Kzenon Überforward

I was not at the spot when it happened and my wife, who was, is very well. It feels a bit strange if you live just 200 m away from the scene of a terrorist bombing attack. The city is crowded now and my wife reports the way to the airport – where she is scheduled for a flight this evening – is jammed with cars because many people want to leave the town to relax just somewhere out.

The picture was not taken by me. By the way, you do not see very much. This is because of the smoke that blocks your view. The smoke is exactly where only minutes before a restaurant was in which a lot of people had a peaceful breakfast. Until the blast. To me it is very hard to see what makes people do such awful things. This is a rather lame statement and I know it but people died, I do not know why and I do not know what else to say.

Most microstock agencies employ some kind of level system. That means that contributing photographers will be “promoted” once they have reached a certain amount of pictures sold. At the “grand old agency” – that is iStock – the levels are called “canisters” and go from “base” (harmless) up to “black diamond” (elite).

I just hit diamond with my portfolio at iStock, the second highest level, which requires 25.000 sold pictures. Not terribly bad for a weekend shooter who started late in the revolution. I must confess, however, that only a short time ago I thought my whole life would suddenly change and I would feel distinctively different once I reached the semi-god level at iStock. But it just happened without much additional noise. I try to take this as a good sign though: I convince myself that I have outgrown the need for outside motivation and derive the pleasure and the high I get from the act of creating itself.

That is, I think, a very good thing.

There may be several different kinds of sin. One – and I am surely liable of that one – may be trying to create visualizations for a nonexistent fucked up plastic world. Another one is giving up too early.

The day that started with a whitish-grey and overcast sky. When it started to rain cats and dogs we went on shooting cheeseburgers instead of pictures. But then late in the afternoon the sun started to shine again albeit hesitantly. We sent the models already home – except for the boy kuhl cats. But funny thing: at the lake we were shooting at there was a rock festival with three stages, beer and lots of fine looking young ladies willing to become models. The girl cats here not professionals but simply law abiding citizens being present accidentally but with the strong determination to squeeze as much fun as possible out of that day.

If you want to know how it feels shooting stock among hundreds of rock fans celebrating at the beach: funny.