The USofA, 3rd and final part.

My sister and me arrived in Philadelphia, at Kyle’s place where Jules was waiting for us because Kyle had to work. My sis stayed just a day, because her workweek started again, but I stayed for some more days, before heading back to Boston.

First night my sis, me, Jules & Brian went out to have some food and drinks, before Kyle joined and they showed us around Philly a bit.
XD-7, 50/1.7, Neopan1600.

Jules at the fountain, which was a good thing they showed me, it turned out to be my orientationpoint for the rest of my stay, haha.

Kyle.

Jules and me were messing a bit with the external flash. This is Kyle trying to tell us we should set the aperture at f/8. (Obviousy I wasn’t synched up with the flash).

There I was! But the lensopening was too wide, haha.

That’s better.

No flash and some tasty bokeh.

Back home and Jules flashing me while coming down the stairs.

Next day my sis and me had some breakfast around the corner. Cheap 200iso colourfilm (Schlecker to be precise! Very similar to Superia.)

I gave that dude my coffee and he proclaimed us his “new Dutch friends”, which resulted in a conversation with this guy:

Josh. I still got his phonenumber :O

He told us he was a musician and how he loved music and wanted to make the world a better place via it, blablabla.

His friend joined. And they invited us to go to this Chinese garden. But first they had to drop by home, so we went with them (yes, in retrospect I know how dodgy that sounds).

When we arrived there we met some more of his friends. Honestly, I had a good time. But smoking the bong at 11 am is a bit too much for me, even if I’m Dutch.
Needless to say we never saw that teagarden.

Hanging out in a park, later that day, with Kyle.
We walked my sis to the bus, Kyle went to class and I continued to wander the streets of Philly on my own.

To have some sort of purpose I made it my goal to shoot people who came up to ask me for something. Oh wait, I did the same in Boston and already told that. Anywho.
This guy asked for a light. He just came from the library and had rented Frankenstein and the Elephant Man. He told me he loved the classics. The classic drama’s. They resembled his life, although his life wasn’t dramatic (I nodded, but when I write it down I realise I had no clue what he was talking about).

That night I rode Brian’s bike for a bit and totally loved it, so the next day I wanted to do that again, but I broke it. At least I think I did. So I went to the artmuseum. I wasn’t really feeling it, because I wanted to ride my bicycle (can you already hear Queen in the background?). To be honest, I was damn cranky. It was a good museum though. But I was really damned cranky.

Is it art or is it just a phone? Who knows?

I went home and Brian just got home so we went into the city to get the bike fixed (for free even!) and hang out a bit. My day started to get better, little did I know it would even get better and better.

This is tri-x by the way. And the next photo was my first frame on the roll, you know just a random frame to make sure the film is advanced far enough.

But does it also remind you of this? 49 to go still!

Ok, I’m getting sidetracked. Brian and me passed a mural which I liked so he took me to the garden of Isaiah Zagar.

That was a pretty damn cool place!

By that time I was far from being cranky.

Hello Isaiah!

Hello Brian!

Oh and hello me.

We got caught up in a conversation with Isaiah.

Such a sweet man.

Suddenly I realised there was so much colour around and I was shooting b/w. So I switched to my beloved Superia800.

I like b/w better… it’s more about the textures than the colours I guess.

Brian and me said goodbye to Isaiaha and we went for some pizza on South Street and he just showed me around for a bit. I had a fantastic time. Brian, if you ever read this, thanks so much for showing me around and your great company.

We went to a pub (I think it was called Tattood Mom?) and Kyle and Jules joined. Yep, still getting better and better that day.

PBR… Our poison of that evening. Along with tequila!

We headed to another pub and another and another and wounded up somewhere playing pingpong, haha.

Awesome shot by Jules!

Awesome, but slightly OOF, shot by me.

I was trying to throw Kyle’s opponent off balance by shooting him. Damn motionblur.

Outside having a cig. I kinda like the motionblur here though, gives a nice sense of immediacy.

Steve the Bartender. Had a great chat with him. He’s actually a DJ and just bought his own place. He gave me a free shot.

Last frame of the evening.

I woke up that night, saw Chestnut there, made a frame and fell back asleep.

Next morning being hungover and hanging out with Kyle.

Switched to Superia800.

When my friends back home were flipping through my prints, and these frames showed up, they were like: “Aww!”

“Awwwww!”

“AAWWWWW!!!”

Sad to be leaving Philly I got on the bus. Kyle, Jules and Brian… once again thank you so much for the hospitality and the good times! Miss and love you guys.

On the busride I had music in my ears, camera in my hands, mozzarella sandwich in my bag, great memories in my head and on my way to more. The happiest I’ve been in a long time.

Back in Boston. Still with Sup800 loaded

I had my hair cut.

Had fantastic conversations about all sorts of things with the landlady. Here she’s showing me some photos she took on her holiday in the Netherlands.

I hung out in Little Italy.

Thank God I’m not an employee, I don’t like to be told what I should or should not do.

Tri-x. I was having tea, a cig and I was shooting. Multitasker, booyeah.

My sis doing her thing in the lab.

We went to a Halloweenparty later that night, but I’m not sure where the roll of film is I shoot that evening. Oh well.

On the last day in the States I was hanging out with my sister, when suddenly my camera was acting strange. It was like the apertureblades wouldn’t pop back in place.

My sister trying to detect the problem.

By this time we were really confused what was going on.

My sis even shed a tear.

So from then on it was kinda over with taking pictures, because the cam was frustrating me too much and I put it away (inbetween these last frames a lot of black frames occured). Luckily it happened on the last day in the States.
Back home in the Netherlands I fixed the problem: the spring that regulates the aperture was semi-stuck. I made it smoothly working again with some stuff and it has worked ever since
Kind of an anti-climax of my trip though, hm? But damn all in all I had a fantastic time! Thanks for sticking with me, I hoped you enjoyed the photos!

The USofA, part 1

So, lets start in Boston, where I started my trip. And where the reason of my trip was: my sister. She was doing research there for 8 months. And will get back this afternoon, she’s on the plane right now. Anywho, I visited her in Boston. I stayed there for a couple of days – spending the days mostly on my own cause she had to work. Then we headed to New York City together for a couple of days. Then to Philadelphia, where she stayed one day and I a couple of more before I headed back to Boston.

Tri-x in D76, with the XD-7 and the 50/1.7, scans from negative – here we go:

I was totally fascinated by the steam coming from the sewers onto the streets. Something you don’t see here in the Netherlands, only in movies.

I shot some street. You know, not what I usually do. The usual thing for me is to shoot my friends. But I was on my own (not alone, mind you, I had a fantastic time), so I tried to see other motives to shoot. Was an interesting experience – in general but also photographywise. Less talking, more photos is what you’re thinking now, hm? ;)

I kinda really like this frame. Posh lady.

“General Hooker Entrance” :O

I hung out in the park.

Just like him. The weather was fantastic. Couldn’t have been better.

Just to have something to do while wandering the streets I made it my “mission” to shoot portraits of the people who came up to me to ask me something (a cig, a light, the directions, etc).

He was such a nice guy. Really sweet. Unlike the light which was totally blocking my sight.

After I shot the previous portrait I noticed two guys in a wheelchair sitting acros the street, enjoying the sun. So I decided to ask them for a portrait. With the excuse of “shooting a streetassignment for photographyschool”, which – let’s have that clear- I’m not in. I study Comparative Arts/Cultural Studies. Theoretical stuff, not the practice of arts itself.
So when I asked this dude was like “Huh? What?”. And the other dude literally said: “A photo?! I’m getting te fuck out of here!”. While he rolled away.

The other day I took the metro to the other side of town. And walked down the river Charles. Why is everyhting called Charles in Boston, I wonder.

There was this great photographystore there. The kind that has it all. I was helped by a really nice guy (but honestly, everyone in the States has been so incredibly kind to me, it was startling). He gave me his card, I gave him my blogaddress. Derek, if you read this: hi!

So finally I had my beloved Neopan1600 again!! And cheesecake. Mmmm…

Back in the metro into the city again. I wanted to shoot the view and thought it would be nicely framed by these guys. But when I raised my camera they both kinda twitched and obviously did their best to ignore the girl with the camera. Which I though was kinda funny. So I refocused, corrected the settings and shot them. Just like they thought I would.

Ok, moving on to NYC. With Superia800 loaded! How I adore that film…

Sometimes colour just fits.

Zombies. They honestly freaked me out. It was fun though, to get the whole Halloween experience thing.

They jumped onto the traffice shouting “Brains. BRAAAAIIINNNSSS.”

Ground Zero. I was surprised to see the amount of tourists standing in front of it, smiling and making the peace sign for the photo.

Some didn’t really smile though.

Having some food. And my sister Madelijn managing to squeeze out a photosmile while eating. I bet she’s gonna love me for including this shot.

Ok, I’m so lost on the chronology right now, with taking out and putting back in the film. This didn’t take all place in one day, but in the course of several. But that might be obvious, I dunno.

On our way to Times Square I saw this guy, and I was amused by his outfit. Complete with Crocs. So I shot him.

He saw me and posed. Then he came up to talk to me and see the photo. Slightly dissapointed to see I still shoot film. He gave me a fistbump though when I told him I was from the Netherlands. And almost forced us to let my sister take a photo of him and his “new friend from Holland”.

Times Square was so fantastic to shoot. I enjoyed myself immensly there.

We walked to the M&M store.

Which is an insanely huge and useless store. What an immense crap they sell there. Unbelievable.

Lady with creepy fingernails.

Ha, it was quite funny to shoot in that store. Whenever I saw an interesting frame including people and raised my camera, the people sometimes saw me and apologized for blocking my frame and moved out of the way.

“Hmmm, which colour shall we get?” Who cares? They all taste the same anyway.

We took the ferry to Staten Island:

For some people this is a daily trip, not a tourist trip. So why not catch up on your sleep?

The last frames of colour shot in the MoMA:

Contemplative.

And highly interested apparantly.

That’s it for now. I wanted to show everything from NYC in this post, but I showed about 50 frames already and still have approximately 50 b/w frames to go. I don’t want to numb you ;) Besides that, I’m off to collect my sister at the airport!
Next post in a week or so.

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoyed!