New Work: Waiting for winter to pass

It’s been a rather gloomy winter, or more to the point; I’ve been feeling rather gloomy this winter. One way out of this feeling is to have fun with friends. Which is why I asked my friend Maarten to come over and sit for me. While having a glass of rose or two, of course.;)

Listening to Cat Power ‘The Greatest” and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy ‘Ease Down the Road’.

Kathalijne Photography on Facebook

I’ve been posting content on different pages for a while now, f.e. on my own website, Instagram, here and on Facebook. You can find me at: Kathalijne Photography or at www.kathalijne.com. Drop me a line some day, I would love to hear from you:)

And hope to see you there:)

Listening to: Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens

Masterclass with Jimmy Katz

I had the good fortune to be invited to attend a workshop by famed jazz photographer Jimmy Katz on July 7th, and I’m pretty darned pleased I had the opportunity to do so. I found it super inspiring to hear masters talk about their craft.

Jimmy Katz is pretty much the most important photographer working in jazz today. He has shot portraits of Sonny Rollins (one of my favorites), Ornette Coleman, Ray Charles, BB King, the list goes on and on. It’s definitely worth doing a Google search 🙂 There is great video on YouTube, shot by the local TV station, about the exhibition of his work at Kasteel Woerden, which just happened to be the location for masterclass as well.

All in all it was a pretty hectic day, as I had to go to work in the morning and then rush to Woerden as soon as I was able to leave. There were quite a few other photographers already and I found it a little bit daunting when I walked in. Who are all these people? Will I look like a sucker when I show my work? Thank goodness, I quickly spotted a few familiar faces, and pretty much fit right in. Hearing Jimmy talk about his own work was pretty amazing.

We all had the opportunity to show our own work which is both very exciting as it is scary. Fortunately, I received a good review 🙂 Jimmy’s wife Dena was also present during the whole day and it’s cool to see just how in tune they are with each other, personally and professionally. They both seem to represent a different aspect of being great photographers, making them a very successful pair indeed. I actually really enjoyed talking to Dena, she has such a fantastic technical eye and pays great attention to detail. She showed me a few things that I could improve on in a very positive and constructive way. 

Jimmy Katz reviewing my work.

Jimmy Katz reviewing work during the masterclass at Kasteel Woerden

Updated

It’s been a while, but I finally updated my website www.kathalijne.com after +9 months. I added new photos in the Portrait, Music and Travel sections. Go have a look, leave a comment, tell your friends, hey, tell the world! I’m ready to see the world:)

The photo featured below is of South African musician Meri Kenaz, you should check her out if you have the chance.

Happy exploring:)

SHUTR

I am currently featured in Dutch photography magazine ‘SHUTR’. Quite possibly the best welcome home present I have ever had:)

It’s a 10 page spread featuring 8 photo’s and an interview. In stores near you, go get one:)

The photos above were taken with a cell phone, the pics in the magazine look much better. Gelukkig:)

Enter The Dragon

Happy new year, everybody! It’s been quite some time since my last blog post which is pretty much due to me not having anything to say. If, professionally speaking, 2011 felt like wading through mud with a heavy backpack on, 2012 looks to be very different. There are some definite changes on the horizon, better still, changes are here. and I am super stoked.

The year started off good with a couple of guest blog post at Lost At E Minor, which is one of Saatchi & Saatchi’s ‘Lovemark’ brands so that’s quite cool. I’ve also been interviewed by South Africa’s Creative Network which you can read here. Things are only getting more exciting from there on. At least for me:) I booked a flight to South Africa and am flying to Cape Town on February 6th. I plan on staying there for about 4 to 6 months depending on how things go.

I posted a little wish-list on Facebook the other day and lo and behold, one of them came true the very next day:) For you see, I have been a huge World Press Photo fan and have wanting to do a masterclass of sorts for a long time. And hooray, I just signed up for a 3-day masterclass by World Press Photo Winner Jodi Bieber. Oh yes. I signed up for two other lectures as well – one by Mike Hutchings whom I actually know already and the other by Sean O’Toole. Mike won 1st prize in the Sports category and Sean is the editor of Art South Africa, amongst other things.

The prospect of learning is just so exciting to me, I can feel my brain itch as it were:)

I totally should have called this post “How Kate Got Her Groove Back”, ’cause Stella ain’t got nothing on me:)

And rather randomly – I watched Cameron Crowe’s PJ 20 – I can’t help it, I haven’t listened to them in years, but I do still love that song. I had just forgotten that I did:)

In case you were wondering about what else is on the wish-list, here it is:

“live in Cape Town, live in Seattle, visit Zim, China, Vietnam and the arctic, study film, find a mentor, work for Rolling Stone, make a documentary, fall in love, speak 10 languages, see the world, meet everyone.”

Sounds like a plan to me:)

Be Sweet

Greg Dulli’s voice is filling up my room. Nice. No one can beg and plead in such a seductive way as he can. Well some, but not a lot:) This should help my mood on this dreary, grey December day. Oh well. Bears have the right idea – hibernation.

At the close of 2011 I entered the Mono Competition by Gomma Books and filed an application for an artist residency in Cape Town. Fingers crossed it will work out:)

For you photographers out there the Sony World Photographers – Open Competition is also still open. The deadline is on January 4, 2012. And kudos to Gomma Books and Sony for not charging an entry fee.

I don’t know about you, but I am totally ready for 2011 to be over and 2012 to start. I just know adventures are waiting:)

The title comes from the album ‘Gentlemen’ by, you guessed it, the Afghan Whigs.

The photo above is one of Lauren Fowler, a hugely talented illustrator from Cape Town. You can see her work at www.laurenfowler.co.za

The Rambling Life Fantastic

“You see, I have a strange serendipitous relationship with Hot Water, but I don’t think they actually know this. Looking back it seems that I always see them around the time of changes in my life.”

Those are my words, written when I interviewed Donovan Copley for Portfolio Collection’s Travel Blog nearly two years ago (full interview here: Talking To Hot Water – Connecting The Dots Through Life And Music). Strangely and amazingly enough, those words are still true. I saw them perform in The Hague this past weekend and it occurred to me that once again, decision-making and the changes that come with that, are on the horizon. Self-inflicted deadlines and self-inflicted limits between failure or success. Why do we do that? How does it happen that one loses faith when first you had the conviction to that what you felt and thought were right? It’s easy to point the finger at others, blaming them for messing with your head, while in fact those voices have always been there and it never stopped you before. Not making decisions has a paralyzing effect on me. I do know that there is only one way back from to and that is to get back on the proverbial horse. I hope it rears up and gallops straight into the fields of possibility.

In case you were wondering about the Hot Water gig last Saturday, it was awesome as always. The band consisted of Donovan Copley (vocals, guitar), Ronan Skillen (didgeridoo, various drums), Andre Schwartz (drums), Soubry Makupula (back up vocals) and I am ashamed to say I don’t know the bass players name. They played, roughly, for an hour and half with songs from their 3 albums. During one of their new songs ‘Lekker Sakkie’ they invited people to come up on stage for a dance contest, a “langarm” dance contest at that. Unsurprisingly, there were not many people in the house who knew what “langarm” was, in fact there was only one couple, a guy from P.E. and is girlfriend. Not surprisingly:)

I hadn’t seen them perform in over a year, and it was cool hearing some new songs as well as a Bob Dylan cover, watching Soubry dress up as a woman and Donovan climbing up onto the rafters during the encore ‘Tribal Man’.

Climbing up onto the rafters… to get a new perspective on things, perhaps? See, I told you I always seem to meet them when the times are a changing. Soon, I’ll be wearing shades:)

The photos photos were taken on Red Hill, just outside Simon’s Town, on a cold winter’s day. The title comes in part  from the Man Man song ‘Life Fantastic”

A house is not a home

It suddenly dawned on me while we were strolling through Amsterdam – I’ve been  “homeless” for two years solid now. I’ve stayed in nearly 40 places ever since I put most of my belongings in storage in ’09. A suitcase, a laptop and a camera is all take with me. I like traveling relatively light, I like moving and I don’t miss my stuff, however, I am starting to miss feeling at home.

 The reason why we went to Amsterdam was to pay a visit to the Marianne Breslauer exhibition at the Jewish Historical Museum. Marianne Breslauer (1909-2001) was a photographer during the Weimar Republic and only did so for about 10 years. Marianne worked in Paris for a while where she became a pupil of May Ray. She also worked for a German agency, Academia, who told Marianne to work under a pseudonym in order to hide the fact that she was Jewish. She refused and subsequently moved to Amsterdam and to Switzerland later on. Marianne left photography behind her as she became bored with the medium and more interested in her husband’s business as an art dealer.

The exhibition was ok. I wasn’t overly impressed, I must admit. It showed quite a lot of her work, even her graduation project and several publications but the work itself never quite touched me.  To me, the best thing was the historical perspective offered by her work. I really liked seeing how the women dressed in the 30’s, the very short hairdo’s, the masculine way of dressing yet remaining ever so feminine. I would love to look like that. The other thing I really liked about Marianne, was that she just walked away from the world of photography. She explained in an interview that she had done and photographed all she wanted to do, and had simply reached an end. I like that. Knowing when it’s over.

The real reason came later. While Arthur was browsing around one of Amsterdam’s best record stores, Concerto, I found a photo book by Jim Marshall (1936-2010). Just flicking through that book is impossible. One has to stand still and look at every picture carefully. Jim has photographed all of music’s biggest stars; Beatles, Stones, Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Howling Wolf, John Coltrane. The list is endless. Most of his images have become part of our collective visual memory. Who doesn’t know that image of Johnny Cash giving the finger towards the camera, Jimi Hendrik on stage or Little Richard deep in thought before he takes to the stage?

Ohhh, imagine being his assistant for a week. The things you would see, the things I would learn. It would be amazing. To build a portfolio like his is something I can only dream of.

Perhaps that can be home for a while, not a physical place but the determination to build a strong portfolio that will take me places. I think that sounds quite lovely:)

Watch Jim Marshall here:

All photos are copyrighted and belong to the photographers:

Top: Ruth Von Morgen by Marianne Breslauer. Berlin 1934

Middle: Lisa Von Cramm by Marianne Breslauer. Berlin 1934

Bottom: June Carter and Johnny Cash by Jim Marshall

Video: Sean Dana

For My Monochrome Love

My Adidas sneakers, my favorite dress, the Exile On Main Street album cover, the Ramones, the Kills, Robert Capa and Robert Frank, Anton Corbijn, Stephan Vanfleteren, Sieff, Avedon, C’est Arrivé Prèt De Chez Vous, Pi, Notorious, Casablanca, the covers to Ginsberg’s Howl and Kaddish, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity,13 Tzameti…

– Black & white love –

When I first started as a photographer, I was a dedicated follower of black & white film. As a matter of fact, I only switched to digital and color 4 years ago. Besides the occasional holiday snap in full color, it was life in grainy monochrome during dark room filled days.

I found a job at a local music magazine pretty soon after I got my first SLR. Analogue, naturally. I remember being nervous about having to show my work to  the graphic designer, but my b&w image of Supergrass got me in. The next three years were spent in gritty clubs while trying to make the low light and “saturated, loosing all detail” paper the magazine was printed on work for me.  I tried out all sorts of film, before I finally settled on Kodak T-Max 3200 ASA, which was mainly due to having to shoot bands in dark clubs. I needed the sensitivity to light that came with that particular film. Fortunately, I loved the grain that came with it as well, it fitted my favorite subjects perfectly. I also preferred the roundish grain of Kodak to the flat/square grain of Fuji Neopan, and chose Kodak paper instead of Ilford as the blacks were more beautiful. The whites on Ilford were prettier, but ja, I never needed a whole lot of white.

I looked at every Charles Peterson image I could find, signed up for a course in American Film Noir at uni and subsequently watched 2 film noir movies a week, and attended lectures with black turtle neck wearing professors. Even after graduation, I stuck to black & white, photographing a dance company in Antwerp, Low in Paradiso or Anouk in Utrecht. When I had the opportunity to photograph CocoRosie a few years ago, I brought my SLR loaded with Fuji Neopan b&w film. Something had slowly changed though, as it was the first shoot to which I brought a digital camera as well. A tiny Sony Cybershot at that, obviously not a true convert yet:)

There’s something about black & white images that makes it modern and classical at the same time. I suppose it’s the ‘abstractification’ of reality that brings an excitement and tension with it that is different from what one achieves with color. As color falls away, your eye looks for other things to connect to; light, contrast, shape and composition. The monochrome also often gives a graphic design kind of feeling to images which I love.

Today, years after I showed my Supergrass photo to the designer, and after I switched to digital *and* color, I find myself extremely excited when I open the morning paper and see a two-page spread of photos that Stephan Vanfleteren took of Anton Corbijn. Two of my contemporary heroes in glorious grainy monochrome.

And now I know it’s true what they say, first love never dies.

1. Tshepo Moche | Yesterday’s Still | The Posies | Tonik |
2. DJ Akio | Bianca Cassady CocoRosie | Maarten | Donovan Copley 
3. Nynke | Tshepo Moche | Maarten | Verity Price 
4. Face Tomorrow | Tristan Waterkeyn | Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Show Don’t Tell