Occulto Festival

Occulto Fest, West Germany, May 2012

Self portrait with Ian

The bar

Multiple exposure of the crowd

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Alice

Fabio Orsi

Hohenschönhausen Lichtenburg Colour

The whole area around the prison closed to the public.  1951-1989.

Cells in the basement.  Outside cells too cold, inside cells too warm.  No sitting down, leaning agains the wall or lying on the bed.  Round the corner is the water torture chamber room.

Courtyard only seen by officials. Some even used to have picnics here!

Tiger cages for outdoor exercise.

Wansee

Blue lake.  Experiment with long exposures.  OM4.  ND32 filter.  Old film.  Health and safety ignored.  Allowed to walk on rickety old planks over the lake.  Creaking.  Bits missing.

The last of the winter ice.  High pitched chinking in rhythm of lapping water.  Magical.

We didn't walk on this one.  30 second exposure.  Danger of ducks knocking the tripod over.

Tree growing in lake.  Joys of fresh water.   Good for reflections.

More ice.  Making music.  Wansee Strandbad in distance.  100 year old lakeside resort.  Towels not included.

 

House of the Wansee Conference.  Place of devastating discussion and decision.  Grand.  Inappropriate.

Alte National Museum

Refused the headphones.  Such a load of drivel.  Looking at boring paintings.  Being spoken at by monologues.  Try to find something good.

A fantastic jumper steals the show.  The hair stands like antennae.  The concentration intense.

Thank goodness for the Impressionists!

And lovely gold rimmed door frames.

Coffee served inefficiently in the bookshop.  Small square tables.  Fake sculptures watching from their shelves.  Who buys them?

Altes Museum

Cleopatra V11 (69-30BC), last Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt.  Watched by Julius Ceasar (100-44BC), Dictator of Rome.

 Classical sculptures. Revealling all.

Lichtenburg Stasi Headquarters

Former Stasi HQ.  1950-1990.  Cold.  Calculating.  Smell of polish.  Light streaming through chintzy net curtains. Old rotary dial phones.  In their place.  

Kitchen.

9,000 employees.  Probably 250,000 informants. 94 miles of paperwork.  One control desk.  Erich Mielke.  Not enough shredding.  

An interesting glimpse into the Head Quarters of one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world.  40 years is a long time.  Thank goodness its over.

Schlachtensee under snow

Freezing cold platform.  Slippery underfoot.  Tentatively walking on the lake.  Sounds of deep gurgles below.  Music of a frozen lake.  People walking, skating, skiing, sledging, cycling ... swimming.  People with BBQs cooking sausages.  People brewing gluwein.  On the frozen lake.   

A hole cut out of the ice.  Swimmers get in.  Then they get out, put on shoes, hats, gloves and drink warm liquid.  Mostly naked.  Looking comfortable.  Its minus 10 degrees.  

Taking photographs of lines, whiteness, trees, people, interrupted patterns.  Hot chocolate with rum indoors.  Bratwurst, mustard and bread outdoors.  A blanket helps to keep warm.  Its still minus 10.
Diana F, NC colour film.

New Year

Bagel bar.  Just around the corner.  New Diary.  Full pages. How long?  Diana F Pinhole.  5 minutes.

Multi-tasking. Pinhole. 5 minutes. Coffee. Animal prints. Neat bottles. Discreet.

Huttenweg to Wansee

Drive to the woods.  Underpass closed.  Walk by the railway line.  Dog training centre.  Underpass open.  A walk in the woods.

Very few people.  Cross the road.  Sandy beach.  Water.  Sun going down.  Cold.  Drink water.  Eat chocolate bar.

 

Light fading.  Same route back.  Don't want to get lost.  Dog training centre van.  Lots of dogs.  Back to car.  Change shoes.  Watch dog not wanting to return home from the woods.