Uit de Grootstad & Co/From the Major City & Co. #9

Dublin, 15/9/2013

Een Grootstad (Duits Großstadt) is een stad met meer dan 100.000 inwoners. (A major city (German: Großstadt) is a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants)

Travel Photo(s) ##4.

The Irish call the last Sunday in July “Reek Sunday”. The Reek is the nick name for Croagh Patrick, a mountain of 764 meters high in the west of Ireland. The last Sunday of July thousands of Irish are climbing to the top to celebrate that in the year 441 St. Patrick climbed the mountain and prayed for the blessing of Ireland. In 1990 I joined. It was a rainy day. My lens got wet. It looked a bit like Fellini in Ireland. The last photo today was made on the same spot as the one yesterday. All photos were shot at 07/29/1990.

Travel Photo ##3

Observing people at uncommon places is a delight when travelling around. This picture was made at Murrisk in Ireland, at the start of a pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain of Ireland. I did walk it in 1990, more about that tomorrow.  Photo: Murrisk, Ireland, 2017/9/6.

Travel Photo ##1

Travelling, fortunately we still have the Photographs. This one was made in Ireland, between Dublin and Sligo. The year is 1988. The lady is my Love.

St. Patrick's Day.

Because of St. Patrick's Day a photograph from Galway, Ireland.
Photo: 2016/09/06. 9.12 pm.

From my Shoebox #9

Another picture of one of my travels through Ireland. Somewhere in a neighbourhood of the Guiness brewery. I had the the feeling of a slow film of the fifties. James Dean or something like that,. Photo: Dublin, september 1991.

From my Shoebox #7

Shot at the Galway horse races. Illegal betting ground. Man on the right of the the picture clearly doesn't like being photographed. July 1990.

From my Shoebox #4

Sunday Special: Cork, Ireland. Shopping Window. August 1990.

Irish notes (7)

Travelling around I often cannot resist the temptation of shooting a self-portrait/selfie. Sometimes a strange mirror in the bathroom is the reason, sometimes a weird lamp in the hotel lobby, sometimes a tree seems to grow out of my head. Up: Derry, 17/8/29, 8.13 am. Middle: Ballina 17/9/4 5.40 pm. Under: Westport, 17/9/7, 1.00 pm.

Irish Notes (5)

Sometimes a rambling photographer is confronted by situations where huge colorful areas form a big chance to capture an image with a lightly alienating meaning. In Ireland people often use strong colors in painting houses and walls. Maybe as a therapy against the often-grey light.   But if there is sunlight, the light has often a very intense quality.  Up: Derry, 17/8/28 4.58 pm, Middle: Monkstown 17/8/26 11.26 am, Under: Cork, 12/9/15, 10.30 am.

Irish Notes (4)

Some impressions from the Botanic Gardens in Belfast. (http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/leisure/parks-openspaces/Park-6614.aspx). As a photographer I am always trying to make an own reality from the reality of these premises, by carefully selecting the elements I capture. I do not show you everything that was there. Up: Belfast 17/9/2 11.28 am. Middle: Belfast 17/9/2 11.36 am. Under: Belfast 17/9/2 11.26 am.

Irish Notes (3)

Interesting to see how letters and text can play a role within a photographic image. Sometimes as the main subject matter, sometimes as text in a kind of image from a comic strip, sometimes the capture of what is happening in the photograph is a kind of  illustration of the text in the same photograph. To make it perfectly clear, these texts were not added by means of photoshop. (Upper picture: Dublin 2017/08/25 4.15 pm, middle: Belfast 2016/09/08 2.56 pm, underneath: Sligo 2015/o9/06 4.53 pm).

Irish Notes (2)

Some details from the Irish scenery.

Irish Notes (1)

As you may know I recently made a trip through Ireland. No need to say I had my camera on me. I used the device as a kind of sketch book. Sometimes I used just one take for a situation, sometimes I shot quite a lot. And of course, many sketches didn’t work out at all. But some did I think. My main subject matters were: people in the streets, pieces of landscape, and shopping windows. Some self-portraits were also made.

Up: Dublin 17/8/26 10.34 am, Middle: Dublin 17/9/09 3.57 pm, Under: Dublin 17/8/26 10.03 am.

New Book: IRELAND ON MY MIND.

After almost 30 years it is a strange experience putting these photographs into a book. Frankly, when I went to Ireland in 1988 I had not a clear idea what to expect. Ireland was a faraway country to me. Don’t forget there was no internet in 1988 to get information. Of course, I went into some brochures to get an idea of the landscape and the way the towns looked, and I read some books about the history of the country, but still it was a step into the unknown.

I never forget the day I arrived in Dublin. I was standing at the bridge over the Liffey and I felt immediately at home. The city felt very familiar to me.  This feeling of familiarity never left me during the trips through the country. Whether I was in Galway, or Cork, or at the West Coast, I always felt a kind at home: I had fallen in love with Ireland.

I wandered with my camera through the country as a curious lover. Going to festivals, cycling around, sitting in trains and buses, sometimes accompanied by wife Petra and my mother-in-law, the love for the country never disappeared. Ireland was always on my mind.

After some 25 years I came back in Ireland. The country had changed, I had changed. But my love for the country was still there. But that’s going to be another project. Ireland was still on my mind. It will always be.

Finders Keepers

Rambling around in Ireland many years ago on a photo trip I ran out of film one day. Normally working with Ilford HP5 I only could obtain Kodak Tri-x at the local photo store.

At home, I first developed my HP5. I had only shot to rolls of Tri-x , but I could just find one. After a while I forgot about the lost Tri-x.

Many years later I moved to another dark room. Cleaning the old one I found a roll of Tri-x in a dark corner. No idea what it would contain. It was the first roll I developed in in the new dark room. I was very surprised to see images of Ireland. The photo with the man feeding the seagulls is one of them. The other two are from well-kept negatives of other Irish films.

Up: Dun Laoghaire 1988, Middle Dublin 1990, Under Bundoran 1990.

Puck Fair

At the end of the summer I want to go to Ireland for a photo trip. It’s a good reason to go through b&w photo’s I made some 30 years ago in this country. These were made at the “Puck Fair” in Killorgin.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_Fair) . First day cattle market, second day horse market, third day just drinking. There were hardly any tourists. The animals freely moved in the streets, between the public. And had a standstill in front of the hairdresser.

Follow The Icon -2

As long as I know his work, I've always been fascinated by the way Lee Friedlander in his street scenes uses a kind of personal signature by also photographing his own shadow or reflection, usually without this being the main subject in the photo. Thereby breaking the taboo one shouldn’t making his shadow of reflection making visible in the photograph.

That freedom to use my own shadow and reflection as a kind of surreal game to play with the observed reality and then capture and fix it with the photo camera, that freedom I have more or less stolen from him. In the images I sometimes make with my own shadow and / or reflection, I am indebted to him. I do not mind. In the exhibition "SELFIES / SELF-PORTRAITS. Wtf! © Jaap Bijsterbosch", which can be seen in February 1017 in Gallery WM I'm going to show a small selection of such images.

Up: Oostende (Bel), 16/8/2016 2.52 pm. Middle: Cork (Ire), 4/9/2016, 11.12 am. Under Galway (Ire), 15/9/2016, 6.16 pm.

Follow the Icon 1 Henri Cartier Bresson

In many photographs I make I trace an influence of a picture I once saw. I am aware of that, sometimes during the moment I shoot the photograph, sometimes afterwards.  Sometimes the Icon Photo will be a very famous one, sometimes a rather anonymous snapshot.

So my plan is to post from time to time a photo made by me, accompanied by a description in words of the Icon Photo and the name of the photographer.

The idea behind Follow the Icon is that, although as  a photographer I developed a reasonable signature and style of my own, I often am influenced by other examples. I do not mind at all; I think this a very interesting phenome.

Today: Follow the Icon 1-Because of Henri Cartier Bresson.

A man is anonymously cycling through a street. At the right moment, the cyclist perfectly placed into the composition, the photographer pushes the button. A somewhat longer exposure time whereby the speed of the cyclist becomes tangible. (My picture I made this year in Cork, the photo of CB was somewhere in the back of my mind)

Two more Selfportraits.

From february 11th 2016 I’ll exhibit a lot more selfportraits at the Gallery WM in Amsterdam (NL)! More to follow. Photo up: Bakkum (NL), 16/08/16, 12.43 am. Photo under: Dingle Bay (IRL), 16/08/30, 1,28 pm.