In my blog, I have written every six months how the Corona restrictions affect my life as a photographer. Since I plan articles for my blog three to four months in advance, I was already making notes of what I wanted to report on the subject of Corona in March 2022. However, with the start of the war, this has become obsolete.
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The elevator pitch was originally an idea by sales people to convince customers of their product during an elevator ride. Because it rarely lasted longer than 60 seconds, all relevant information had to fit into this time window. I was recently told my website was not on point. So I'm taking you on a short elevator ride with me.
Around one year ago I heard of NFTs for the first time. NFT stands for Non-Fungible Tokens and is a major trend in the world of selling art. However the term non-fungible token isn't self-explaining. It stands for a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied and is recorded in a blockchain that is used to certify authenticity and ownership.
Who does not know it? The creative hole. The work has become routine and nothing new comes to mind. Where are all the good ideas? Why are others so creative? I recently heard a lecture that said happiness is the way out of such a creative crisis. I would disagree.
Valentine's Day doesn't have a big tradition in Germany and therefore doesn't mean anything to me. But on the 14th of February exactly 10 years ago something special happened and I have great memories of it. Six months after my job interview in the Munich office of the Burda publishing house, I flew to the capital of Austria for my very first production for Playboy.
I have photographed many women naked. Women with small breasts, with large breasts, with flat and bulging décolletés. The question never arose for me as to whether what I was photographing was real or not. But I keep getting asked that question myself. Why?
When I registered the domain simonbolz.com around 20 years ago, I didn't know what I would do with it one day. Now I'm very happy about it. And it was once again time to overhaul the website. A lot has happened.
Last year my review of the year was a bit frugal. It was almost only about Corona. 2021 wasn't that much different and felt a bit like a year to forget. Actually, my annual review is therefore more of a look back at the fourth quarter of 2021. But at least that was special.
Christmas time is always time to browse through photo books. And so I am very much pleased that Czech photographer Lukas Dvorak has just published a book. The specialist for black and white motives has fascinated me for a long time and his works from the past thirteen years are now presented in this printed edition.
I recently wrote about the fact that grain in photos has an indefinable effect. Somehow we find a structure in photos to be pleasant. It gives the photo character and feels good. In this article I also described that I somehow don't get really warm with the technical application of grain. That has now changed and I am happy to pass on my knowledge.
Nowadays there are no more out of cam photos. Such a thing as out of cam doesn't exist. All photos have always passed through some sort of filter. These are algorithms that compile the color information from the camera's image sensor according to certain criteria into a JPG. Or filters that work in the same way and manipulate color values to achieve a certain look. It happens more and more often that my clients tell me to put my look on the pictures.
Body height plays an important role in our society. Smaller people are often not taken seriously. I know that from experience, because I'm pretty small. I can handle it well because I know what I can do and I don't mind that my wife is two inches taller than me.
For Christmas I am offering a special for my art of the month prints. This series of four comes in square passepartouts (each 15x15cm) amd you might want to frame the images. Nowadays, it's not so easy to find decent frames in regular stores downtown, so I decided to provide you with a list of potential candidates for your space.
Art is a strange craft. And creativity sometimes behaves like a cat. It has a mind of its own and it is difficult for you to lead it. But I need creativity to get ahead. It's a bit of a vicious circle. What helps me sometimes is to rigorously clean up. And so I did.
There is always a certain ideal of beauty within a culture. It is a contemporary idea of what is perceived as beautiful. These fashions are always changing and have great regional differences. Perhaps it is worthwhile to start a signature campaign against an ideal of beauty that is currently threatening to assert itself.
Art inspires and other artists fascinate and inspire me. Thinking outside the box is particularly fascinating. I have nothing to do with acrobatics, but when I saw Marion Crampe dancing on the pole, I was deeply impressed. She is a multiple champion in her field and I saw immediately why.
Not much has changed for me in the last 15 years: location search remains the most difficult part of my job. While a fashion shoot can take place practically anywhere, a nude shoot requires a bit of sensitivity. And so I'm constantly looking for suitable locations. These are my criteria.
Over the years I have found out that my emotional states switch more or less the same during every photo project that I have. I take my job very seriously. Maybe too serious sometimes. But it's kind of amusing that I go through these five phases with every single shoot.
Some photographers are returning to working with old film cameras. It is about returning to slower photography. A film only has 36 frames. You don't want to waste them pointlessly. Photos taken on film have different colors, but you can recognize them mainly by their grain which is a trademark of film compared to the digital. But what actually makes grain beautiful?
The great thing about my job is that visual inspiration can be found everywhere in everyday life. On a walk through nature, in a shopping center, while traveling. And although I focus myself on photography, it is often different art that helps to create connections and encourage new ideas.
I asked myself what is the difference between art and decoration? Does art take precedence over decoration? And is photography even art? The topic is very extensive and I could perhaps write a doctoral thesis on it. Then I would be a PhD in photography. But I neither value titles that much nor does this title exist. Nevertheless, I am still thinking about these questions.
Every year starting in August, I get regular emails from people asking about my new calendar. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about it and of course I have produced another calendar for the coming year. My 2022 calendar has now been published. As always in a limited edition.
I often think about my own work. In doing so, I realize that I'm too good, that I repeat myself too much and that I don't really produce enough new things. It's not that easy to break free of conventions and to dare to try out something completely new.
I would like to give you a little update on how I am doing during the pandemic and what has changed for me in the past 18 months. At the end of last year I was still very optimistic and my watchword was that 2021 can only be better than 2020. Unfortunately, I was not right.
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