Almostdaily

Kai Wiechmann's Blog

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An era ends...

In the process of moving our production to newer facilities and future proof tech, my dear client Siemens Healthineers is retiring its old studio space.

In fact, rather than just a studio this place was a mixed-use utilitarian warehouse...

...filled with office furniture, space-age style radiology consoles (minus the radiation of course) and the occasional humming and screeching of test tools. And in the hazy beams of industrial skylights, a pristinely white studio space: Mobile wall units, styling booths, the works. By no means a glamorous place but I always felt like going ashore at a creative island within an industrial pond. 

Amongst producing busloads of healthcare-related images throughout the years, there was plenty fun to be had. Farewell Dieselstrasse.

[kaiwiechmann]

The State Of Man Revisited

Sun’s out and work on a long-anticipated project ‘The State Of Man’ has started! Anticipated by me at least as I think the time is ripe to ask ourselves: ‘Man, who do you want to be?’

A follow-up on a series I shot for The Future Laboratory’s Viewpoint Magazine 17 yrs ago which presented current and upcoming niches and stereotypes of male roles at the brink of a new century (inhale…), this is a necessary update after a decade and a half of turbulent changes. We can be anything we like now…or can’t we?

As grand as this sounds, the good thing about personal work is that you get to choose your subjects. So it happens that my old mate from third grade Jensi turns up to the casting: Funkmaster, Boxer, Chess-Mastermind, ferociously opposed to chess-boxing while always fighting for the good cause. It is a pleasure to kick off a project with the help of old friends such as him and also Marko T. Crawford, who popped up in Berlin after having assisted me a gazillion years ago in New York.

Thanks to brilliant stylist Nuria Gregori there are also some Making-Of shots!

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I am in a team now! 

Pushing pedals on and offroad,...

...up and downhill on various wheel sizes has been my poison to temporarily put some distance between me and the creative industry for as long as I remember. And now the gap has narrowed in form of Team Arri Racing who provided me with some cool sportive apparel. A group of bike aficionados consisting mostly -as the name suggests- from film buffs and professionals, they are a seriously mean contender in German sportive cycling events. Needless to say, I am proud as a peacock to be wearing team colors now…and to be featured on their blog! 

Yeah! It’s on, Wiechmann! Go and train those lazy legs! 

So I’ve been sneaking out regularly in the morning during our family vacation to build up mileage. The road sure looks trippy after a 30min climb.

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Ta-daaaah. 

Teamshot

...of a real tight team! Thank y'all for a week of lighting, laughter and Franconian cuisine!

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About:Blank

Recently in an elevator...

...at META DESIGN. That sun kind of made my day...

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Masterclass Excursion 

- FH Dortmund (University of Applied Sciences and Arts) sent their finest for a cosy Saturday morning chat in Berlin. 

I am always mightily impressed by the competence and differentiated views I am facing when talking to students of a school (I myself stem from). Not sure we were that smart back in the day...

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Virtual Reality will completely redefine the way we evaluate the correlation between an illusion and what we consider real and the conviction that we’re bound to this one reality.

Of course I prioritize the mechanical, tangible yet messy world over virtual experience. But won’t the offer to experience endless parallel realities be too sweet in the long run? Will my current world keep it’s status as my ‘go-to’ place when I could easily regard it as just one amongst many? Hasn’t the universe already taught us to accept endless realities? And where’s David Bowie when we need him? ’Who knows’ I thought to myself, grabbed my dusty camera obscura and coerced VR into staying within the good old 2 photographic dimensions. For now.

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Thievery!

So we left the studio to grab an espresso in the morning sun, just to be presented with this corpus delicti.

Didn’t take long for a little crowd to gather and take snapshots, me included. However, people’s reactions were wide-ranging: Dismay, Schadenfreude (a supposedly exclusive German term which isn’t true…) and an almost-brawl. 

The owner never showed up and the expresso bar was closed. Monday monday...

[kaiwiechmann]

Windows Of The World 

The other day an old friend contacted me through Facebook to ask if he could use some of my old WTC Polaroids from a job back in 2000 for his blog.

I’d portrayed the chef of ’Windows Of The World’ Restaurant and these were shot during light setting…however, one was pinned to the pencil holder in my studio for a long time. It kept bleaching throughout the years and became some sort of varnitas symbol for me before disappearing entirely. To see one of those again is a fresh reminder of my weird post 9/11 realisation that even the places we physically occupy are just temporary. What you see on the image has long been dispersed as dust and rubble over the city but the Polaroid (which is in fact Fuji FP100C) is still weirdly real as this very synthetic plastic sheet bears witness to the scene. It was there (but my old friend has long left Facebook)!

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Tools of the trade

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Happy Birthday!

Eventually, while the resulting images of a shoot become ’the work’, they tend to replace the time you spent making them.

Memory tricks you into accepting that all you did is contained in those images. And yes, these are the reason all those people had quick breakfasts, boarded planes or rushed to get a train…but there’s also the ‘in-between’: Hilarious sitcom moments, bursts of wit and...birthdays! We had three of them on this last shoot, cake and all.

[kaiwiechmann]

Headphone Extroverts

So I met Rick and asked him to sing for me. Turned out...

he’s the singer of a band which of course kind of sidetracks the whole ‘singing loud, proud and wrong’ idea.

But hey, talent won’t save him from being my Headphone Extrovert #2.

Here’s a preview.

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Headphone Extroverts

The other day I stepped out for a walk and down the road from the studio a guy walked past me,...

yelling what seemed to be his all-time favorite song, swinging hips and all: Off-key, loud, lyrics all wrong, just gorgeous! I missed my chance to shoot him (yeah I know…but I am not big into street photography). So I headed out again and started asking people to sing, headphones on, their favorite tunes for me. This is a sneak-peek at Juan, Headphone Extrovert #1

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beast

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Fat-cap blast from the past! 

Part of my ancient 'Graffiti Writers' appeared in 'MAJO BROTHERS' by Kerber Verlag.

It is a really enjoyable book. Somewhat different as it tells the childhood story of two off-beat brothers and their way into creativity.

Shot in the early 90s, this was one of my first stabs at documentary. I was neither a Graffiti-writer myself, nor did I tag. I was just the guy with the camera, the one they had to trust. To be quiet and quick and to run the right way when the flashlights would close in. Fun times. I used infrared film to stay undetected at night and high contrast techniques and masks to obscure faces thus I myself have a hard time remembering personalities now.

Photography has the ability to illuminate but often it acts like a firewall between you and your memory. But back then I also learned that it allows you to temporarily become part of other people's worlds.

[kaiwiechmann]

Wild Style dancing shadows

I took a walk while the sun was out. 

Shadows of leafless trees danced on Graffiti-covered walls animating the faded letters. Nice try! But still...can't wait for spring!

[kaiwiechmann]

Gear!

This is my bike. Born in the 80's, it survived three cars and ten years with me. 

One sunny morning years ago, I rolled it out of my apartment for a ride over GW Bridge and a girl stopped and said 'That's a beautiful bike! Have fun with your beautiful bike.' And while she said this without a trace of irony (so I thought), I am sure she looked right through me: This was a dude with his dude gear.

The bike has now become daddy gear: Mudguards, lights, battlescars and all. Damn sexy still, but a relic.