Imagine you're an artist and your work is suddenly supposed to vanish. Not because it's bad, but because the model has had second thoughts. It's an ugly topic that nobody wants to talk about.
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I stumbled across an interview with Benny Urquidez. The man invented kickboxing — which completely surprised me because I thought the sport had always existed. But that's not the point. It's about something he said about energy, and it's been haunting me ever since.
A few days ago I stumbled across an auction for one of my Sublime books, out of print since 2021. At first, a good sign. The book is apparently still in demand enough to resurface years later. Except the name printed under the photos isn't mine. Simon Boltz. That, it seems, is who I am the moment my books land on Catawiki.
What a ride. My photo book Mellow is sold out, every copy packed, stamped, and on its way. All over the world. That's not just a throwaway line. It actually came out to 26 different countries. A nice number for the stats, sure, but mostly I'm just grateful that people across the globe care about my pictures. Collectors, enthusiasts, connoisseurs. That's what I want to call them.
A few years ago I wrote here about AI image generators. Back then they were laughable gimmicks. Hyped to the ceiling, but if you looked closely, there was nothing behind it. Six fingers, melting ears, text that consisted of random characters. There was no reason to worry.
There are moments when life hands you a punchline so good that, as a writer, you ought to be ashamed of it.
This week I watched the British prime minister on TV announce a social media ban for everyone under sixteen. And I caught myself thinking it didn't sound half bad. The way I see it, social media belongs under scrutiny anyway, and a head of government willing to say so out loud is on solid ground with me, at least at first. Then I read up on how the British are reordering their whole digital world, and the ground started to crack.
I almost missed it because time flies by so fast, which is one of those standard clichés that everyone over 40 uses as if they've just discovered the secret of the universe. But it's true: this blog has been around for 10 years now. That's over 500 articles, all from my pen. Actually, I should say "from my keyboard," but that sounds less poetic.
So, I've turned fifty. Fifty. Finally a sensible number. None of that kiddie-party business of thirty or forty. Something solid. Half a century. Spelled out, it almost sounds like a geological unit of measurement.
Five fifteen in the morning. The alarm goes off in a stylish Airbnb in Alicante, and for one brief, undignified moment, I ask myself what I'm actually doing this for. Then it comes back to me: tourists. Or more precisely, the absence of them.
When I flew to Ibiza for a shoot for the first time thirteen years ago, I had zero clue about the island. Sure, party hotspot, hippies, expensive turf. The usual clichés, basically. For location scouting, I'd organized a local, a tip from a Dutch colleague. "What are you envisioning?" she asked during prep. I had this fixed idea about a big tree.
So there she stands. The next unfamiliar face. She extends her hand while her gaze scans the room. In exactly 180 minutes according to my mental stopwatch something is supposed to develop between us that money can't buy: a creative connection that produces extraordinary images.
There are these moments in photography that never cease to amaze me: beautiful nature meets feminine beauty, and suddenly a magical connection emerges. Especially during my shoots in Ibiza, I love how the Mediterranean wild plants add extra texture to the image. There are such amazing, wild flower meadows there! But sometimes, behind romantic names like "Wild Carrot" lurk unexpected properties.
You make promises to yourself. Never a selfie stick, never sweatpants unless you're actually working out, never those dreadful to-go coffee cups with motivational quotes. And then one day, an ATUMTEK selfie stick ends up in your shopping cart anyway. 150 centimeters of aluminum, 220 grams, and me of all people, a man who cringes at selfies the way most people cringe at fingernails on a chalkboard.
The story sounds almost too absurd to be true: A lady of fine Victorian society supposedly fainted at the sight of an exposed ankle in 1866. Well, probably one of those contemporary exaggerations, but it tells us something fascinating about the power of cultural taboos.
It's early May, and while most people are just starting to think about their summer holidays, I'm pretty much done with my 2027 calendar. Those dreary months had to be good for something.
500 likes for the new image, seventeen heart emojis in the comments and then — bam! — that one comment: "I don't think it's that good." Eight words that ruin the party. Does this sound familiar? I certainly know it all too well.
Sometimes you light a creative fire and burn your fingers in the process. Or in this case: your eyelashes.
I got it wrong for years. Light from the front, camera from the front, everything evenly lit. The result was just boring. No shadows, no depth, no character. At some point, the penny dropped: the problem wasn't the gear, it was where I'd put it.
Somewhere on my hard drive, there's a folder with the working title "Girls-and-Cars." The name is so obviously provisional that I chose it deliberately at the time, just to avoid committing too early. That was 2020. I was researching cars from the seventies, those angular characters with chrome bumpers and personality. And the eighties, whose designers had apparently decided that sharp edges were underrated. I was looking for locations, for owners who didn't just hide their treasures in garages but actually drove them.
It's unbelievable. I wanted to search for a model on Instagram with whom I'm planning a photo shoot. Her name — and here's the kicker — is actually Lolita. Complete with passport and everything. What happened next was so absurd that I could hardly believe it: Instagram blocked my search before I could even submit it.
I keep my eyes open. That sounds more obvious than it is, because most people look without really seeing. Fashion, music, art — it all drifts past, and at some point you start wondering whether you're still part of the picture or just watching from the sidelines. I try to be both, though when it comes to art, I make a point of only looking briefly. Long enough to take something away. Short enough to avoid mistaking someone else's ideas for my own.
A nude photographer who has watched GNTM since the very first season, barely missed an episode, and honestly quite enjoys the show. I understand if you need a moment. So do I.
I casually ask Thomas Berlin how his book project is going. The way you do when you haven't heard anything for six months and want to show polite interest. His answer: the freight company is coming today. The books are here.
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