This is a selection of the portraits I made in a local nursing home. I was asked to make sincere, documentary style black and white portraits of their residents. The printed portraits are now located in the corridor of the nursing home. Pretty cool; my first exhibition-ish location.

I’ve heard that the wife of one particular gentleman was actually moved to tears when she saw the photograph of her husband.

Another man passed away only days after the photos were printed, framed and mounted on the wall (I’ve added some photos below). The portrait I made of him was used at his funeral. Although it’s kind of wry, I think it’s an honour that his relatives chose the photograph I made to use on such an emotionally charged day.

Nursing home portraits is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

It’s been 66 years now since Holland was liberated of nazi Germany. Less and less people are alive to tell firsthand stories of the horrific war. While we’ve all seen the heroic movies (although they’re rather black-and-white; they always portray German soldiers as the bad guys, while a lot of them were forced to fight), war is still really abstract for a lot of people. Especially kids.

That’s why I like the concept of Bussum Bridgehead, a gathering of WW2 related vehicles, weapons and clothing. Although it’s just as black-and-white as the films (no nazi costumes and vehicles are allowed), it does give a better and more tangible view of the 1940-1945 era.

About the last photograph. Yes, I know it does not really fit in. Or rather; it really does not fit in. But I think it’s too amusing to exclude :p

World War 2 re-enactment is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I shot this photograph last year on “de Huizerdag”, an annual local fair. It was a surprise to see a booth selling wedding dresses and wedding suits, since the quality of most products for sale is quite… mediocre.

The guy that owned the booth was patiently sitting on his chair, while nobody seemed to give the out of place gowns a second glance. But suddenly, a young (I think mentally disabled) boy appeared alongside his dad. He was fascinated by the dresses, and stood there for a while.

There’s some sort of wry sadness here. The booth-owner wanted to sell and promote his products, but he only attracted the attention of a young kid during the time I stood there. Which, if I make a wild guess, isn’t his target audience. Notable, since the rest of the booths were crowded with people. Although you can’t really see that on this photograph, so you’ll have to believe my pretty blue eyes.

Shot with my trusty Vivitar 35ES on Kodak Tri-X.

Out of place wedding gowns is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

[EDIT] 25/02/2011
Unfortunately, I had to take these offline for a while. I won’t bother you with the specific reasons, so I’ll just say I’m glad that I can post them properly now. (Originally posted on November 23th of 2010.)

Exercises like this happen twice a year in this region, and are normally restricted for photographers and journalists. But I could come along. Yay!

Scenario

The Media Park in Hilversum is one of the few high-risk areas in this region. Most of the national TV shows get recorded at this place. Hence the nickname Hillywood. There’s a lot of electrical equipment and a lot of people in a fairly small area, so it’s important to have -and practice- disaster scenarios that could be needed some day.

In this particular scenario, an office caught fire during demolition work. The entire building was filled with thick black smoke (I could barely see what was going on even one metre in front of me), and there were 14 people trapped inside.

These people were specially trained actors; LOTUS victims. No dummies were used in this exercise.

It was really spooky to walk inside the building, seeing firemen with respirators, flashlights and fire hoses through thick black smoke, and hearing people calling for help in rooms beyond my sight.

The smoke was the kind of smoke you see in clubs and at concerts. That’s why I was able to breathe relatively normal inside the building.

The firemen had to evacuate the people trapped inside and extinguish the fictive fire. Once out of the building, the victims got medical treatment from one of the several ambulance teams and inside of the inflatable field hospital-like tent.

There were around 50 people involved in this exercise, including firemen and -women, ambulance teams, the police and several other healthcare and safety organizations.

Geartalk

I used my Canon 5D mark II to take the photographs above. Most of the times in combination with my Canon 35L f1.4 lens. It’s my favourite combination, and it worked surprisingly well in this situation. I didn’t use flash in a single of these shots. I did use my Speedlite’s AF-assist function though, and I was really surprised of the results.

I’ve bitched a lot on the 5D2′s autofocus-system. And I still hate it. But with the AF-assist beam I was able to focus nearly instantly in a subject a metre of five away, even through thick smoke.

Since I didn’t use flash, my ISO had to go way up. It was on ISO 6400 most of the times, but I even cranked it up to 12800 for a few shots. I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the shots.

It was a really interesting and fun experience, and I even got some photos I like. Hooray!

Preparing for disaster is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This is an oldie. Well, relatively speaking. I took this photo (with my Vivitar 35ES on Kodak Tri-X) last summer, on festival ‘De Parade’. The one on top was shot in the dark. I used a fence (you can see that behind the tables and people on the second photograph) as a makeshift tripod. It didn’t do a great job, but who cares. I still like it, and it did catch the mood of the moment really well. It makes me look forward to this summer. Bring it on!

Whirligigity is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

Saw this while taking a walk at the local harbour a while ago. Just in case you’re having a hard time figuring out what the hell these things are: they’re buoys, stacked one some sort of dredging ship. And no, I didn’t draw the smiley face! Mine would’ve been a lot prettier anyway ;)

Shot with my Vivitar 35ES on Kodak Tri-X.

Ahoy matey! is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This is the (long overdue) second part of my documentary recommendation series. If you missed the previous one, check it out over here. In my previous post, I also explained why I’m writing this.

Manufactured Landscapes

If you’re looking for a documentary that makes your jaw drop, this is the one you must see. Manufactured Landscapes has some of the most stunning scenery I’ve ever seen in a documentary. Ok, it isn’t as amazing as Planet Earth, but it’s close. A friend told me that Manufactured Landscapes has some similarities with Koyaanisqatsi. I haven’t watched Koyaanisqatsi, so I can’t say for a fact that he’s right. But for those of you who have, it might give some of you an idea of the visual aspects.

Directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Manufactured Landscapes follows Edward Burtynsky on his photographic journey through China. It shows both the beauty of man-made landscapes and the horror that comes with it. Rows of factory workers form astonishing graphical lines, and even man-made pollution can be beautiful.

I highly recommend this. It’s not about any technical aspects of photography or whatsoever, but it’s highly inspirational on a visual level.
IMDb

The Impassioned Eye

The Impassioned Eye is essentially a biography of Henri Cartier-Bresson (or HCB). I’m sure you know who he is. And if not; shame on you and lmgtfy.

Heinz Bütler interviews the photographer, late in his life. Cartier-Bresson died in 2004, just a year after the release of this film. HCB tells about his work, his life and about one of his most known photos: the one of Gandhi, just moments before his assassination.

I think it’s rather funny that the French photographer wanted to cooperate with Bütler, since Cartier-Bresson hated to be photographed himself. Ironic, isn’t it?

HCB is the founder of “The Decisive Moment”; the one moment where all elements in a frame are perfectly arranged to take an excellent photograph. It is, of course, inevitable that Bütler interviews him about this subject too.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the godfather of street photography, you’d be a fool not to watch this. On a side-note, HCB is one of my favourite photographers.
IMDb

Life Through a Lens

The in 1949 born American photographer Annie Leibovitz is nowadays mostly in the news for her enormous debts. Which is kind of undeserved, if you know her accomplishments. Life Through a Lens is made by Leibovitz’s sister, Barbara Leibovitz. It can be seen as a biography.

She’s mostly known for her work at Rolling Stone magzine and Vanity Fair magazine. She did some amazing productions for the latter, and even photographed the queen of England, among dozens of other famous people.

An interesting documentary if you’re into portrait photography (or just want to watch how famous people like George Clooney react when being photographed).

Here’s a trailer of Life Through a Lens.

IMDb

I think there will be a third blog post in this series, but I’m not sure when. Stay tuned… ;)

Recommended documentaries involving photography – part 2 is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I’m giving myself some ‘assignments’ lately. Just to practice certain elements in photography and learn to work with restrictions.

So I got off my arse and went out to the local heath, with the following restrictions:
- A square crop (cropped in Lightroom since I can’t set my Canon 5D mark II to an aspect ratio of 1:1);
- Black and white;
- Using a 35 or 85mm lens.

The square crop was the most tricky part. I’m not really used to composing photos with a square crop in mind (although I’ve been photographing with a 120mm camera a while ago, the film still needs to get developed).

Limitations like these really influence the way you look at possible subjects. The black and white part is becoming second nature to me, since I’ve been photographing a lot of black and white photos lately. You get used to it after a while, and begin to ‘see’ in black and white when creating the photograph.

I’ve always loved to photograph with prime lenses, rather than with zoom lenses. For personal work anyway. But I’m not quite used to the 85mm f1.8 lens yet (I bought it a couple of months ago).

I really like this photo, due to its subtlety and the fact that the two kids seem to be riding towards the sky.

Heath, baby! is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I don’t have one particular favourite, so the order in which I list them is random.

War Photographer

A good place to start, since it’s probably the most known one of its kind. Director Christian Frei made this award-winning documentary about James Nachtwey. You’ll likely know who Nachtwey is, but just to be sure: he’s probably the most famous war photographer still alive. Some even consider them the best war photographer ever, but I’m always reluctant to compare one photographer to another.

It’s a very interesting report about Nachtwey’s work, and war photography in general. It’s very intimate and, at times, very shocking. The footage that touched me the most is filmed in Indonesia. Nachtwey photographs an Indonesian family living in a slum next to a railroad. The man in the family got drunk and got run over by a train that night. He lost an arm and a leg, but he’s still doing his best to support his family.

Frei placed a video camera on the (analog) SLR Nachtwey is using. That way, you’ll see exactly what he’s seeing when taking photographs. This really adds an interesting new perspective to the documentary.

The only downside for me is that Nachtwey doesn’t really open up about personal stuff. I’m personally very interested what this amount of misery does to a human being. But I’ve never seen an interview where Nachtwey opens up about that.

War Photographer is nonetheless a must-see, and a good place to get started if you’re interested in documentaries about photojournalism in particular.
IMDb – Dedicated Website

Born Into Brothels

This one is very intriguing. Photographer Zana Briski teaches photography to children living in Calcutta’s red light district. It’s amazing to see what those kids can do with their tiny point-and-shoot cameras. They have no fear, no shame, and their vision isn’t polluted by being exposed to the thousands of photographs we’re used to in the Western world.

On top of that, Briski acts like some sort of a social worker for those kids. She tries to get them into school so that they won’t go into prostitution like their mothers or become drug addicts like their fathers.

It’s astonishing to see how those parents handle their kids. If they have any love for their offspring, it’s very well concealed…

The documentary is a hard one. It places most of ‘our’ problems in perspective again. It gives great insight in a world we rarely get to see this close.
IMDb

Shooting Robert King / Blood Trail

Last but not least is Shooting Robert King (or Blood Trail, it’s the same thing). To be honest, I never heard of Robert King since a couple of weeks ago. I had seen some of his photos, I just didn’t know they were his. King is a war/conflict photographer, that started his career in his early twenties.

If I had to summarize this documentary in one word, it would be ‘frustration’. It shows that being a war photographer, or a photojournalist in general, is really frustrating work. In his early years he mainly struggled with getting his work published. He spends all his savings to go to his first war, in Bosnia. He works his ass off, without getting any publications in the first months.

This film also shows the dark side of war photography. King gets very depressed after his first wars, and develops an addiction to drugs, booze and sex. He shares a lot more information about his personal life and his personal struggles than Nachtwey does. War Photographer and Shooting Robert King complement each other on this level.
IMDb – Dedicated Website

Well, this are my first three recommendations. Feel free to discuss any of the films in the comment section. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Recommended documentaries involving photography – part 1 is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This photo was made during the annual book market in Deventer. It’s the biggest book market in Europe, which exists of 6 kilometres of book stands. A truly amazing sight. Especially when you cross the IJssel river with the ferry.

This particular stand is the most visually interesting though. Most of the other stands are just regular booths like you see on any market all over the world.

You’ll probably see more of these posts in the future. I decided that it’s okay to just post a recent photograph I made. I might add a short story or something like that. Hans Aarsman style maybe, for those of you that are familiar with his weekly columns in newspaper de Volkskrant.

Deventer book market is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog