YOU’VE MAY WELL HAVE CROSSED PATHS WITH JASCHA MÜLLER-GUTHOF…
Berlin! We love it so much that we probably end up spending way more time than is necessary there. As well as giving us the possibility to eat way too much Halloumi, being sent there by the powers that be on a “work trip” also means getting to hang out with Jascha. Jascha is a tall handsome, long haired and blue eyed German guy you’re likely to come across if you’re ever wandering around the Tempelhofer Feld or passing by his shop just around the corner called Hase.
There are many stories involving Jascha and Hase… but one to mention is that he is actually responsible for the first Wasted Talent magazines landing in Germany… We won’t go in depth, but the story involves his electric scooter, a massive stack of boxes full of Volume 1 to dispatch all over the city, and a massive rainstorm…
Anyway… today is more about Jascha himself, and his talent behind the lens. Whether we meet him in France, Spain, Portugal or Berlin, it is rare to cross paths with the man without him carrying a camera around his neck. But the square chunk of metal he showed up with at the latest Bright awards (yep, the one just below) caught our attention straight away, to the point where we had to ask him the story behind it all. And here it is from the man himself:
“Every now and then, an escape from the Berlinesque daily chores is vital to me. Traveling with not more than a longboard, my two favorite cameras, some books and my wonderful partner, gives me the degree of freedom I am seeking for when on the road. This time, it was Portugal. We arrived with a massive W-NW swell around New Years Eve, lighting up the whole West coast, so we decided to head down South, revisiting some perfectly sheltered bays, providing us with long rights and sun-kissed sweet potatoes.
I found this 50 year old, dusty camera from the Japanese brand Ricoh in a thrift-shop for 15 bucks. The nearly quadratic magnesium case felt right, from the first moment on. It comes with a wide angle lens f2.8, minimal manual functions and takes 72 frames on a 35mm still film. Scanning the film gives you two options: First one is, you get a whole bunch of single frames – nice, but the scanning and cropping is a mess. Second, while shooting, you take into consideration that you will end up with a forced composition in the juxtaposition of two half-frames. Not knowing which slide the fully mechanical camera starts with, you are left behind with happenstance. But isn’t it what we love most about shooting film?“
