Step-up station

When I was in my home town at Christmas time I photographed this small step-up station which was adjacent to a much larger building bult in the same brutal functional style.

For some reason I am attracted to these spartan, planar, form-follows-function structures. I often find subtle tonal variation much more satisfying that graphic, compositional trickery. They also lend themselves to a mode of photography which privileges the technical over the formal which, when one is obsessed with clarity, makes for fun.

Unfortunately these buildings also privileged a small set of white people's operations over a larger underprivileged population. See the building's relationship with the street. Not personable is it? Despite the fact that this is the back of the building I am sure the architects could have negotiated this threshold in a more friendly manner.

These photos have not been retouched.

pills and boxes

Winter is arriving and I will be bunkering down for the inclement months. I thought it might be a good plan to try and try and find some common ground between the music I look at, the photographs I read and the books I listen to.
It was not a good idea, but bunkering is a possible point of departure. Here is a shot of a bunker in Normandy where I was last week, and some shots from travels in England, France and Germany.

Emilie appears(twice, once looking into a very bright light), as does as a music school, the most beautiful staircases I have ever seen and Antje Kalus who is a friend from Berlin. She is a fashion designer and an architect. Antje's clothes vary only very slightly, much like the music of Frank Bretschneider who I also met.