I am so irritated at myself. I took some great pictures when I was in Berlin and now they seem to have been deleted by some unknown mechanism, through me with this new funky camera that I had bought. I felt quite elated to see the same camera at Doha airport 15% more expensive than what I had paid for. And yeaaaa, I don't have to lug around the reflex camera anymore.

Thankfully I have some pictures and they are coming up soon here on my site. My favourite is the one of the three party animals waiting for the metro to get back home at 3 am in the morning.

I did have a hectic schedule in Berlin, but at the same time had a nice deja vu of getting back to modern art, things working on clockwork, walking around town a lot and seeing the first snowfall of winter, and meeting some Berliner friends of Christian's (Franz, Matse and Peter) who were very eclectic and funny. I also caught up with David through Berit.

I had one full day to myself to look around a bit and went to visit two museums. I went to the ballet the previous night with my former colleague Emilio and his wife Ana, but asides from the element of curiosity that I had for a first show, and appreciation from a finer eye point of view, I did not find it spectacular.

However, I really loved my visit to the Helmut Newton photo museum. I was really looking forward to the exhibition of Larry Clark after I have seen his movie "KIDS", as he seemed to dwell on the subject of teenage angst a lot. Well, ok Newton is famous for taking nude shots of celebrities, and glamourizing or deglamourizing them according to the theme of his shoots, and very well known for Vogue shoots. To me its a modern analogy of the elite classes commissioning portraits or paintings of themselves.

Larry Clark's photos were shocking and profound, and below are some of my favourites in his Tulsa series, the book which I bought. 

             

Clark, Larry ©
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Man with baby
SERIES TITLE: "Tulsa"



The second one is very symbolic. I don't know the title.

To say the least, Ralph Gibson was a discovery for me. His pictures were downright brilliantly conceptualized.

After I left the museum, I planned to go to the Hamburg Bahnhof museum. When I got off at the spanking new metro station at Hauptbahnhof, it started to snow and I was sooo hungreee and cold. I decided to stick around the station for a bit, and then got ready to do my second leg of the tour. And to think after all I got lost, and yes now I realise I should have brushed up my basic German and not assume that most Berliners do speak an inkling of english (tch tch). I asked a nice lady (yes I also assumed she sprakt englisch as she was dressed like a stepford wife with burberrys written all over her). Somehow in my communication with her, we understood that I should follow her and jump into the bus as I had apparently walked too far, so I rode with her for two stops, got down and followed her back to the same metro where I had gotten off an hour earlier in order to look for the museum.

What the heck, she did not say anything and I was still following her, and suddenly she went to a shop to do some clothes shopping. I must have rolled my eyes 360° in my mind's eye. So I just turned and left and went to find the place in 10 minutes. I had two hours to look at the exhibits and found it drab. Just a bit too mechanical for me. I could not find a connection. There were some exhibits which you could say, were origianl perhaps in the sense that the artist might have done it first. Some of them reminded me Miro's work and people like them because they can connect to his complicity in simplicity. Sorry I don't buy, drawing a diagonal line across a monstrous canvas a work of art ! Or throwing dots of paints all over for that matter. 

On an overall note, I had a great time in Berlin and hope to go there soon again and for sure I will have more time to discover more interesting works given the time.

Me having a dorsal view..

So the pictures are coming. I am still waiting for Bishal to email us the photos that we took while in Hong Kong. And yes, printing from the film from my camera would takes ages to come.

But as a good introduction here are some postcards from there.

Hakka tribes with a landlord perhaps (cards courtesy of Alan Chan creations )



What I could make of what was written in the corner of the card..... a group of s...coolies..the first and the last are clad in ...while the one in the robe...provisions purchased has been marked

A very good article on Manipur from The Economist.

Please click here

Good insight into the affairs of the state. Or read below if you cannot open the link.