My my, this is gonna be fun: Franco Pagetti from VII is teaching a photo masterclass with yours truly in Berlin, with special guests (and friends) Diego Orlando, Daria Bonera and Carol Körting. Organized bij Berlin Workshop.
Berlin is such a cool place... it's been a while so I'm aching to be back. So join us... or make sure to drop by if you can!
more info: www.berlinworkshop.de
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security cam footage of the Yakuza exhibit buildup
security cam footage of the Yakuza exhibit buildup
The three days we had available to build the installation and hang the artworks was plenty to build Yakuza. Being the first time, I feared it would be way too short, but we finished in the evening of the second day, after just 27 hours. Some things went exactly as planned, some things even better. And some things seemed to be so hard to solve that I thought we'd never figure it out in time.
My brother Malik had flown over from Tokyo with Yoko, my mum was on standby babysitting a bunch of the kids, and my love was ready too. Two extremely experienced tech guys from the venue were there to help me at all times. Charles from the lab who did the prints, also insisted on personally hanging the artwork to the wall. And a day before the opening, Diego Orlando, dear friend and curator for the Yakuza show, was flying in from Milano.
So we pretty much had it covered. Three stages. Artwork. Rice paper. Goza mats.
The rice paper was the thing that worried us the most. Extremely delicate and without any margin for error (some were printed with images or text), we had to find a suitable way to hang them from the ceiling.
For the artwork I had prepared a detailed layout with exact measurements, and I had faith in Charles, having over 25 years experience doing exactly this kind of thing.
And finally, laying the mats in the right patterns would be pretty straighforward I guessed. Malik took the organization of that one upon him.
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Charles was making tremendous progress hanging the actual artworks... and finished after just 7,5 hours. And at that moment, even without the lighting, rice paper or mats, we could see it was going to be good. Everybody was happy... One down, three to go...
security cam footage of the Yakuza exhibit buildup
In the late afternoon of the first day we encountered or first real challenge, and it was something none of us expected: the goza mats. For some reason we just couldn’t get them to join together in the patterns we needed. We tried everything: sticking, glueing, using a second carpet layer... nothing helped. We tried for hours to figure it out.
Then Yoko found it: goza mats, as is tradition in Japan, should be sewn together to generate the patterns and sizes one needs. Only practical problem: we had to combine one hundred mats into three large shapes & patterns...
We had to find extra hands that knew how to sew. Fast. It was 10pm and we needed them by 9am. We needed them or we'd be in trouble finishing. We started calling around for help.
It was then that I noticed one of the rice paper prints was missing.
Calling Charles he immediately agreed to help me print the missing one at 7am the next morning. I needed to personally be there as we loaded op the paper and printed.
The next morning, at the gallery, a miracle had happened... my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law had both responded to our emergency call for sewing, and took it upon them to bring even more help... Now there was a team of 6 people sewing simultaneously, and things suddenly went really fast... they incredibly managed to finish all the mats just 8 hours later.
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Then It was Tuur's turn to save us. At one point - I'm so glad I was still at the printer at that time - someone drilled through a water pipe in the ceiling... and you can imagine what happened next.
Tuur shouted and everybody came running to the room to rescue the artwork... and quickly thereafter the water mains got shut down and repaired. Nothing damaged. Quick thinking from an experienced builder. And by the time I returned from the printer there wasn’t a trace left of all this... phew.
security cam footage of the Yakuza exhibit buildup
And the rice paper - of which we were all afraid - well, all went flawlessly. The second day, we finished in time, and we all went home completely relaxed. Job done, exhibit ready for final inspection and subsequent opening... fantastic. I slept like a baby.
The next morning, off to the airport to pick up dear friend Diego Orlando (who curates the Yakuza show), and go straight to the venue to check if everything is one hundred percent perfect.
Of course Diego’s eagle eye picked up on something that could be improved story-wise... and we ended up making a genius last minute switch of one image on a different wall and a sequence alteration in another part... in hindsight so simple... so logical... so perfect.
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The opening the next day was a big success.... so many people and friends... and such great moments.
Five years ago Malik and I looked each other in the eye in Taka’s bar and said “hey what if we try to photograph the yakuza?”.
Now, half a decade later, after two editions of the book and the first of a series of solo exhibits, we are finally full circle.
I am SO happy.
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Mum, Malik, Yoko, Miet, Tuur, Jeroen, Charles, Mich, Jules, Kristien, Danny (and of course young Lukas in a supporting role), I simply cannot thank you guys enough for helping at the setup... and thank you Veerle and Eddie for giving me the opportunity in the first place...
Yay! After a full year of intense work, the two books of the amazing art project "A Little Glow in the Dark" by my friend Luc are finally ready... a package of two huge 464(!) page books fresh from the printer... and now available! (read more about the project here in a previous post)
The books are absolutely gorgeous, and the story he tells with them is incredible as well... about life and memory and what should be important to each and every one of us: the people we are close to and the way we are connected to them.
I won't say anything more, just watch the video of the book leaf through below and let it speak for itself... then click on the link if you want to read more by the author... and buy the book if you can. It is SO worth it.
Really.
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Finally they're here... Limited editions of images from the different projects I've been photographing.
A humble beginning with an edition for three of my projects, and quite an investment of time and money, but I think it is going to be worth it. Most recently, I was able to make a limited edition of prints from the Yakuza project (to accompany the upcoming exhibits). Combined with an edition of my work shot in Mexico on "I was a Dog/I see a Ghost", and an upcoming edition (Q4 this year) of new Dislocate images, that makes three.
So I thought it might be good to combine them all online into one place, keeping things simple and up to date.
All the editions are actually very limited (although the print size is quite large sometimes... you gotta love large prints).... but after a lot of talking with, and advice from, friends, experts in the field and gallery owners, and of course a great deal of soul searching, I think this is the way I should go.
I'm not a full blown art photographer, but I think I've kinda got my act together and once in a while I do want to make available high quality limited editions of my work, preferably in small numbers... so I can keep it personal... and I think - I hope - editions like these ones speak this message and complement everything else I do.
To be honest, yet again I have no clue if this is the right way to go... it just feels like another natural step to take. I'll see how it goes and report back here regularly... check it out: antonkusters.com/editions
And if you're reading this and interested in buying an editioned print, send me a message and I'll give you your password to access the details...
Have a great day today,
P.S. yes, "Sugar" is on the list too... stay tuned! :-)
66 images, ranging from 12x18" through 40x60" to one that's a whopping 78x118"
(if I can afford that last one, that is)
dolomites - full moon - midnight
dolomites - full moon - midnight
The best way to start something is to tell everyone that you're going to start something.
Make it public. Get it out of your head and start pitching to friends and foes. Converse. To me, this is not only the moment that the pressure gets on... it's also the moment that ideas come out of my head for a reality check.
I'm sure you know that feeling when for the very first time you talk to someone else about "your new thing", and you feel that, even literally while you're talking, you're constantly discovering holes and illogical things all over the place. No matter how much you've thought it through on beforehand. And after a while, you even start to think: "come on, didn't I realize this, or this, or even this? What on earth was i thinking?". And you see the frowns and feel like going back to the drawing board all over again.
Don't go back. You're fine.
Here's the key: I believe that pitching to friends (and foes) is a necessary process for "maturing" an idea. Some things really only get revealed through dialogue. The people you talk to act kind of like a secret group of touchstones for your idea, and only you know. They help shape. In my case, most of these people don't have anything to do with photography... yet others are seasoned pros... most even don't know they are actually giving me advice... and more often than not, I don't even realize that I'm in need - or getting - advice in the first place.
The only prerequisite is that you have to be open for it happening. And within every single person you're looking for something specific, picking up on body language, hesitation, excitement, the way they react, the words they use, and so forth.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a straightforward "letting yourself be influenced by others"... that would be too far off as well. The spine has to be there first. That's what all the long pondering has been for. And sometimes a pitch works in really weird ways.... I, for one, have someone to whom I regularly propose things to; and if she really hates the project, I know for sure I should go for it. Well, sort of :-)
To me, the pitch is always the most daunting aspect of any project. If i allow it, it can totally make or break my mood or my will to do a project. But I know that I should never avoid it... because realizing at this point that a project needs to change, is much better that only realizing it later on... and possibly having lost lots of time and money.
So presenting my ideas to friends, even if frightening... seems necessary. Even though I've taught myself never to get put off completely.... I've often made much more sensible decisions along the way.... and always, always, my projects have benefited immensely.
How do you go about "reality checking" your project ideas? Do you do it at all?
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Oh and by the way, I've just switched my site from wordpress to squarespace. Even though I've always been a web designer and I support and use open source whenever I can ( i love wordpress), I feel time has come that I should be focusing on photography and writing, and nothing else. And this platform makes that entirely possible... no small feat to accomplish... kudos to them.
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hugs, a
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