Cities that you know - photography advice for fellow members

[David Allen]

As a result of the thread ‘Berlin - photography locations’ started over on the UK analogue site (FADU), I sent some suggestions to the person who started the thread regarding photography in Berlin. Following this I had the pleasure of meeting up with him for a few hours in the Prenzlauer Berg area of Berlin. Towards the end of our time, he said how helpful my notes had been and how good it would be to have a thread on FADU that gave similar advice for other cities.

I also thought that this would be a great idea. So here I started a new thread specifically for this purpose.

This got me thinking (generally a bad idea I know!) that such a thread would be even more useful on APUG given the larger membership spread over many more countries. So here is a thread for APUG.

The notes that I sent to the UK poster were pretty long and somewhat particular to where he was staying. Nevertheless, I hope that they might be helpful to others and form the basis of a thread where others could post advice for photographers visiting cities that members know well.

So over to everyone on APUG - what photography-related advice can you provide for fellow members visiting a city that you know well?

My next post will be the notes that I send to the UK poster.

Bests,

David
www.dsallen.de

 

[David Allen]

Berlin: Photography tips

So firstly, Savignyplatz is a great location for both a photographer and a shopper!

If the weather is not good, you are in the centre of an area with a lot of photography galleries and in the heart of West Berlin’s main shopping area. At Savignyplatz there is a great bookshop (http://www.buecherbogen-shop.de) located in the arches under the station. It has a large photography section and the staff do not pester you when you spend a long time looking at the books. A couple of minutes away at Savignyplatz 11, there is a shoe shop divided by an Einstein Coffee shop: Men’s shoes, coffee café and Women’s shoes. This great idea is nicknamed by the locals ‘Männergarten’ (combining the words ‘Kindergarten’ and the German plural for Men) or Männerparkplatz (men's parking space). The idea is that wives and girlfriends park the men with a coffee so that they have the time to ‘properly’ look at all the shoes and other nearby shops.

In walking distance from Savignyplatz you also have the following galleries:

http://www.carpentier-galerie.de/index.php
http://www.only-photography.com
http://camerawork.de/de/
http://www.helmutnewton.com
http://www.co-berlin.org
www.johanna-breede.com

In terms of historical (not famous buildings) architecture, the typical Berlin apartment house is 4 - 5 stories high and can be very interesting in terms of architecture with plaster detailing, etc. Around Savignyplatz you will find both some of the most sophisticated of these apartment houses by walking in the direction of Kurfürstendamm (Ku’Damm) along Bleibtreustraße. Once you reach Ku’Damm turn left and your wife is in the heart of Berlin’s traditional shopping mile. For a photographer there are a wealth of interesting streets around Ku’Damm and a dedicated shopper will need at least a day to do the variety of shops on Ku’Damm any justice.

The best idea would be to separate and agree to meet at a fixed time at Café Kranzler. This is easy to find and is located half way between the Apple Store and the Memorial Church. It is a round café on the top of a two storey building at the junction of Ku’Damm and Joachimsthaler Straße (the street that leads from Ku’Damm to Zoo station) and is somewhere that all the locals and many tourists will know how to find. It is one of the most famous cafés in West Berlin and a good place to get a view over the surrounding area, have a nice cup of coffee and good cake plus go out on to the terrace to take a few photos.

Whilst your wife is shopping, you can cross over the road and then walk down Ku’Damm towards the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Along the way you will reach (on your right-hand side) Fasanenstraße which has some fantastic apartment houses oozing old world money, charm and architecture. It also has Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST Gallery - which is always worth visiting - and a small Leica specialist shop.

On another day, KaDeWe (which is South of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church) will keep your wife occupied for hours (it is huge with eight themed floors). It is not very interesting in terms of it’s external architecture but looks very attractive at dusk or at night.

If you walk westwards along Kantstraße you will experience a completely different type of post-war architecture and a more ‘run down’ feel the further along the street that you walk. However, if you like asian food there is one of the very best noodle soup places in the whole of Berlin. At number 33 Kantstraße there is a small Taiwanese café that sells some very authentic and tasty food. If you are brave you can eat a Pig’s Ear but I would recommend soup number 13 on the menu (available in large or small). This has thick noodles, really tasty chicken (they only use the flavoursome dark meats unlike almost every other asian place that only uses bland breast meat) and the stock for the soup is out of this world. Legend has it that the huge pot where the soup base is made has never been emptied since the place opened and this gives an almost unique intense flavour to the soup that many dearer places just can’t match.

In East Berlin, the equivalent of Ku’Damm is Friedrichstraße. If you walk southwards from Friedrichstraße Station you will pass all of the main stores plus a subsidiary of Paris’s Galeries Lafayette - which is a true shoppers heaven. Once again, if you arrange to both travel southwards you can arrange to meet later (at say Checkpoint Charlie). You can then explore the side streets which have a mixture of traditional architecture and GDR concrete system-built buildings plus Gendarmenmarkt - which is a lovely square with a concert house and two beautiful mini cathedrals. Afterwards you can keep walking south to visit the Jewish Museum which is the best example of Daniel Libeskind’s modernist architecture and a great location for making photographs.

Off the beaten track ideas:

Westhafen is an interesting area to visit for contrasting industrial architecture and is home to Berlin’s biggest port. It is an area that is easy to reach with both the S-Bahn (Overground train) and U-Bahn (Underground) networks and not usually in the tourist guides (well let’s face it - only dockers, photographers and artists would want to visit it!).

If you take either the 100 or 200 bus from Zoo to Alexanderplatz, you will see a great cross section of central Berlin for the price of a normal Zone A&B ticket. Alexanderplatz is not much of an attraction (other than the TV tower which is worth going up to for the views BUT make sure you book your tickets in advance as the wait can be hours - or by a ticket with a fixed - usually 3 hours later - entry time or get an Early Bird Ticket - entry before 11:00am as there will be NO waiting time or the Late Night Ticket as you get access to the TV Tower at night from 09.00PM to closing with NO waiting time) but nearby is Karl-Marx-Allee which is one of Europe’s best examples of Stalinist architecture, a Unesco World Heritage Site and a fantastic location for architectural photography.

You can easily reach Hohenschönhausen from Alexanderplatz (Tram M4 direction Zingster Straße) in about 25 minutes. This gives you a completely different view of Berlin. It was one of the last ‘show’ housing developments in the GDR. The area is full of system-built medium and high-rise apartment buildings and great for photography. If the weather is lousy, an great alternative thing to do would be to visit the former GDR political prison (Tram M5 from Alexanderplatz to the stop called Freienwalder Straße). Might sound an odd idea but it is a really moving experience. The prison is virtually intact and the tours are led by the prisoners who were incarcerated and tortured there. It is perhaps the most powerful experience to understand what it was like living in the Communist era (Full details here: http://en.stiftung-hsh.de/document.p..._232&special=0). The surrounding area also gives you some idea of how grim the housing was back in those days.

If your wife normally prefers beach holidays why not surprise her by taking her to the Badeschiff. This is one of the most extraordinary beach bars in Berlin (beach bars in Berlin are basically open areas that are set up to be like a beach despite the fact that you are in the middle of the city) and has a swimming pool that floats on the river! Furthermore, at dusk it is a fantastic location for photography with the sun going down, the buildings and river in the distance getting darker but with the swimming pool still illuminated.

Gleisdreieck is near to the Technical Museum. Absolutely no shopping here but a lovely new park with good photo opportunities. The park was the site of a massive railway station and goods yard and, although it is now green, some of the old buildings remain and, when you walk around the more overgrown areas, you will still find the old tracks half covered and half uncovered. This is great for photos like the tracks running into the distance but with overgrown vegetation all around (has proved highly popular with my students) or the tracks running towards a locked gate, etc.

When walking around Berlin, keep your eyes peeled to the ground! - there are thousands of Stolpersteine in Berlin. These are small bronze plaques that have been set into the payment by artist Gunter Demnig and bear the names of Jewish people who used to live in the neighbouring houses and were exterminated by the Nazis.

Finally, a few purely photographic tips:

Berlin is a city that really rewards the photographer who walks around.

Almost a third of Berlin is green open spaces (for example the Grunewald area is over 8 square miles or Tiergarten - the central park - is over 500 acres and Schlachtensee - a large lake and green area in South-West Berlin - that has a circumference of 5.5 kilometres) which can be ideal for landscape photography.

If you are lucky to get really good sunny days, be aware that urban images with streets in the shade but the fourth and fifth stories of white houses being in full sun will present a much bigger subject contrast range than you are used to.

Foto Impex is THE store for anything analogue in Berlin (http://www.fotoimpex.de/website/fotoimpex-2/). It is located in East Berlin very nearby to the Hackesche-Höfe (http://www.hackesche-hoefe.com) shopping complex. Mirko the owner is also the man behind the relaunched Adox brand of papers, chemicals, films, etc. If you do darkroom printing, you can also buy a packet of Foma fibre-based 12 x 16 (50 sheets) paper at Foto Impex for 50€ cheaper than the same paper or equivalent from Ilford in the UK.

I am sure you will have a great time in Berlin.

If you have any problems or questions, my mobile number is 0049 (0)1577 30 15 790. I will not be in Berlin on Thursday to Friday but you can always call if you need help.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

 

[baachitraka]

I suggest Chennai, India.

It was unbelievable to see the chaos and the geometry the shops project on the streets of Chennai. A 6x6 will do a great job.

Best times are from beginning of JAN till end of FEB.

 

[David Allen]

Thanks for that baachitraka - sounds like a wonderful place.

I was rather hoping that there would be more specific photographic advice rather than the thread developing into a list of locations.

More along the lines of 'off the beaten track' or 'insiders tips' for places to visit in a particular city or advice like 'take lots of film with you as it is really expensive in city X' or 'you will find the subject brightness range greater/less than you may be used to' or if you are in Barcelona, make sure that you have both a neck strap on your camera AND a wrist strap as street crime can be a big problem' (This, incidentally, was the best advice I received a few years ago when I went to Barcelona - where you could actually see people eyeing you up for potential muggability and seeing them look disappointed when they saw my camera strap was over my neck and shoulder with my rucksack straps over the neck strap and with my hand firmly on the camera and my wrist surrounded by the wrist strap) or 'if you are in London give me a call if you would like to meet up / need to access a darkroom because a film is jammed, etc'.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

 

[baachitraka]

I don't think I can find B+W film that easily in Chennai. So, I carry as many rolls as I can when I fly from Bremen to Chennai but there are some shops which offer films in color.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/film...ia-film-labs-stores-chemicals/629685847091439

There are many, many streets that offer a great photo opportunity with irregular geometry and chaos.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118685764858119/

 

[mr rusty]

I think this thread will work better in reverse. i.e. "I am going to ........., can anyone give me tips on........". I think it is difficult just to give information, because you have no idea what the potential visitor is interested in.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I like this idea a lot, especially if the focus was photography-specific, but actually I think it would work better as separate articles. "Cities that I know...Berlin" "Cities that I know...Paris". That way people wouldn't have to wade through potentially large amounts of irrelevant information to find what they are looking for (if it's even there).

 

[Peter Rockstroh01]

I like the idea and David's article on Berlin. But it would make for a very long thread if everyone contributes with his knowledge, even if it is only one city per contributor. IMHO what would be more practical would be a list that links geographic location with article and author. You want to visit Berlin, click on the city, it opens the article and for further questions connects you with the APUG members living there.

 

[jvo]

berlin has always been a city i've wanted to visit, tho' its not in my "near future" travel plans - based upon david's description and information its certainly moved much higher up! thank you david...

re. how this would work - in any large city there are 3 venue's 1) the places and sights they are known for and well-documented in the various guide books and baedakers. if you live there, 2) - your neighborhood and what you're familiar with, specail to you and like; and 3) those places that don't really fit the first two that only a local would know and appreciate. Isn't it really 2 and 3 we ant to know about? imo

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I can do a writeup for Washington DC if there is interest. I'd break it down by neighborhoods, buildings and businesses.

The first thing to know about Washington DC is that there are two Washingtons - official Washington of government buildings, museums, and office blocks, and then there's the rest of the city where people actually live, shop, play and eat.

Official Washington: The good news about official Washington is that much of it is free and open to the public. There are a number of hidden gems. The Interior Department has a museum of Native American art and artifacts, for example, and a gift shop that sells high-quality Native American handicrafts. The Kennedy Center is open to the public, and tours are given free. This includes access to the roof terrace which has phenomenal views of Georgetown (Washington's first neighborhood), the Potomac River, and the high-rises of Rosslyn, Virginia. All the Smithsonian museums are free admission, as is the National Gallery of Art (which, although co-located with the Smithsonian complex, is NOT a part of it). Recently a few private museums have sprung up around DC (The Newseum, The Spy Museum, National Crime Museum) which charge admission fees. For photography-specific interests, the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery, The National Gallery of Art, the National Archives and the Library of Congress (also free admission) are the main attractions. All of them have world-class photography holdings and feature outstanding traveling exhibits on a regular basis.

(To be continued).

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Washington DC Continued

More on official Washington:

Sadly, from an architecture standpoint, there's not a ton of interesting buildings in Official Washington. Some specific buildings worth noting are the Library of Congress, the US Capitol (with the caveat- if you are using a tripod, you must first go to the visitor's center and get a tripod permit), the buildings of the Smithsonian museums (there are 19 total museums in the Smithsonian organization, plus the national Zoological Park, most of which are in the Washington DC metropolitan area), and the monuments that surround the National Mall. If you're seriously interested in Brutalist architecture, the FBI building is a prime example, but I wouldn't try to photograph it, not only for security reasons, but the building is so massive and the surrounding buildings so close that you just can't get a good view of it.

Thinking of the National Mall, the monuments in general are photo friendly, and some of them will even be tripod tolerant most of the time (the Lincoln is NOT generally tripod tolerant because A: it gets so much traffic that tripods become a hazard, and B: the Park Service are concerned about tripod feet scratching or chipping the marble).

Other Museums (Not the Smithsonian):
The National Gallery of Art has regular, rotating photography exhibits. Always high quality, but very much an afterthought within the museum itself - there is ONE gallery in the lower level of the West wing of the gallery that always features photography, and occasionally there are temporary exhibits in the East wing.

The Newseum, with its focus on news media, has regular photography and video exhibits. Being a private museum, it charges a hefty ($23) admission fee.

The Phillips Collection has excellent photography exhibits on a regular basis alongside the mainstay of its collection, impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.

The Corcoran Gallery has some fine photography in their collection, but as of this writing, the museum's fate is uncertain due to financial difficulties and is not open that I am aware of. The outside of the original building is worth taking a look at, however.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Unofficial Washington DC

Away from the Mall, the Museums and the government buildings that ring their periphery, there is a second Washington DC that many visitors never get out into and experience. Major neighborhoods of interest are: Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Logan Circle, the U Street corridor, H Street Northeast, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Southwest Waterfront/Navy Yard. There are a lot of other areas in the city, of course, but they hold little to attract a visitor and/or are not safe for visitors unfamiliar with the area. For many years the developed part of the city was a very small part of the geographically defined area. What is now called Florida Avenue, until the late 19th century, was called "Boundary Street" because it marked the northern limit of urbanization.

Capitol Hill:

one of the older neighborhoods, it is marked by tree-lined streets, row houses and small apartment buildings, neighborhood shops and businesses. Highlights worth a visit are Eastern Market and Congressional Cemetery.

One of the few remaining public market buildings in the city, Eastern Market was recently rehabilitated after a fire but still retains its charm, and features independent grocers, butchers and fishmongers in the main food hall, a common room where concerts and performances take place and art exhibits are held, and outside under the awnings and on the plaza are artists and craftspeople selling their wares. A number of good restaurants are very close by.

Congressional Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Washington, and holds the final resting places for great luminaries of American history and ordinary citizens alike. For this group's interest, the most important grave to visit is Mathew Brady's.

Georgetown:

Georgetown University dominates the neighborhood and its influence can be felt throughout, and not always comfortably. The university and its students give the area a busy nightlife, with many bars and restaurants. Alas, much of the neighborhood's character has changed in the past 20-30 years and what used to be somewhat edgy (hip fashion boutiques, independent restaurants, and the like) is largely subsumed with chain retailers (Apple, Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware, American Eagle, Johnny Rockets, Dean & Deluca). Getting off the main drags of Wisconsin Avenue and M Streets, though, will have you walking the pathways of power, as Georgetown is one of the wealthiest enclaves in the city, where high muckety-mucks live in their immaculately restored 18th century townhomes.

 

[c6h6o3]

The only places I go to photograph in Washington anymore after having lived in the DMV for almost 25 years are The National Arboretum, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (only interesting from late June through about the 1st week in September) and the Franciscan Monastery. But I'm a large format photographer, mostly. I would imagine that there's a lot of good street work to be done with handheld cameras in the neighborhoods Scott talks about.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

The only places I go to photograph in Washington anymore after having lived in the DMV for almost 25 years are The National Arboretum, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (only interesting from late June through about the 1st week in September) and the Franciscan Monastery. But I'm a large format photographer, mostly. I would imagine that there's a lot of good street work to be done with handheld cameras in the neighborhoods Scott talks about.

I'm far from done with my list... and Jim, there are plenty of places you can do large format on the streets of DC if you're willing. I've taken my 5x12 to Dupont Circle before, down along the Mall, and shot 5x7 around the Capitol and federal office complexes. I even hauled the 14x17 out to shoot some buildings along 14th Street. The challenge of course is to be willing to put up with the inevitable intrusion of strangers with 1001 questions about the camera, first and foremost being the stupidest question of all time "can you still get film for that?".

Some time you should bring your Hasselblad and go on a walkabout with me and my Rolleis through my regular stomping grounds - U Street, Logan Circle, Columbia Heights. There's tons of places (and people!) to shoot in those areas. And don't forget Meridian Hill Park (AKA Malcolm X AKA Malcolm the Tenth Park) with its Italianate terraced fountain. And there's always something to see in Rock Creek Park if you must shoot landscape work. For the uninitiated, Rock Creek Park is an urban/suburban/exurban/rural park spanning some 2000 acres, following Rock Creek and its tributaries as far north as Gaithersburg, Maryland. There are miles of bike and walking trails, and on weekends large sections of Beech Drive (the main route through the park) are closed to vehicles during daylight hours, making it possible to cycle from the outer suburbs all the way to Georgetown, where Rock Creek meets the Potomac and the C&O Canal.

The C&O Canal is another wonderful urban park operated by the US Park Service. Some 200 miles in length, it runs from Georgetown out to Cumberland, Maryland in the Appalachian mountain range, following the Potomac river. While the canal itself is no longer navigable to any great degree, the towpath along the canal can be walked/ridden its entire length. At a number of the old canal locks, the 19th century lockmaster's houses have been preserved/restored and can be rented. At some of the locks (Fletcher's Lock in DC, Swain's Lock north of Potomac, Maryland) you can rent boats and/or bikes to paddle along the canal or ride the towpath. Two more spots worth visiting along the canal are Seneca Creek (north of Potomac, Maryland, and further out than Swain's Lock), and the Monocacy Viaduct. These are only accessible if you have a car.

 

[hudson]

Not a city, but if you like dusty little towns, freeways in the middle of nowhere, large open spaces, agriculture that spreads for miles...the Central Valley of California can't be beat. I would say from Bakersfield right up to Sacramento...take 99 or 101. Driving back on the coast is fun...on Route 1 the area between San Simeon and San Luis Obispo is really pretty...cliffs jutting right off into the Pacific Ocean. They have all these highway signs that say curves...next 60 miles.