odysseus Editions, 1995
Nymphs, Odysseus Editions, Odysseus Editions, 1995
Trout Flies, Calendar, Chapters Publishing, 1995
Modern Fly Lines, Odysseus Editions, 1994
The Professionals Favorite Flies, Vol. II, Odysseus Editions, 1994
Trout Flies, Calendar, Chapters Publishing, 1994
The Professionals Favorite Flies, Vol. I, Odysseus Editions, 1993
Art of The Trout Fly, Calendar, Chronicle Books, 1991
Art of The Trout Fly, Calendar, Chronicle Books, 1990
An Anglers Album, Rizzoli Books, 1990
Art of The Trout Fly, Chronicle Books, 1988 (first edition)


PERIODICALs and BOOKs:

April 2006 Report: NEW




PERIODICALs and BOOKs Archive:

For previous monthly reports, please see 'Periodicals & Books Archive'


PERSONAL LINKS:

The art of Karl Ludwig Leiter, Freiburg, Germany. 'www.malanda.de' gallery.
and at Renderosity 'malanda'.




Last update: April 1, 2006