Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts and such like. In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived) ¬Bishop George Berkeley

Not even I understand everything I am ¬Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.) back in the day.
The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com or Amazon.
www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

Since the advent of the camera, there have been photographers whose mission is to record and interpret the public sphere in all its aspects.
Eugene Atget (1857 – 1927) documented evidence of everyday life in the streets as well as the buildings and monuments of Paris. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) pursued what he called "The Decisive Moment", the moment in which the meaning of an event was most clearly captured in a photograph.
Their work, and that of many other masters, has inspired generations of photographers to wander public spaces, camera in hand, searching for meaningful moments in time...

Success requires the street photographer to be proficient with their equipment, to be constantly aware of their surroundings, and to have a keen eye.
Quick reflexes and self-confidence are essential: Street photographers know from experience that hesitation or procrastination could mean missing a once-in-a-lifetime shot. The adage "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission" was probably coined by a street photographer.

'In Street Photography: The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment', Gordon Lewis helps readers understand and conquer the challenging yet rewarding world of street photography.
Another crucial element to becoming a good street photographer is learning to travel light, with minimal equipment. Lewis gives readers practical advice on everything from cameras and lenses to camera bags and clothing.

Whether your style is to engage your subjects or to remain unnoticed and take candid portraits, Lewis offers ideas on how to capture fascinating moments: a gesture, expression, or composition that may exist for only a fraction of a second, but can leave a lasting impression of the wonders, challenges, and absurdities of modern life.

About the author:
Gordon Lewis is a dedicated street photographer with over 40 years of experience. He began his writing career answering letters from owners of Olympus cameras, Vivitar flash units, and Kiron lenses.
From there he graduated to being a contributing editor to magazines such as Camera 35, Petersen's Photographic, and Camera & Darkroom.
Nowadays he earns his living as an e-learning instructional designer for Fortune 500 companies.
Gordon lives just outside of Philadelphia-which, not reportedly, is an excellent location for street photography.

www.goodreads.com

'Il piccole virtú'

Natalia Ginzburg (b.14Jul1916 Palermo – d.07Oct1991 Rome) is one of the best and most prominent Italian writers of the 20th century and has been rediscovered internationally a few years ago.
This autumn, the collection of essays 'De kleine deugden' was published, a collection of 11 portraits about life, in which Ginzburg transforms well-known objects and experiences – worn shoes, piggy banks, meatballs, childhood, silence – into subjects of great significance. While haunted by fascism, Ginzburg turns her gaze to that which shapes our lives: friendships, relationships, and parenthood.

The book includes an appendix (editor Domenico Scarpa) how the final compilation of essays came about, a protracted process; also a series of reviews over the years are quoted as well as an index on publications (in chronological order) detailing 'Il piccolo virtú' and her life year by year.

Natalia Ginzburg was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, as well as philosophy.
She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize.
Most of her works were also translated into English and published in the United Kingdom and United States.
An activist, for a time in the 1930s she belonged to the Italian Communist Party. In 1983, she was elected to Parliament from Rome as an independent politician.

en.wikipedia.org:_Natalia_Ginzburg

Photobook with portraits of all the entrepreneurs on 'De Zeedijk' in Amsterdam, recorded in early years of the 1990s. Photos showing stores, listing owners by name.
After many years with drugs, crime and prostitution' rampant on De Zeedijk it has risen from the ashes like a phoenix and has become another street in Amsterdam one can be proud of.
And this thanks to the years of efforts of local residents, entrepreneurs and the 'NV Zeedijk', who, despite all the seemingly insurmountable problems, continued to believe in this special part of the city.
Eveline Renaud and Marian van de Veen experienced this process up close. They decided to photograph all entrepreneurs posing in front of their business and thus show how diverse and characteristic the Zeedijk had become.
They went up (uneven numbers) and down (even numbers) each side of the street with their camera and documented owners, often with customers and/or wares, standing proudly before their store.
Annejet van der Zijl wrote an essayy about the history and life behind the facades. All this resulted in an exhibition in 1995.
The photos are compiled in this book. A worthy time document, but above all a tribute to all those entrepreneurs (many have their ownership dating back to the 1990s, but some stuck around through the years of notoriety) who made great financial and personal sacrifices to keep their business and thus De Zeedijk afloat.

Printed by Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam (1996)
Core of the text by www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/ondernemer-op-de-zeedijk

Anne Holt has Chief Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen back from her grief-soaked stay in Verona to rejoin Oslo’s Violent Crime Section. She finds Billy T. has taken her place heading the investigation team and her name has been a taboo, nobody seems to have regretted her sudden flight to Italy.

It's been many years since I read a book by Anne Holt and never read a book featuring her protagonist Hanne Wilhelmsen. From the start and throughout the book this hampered the appreciation of the various characters.

The plot: the murder of Brede Ziegler is anything but straightforward. Norway’s best-known culinary chef stepped on a million toes to achieve celebrity status. His wife of six months, Vilde Veierland Ziegler, was barely half his age and does not share his home adress.
Brede's body was left on the unused back staircase of the Police Security Service. He also seems to have died twice..
I found the narrative somewhat confusing, but that was possibly because it bothered me that the main characters remained vague for me.
Elsewhere this book 'No Echo' was labelled 'tangled and forgettable', and I quite agree: it did not make an impression on me at all.

www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anne-holt/no-echo/
en.wikipedia.org:_Anne_Holt

Sinterklaas, or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children.
Other names for the figure include De Sint ("The Saint"), De Goede Sint ("The Good Saint"), and De Goedheiligman ("The Good Holy Man") in Dutch; Saint Nicolas in French; Sinteklaas in West Frisian; Sinterklaos in Limburgs; Saint-Nikloi in West Flemish; and Kleeschen and Zinniklos in Luxembourgish.

The feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on 6 December. The feast is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas' Eve (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day, in Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France (French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois).
The tradition is also celebrated in territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Curaçao and Suriname.

Sinterklaas is one of the sources of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus.

For a number of years now the appearance of 'Black Pete' is under severe discussion in Holland, for a racial context. Increasingly we see the faces only with 'soot' smudges (for the myth of him coming down the chinmey to leave presents in the living room overnight). On this event I saw no fully blackened faces, neither did I see full colour faces (e.g. green & yellow instead of black).
There were two clownes in the march and those clownes scare me more that Black Pete ever did!
This event saw a massive turnout for the last two years it had been cancelled due to Corona pandemic.

Wikipedia
More images of Sint's arrival today: Flickr.com

While in Maastricht a while ago I visited a bookshop and picked up this magazine. First time I came across this Leica photography magazine! Had lots of interesting articles so I took it home.

¬ 75 Years Magnum: Women in the Agency. On the occasion of the agency’s jubilee, LFI takes a look at some of its female members, and reveals unforgettable, groundbreaking images
¬ Lucas Barioulet: A Gateway to the World. Women’s football in Mauritania? Absolutely! Lucas Barioulet accompanied the courageous women forging their way towards emancipation
¬ Ruediger Glatz: Reflecting Pasolini. From costumes used in his films all the way to personal mementoes: a tribute to the Italian film director and artist Pier Paolo Pasolini
¬ Jan von Holleben: Sugar wow! Sugary sweet: the photographer converted his studio into a land of milk and honey, and created colourful still lifes out of masses of candies
¬ Jim Marshall: The Rolling Stones 1972. Touring with legends: The Stones and Jim Marshall – a photography rock star in his own right – met at the high point of their creativity
¬ F/STOP: 40th Leitz Photographica Auction / Leica and Xiaomi / Club Nagoya

Ordering a single copy from the website is hugely expensive, makes taking on a subscription doubtful for me. But ordering 3 or 4 (including backissues) at a time may be something worthy of consideration.

lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/#
lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/magazine/lfi-magazine

I picked this issue of Reporter San Frontières up at Gare du Nord (Paris) because of the photos by David Bailey. Not much use for the article as my French is not sufficient to read it. Anyway, I doubt if the text had much to add on the biography I recent read on him!
But you don't pass up on 100 photos by David Bailey if you have a two hour wait at busy Gare du Nord!

LOOK AGAIN, David Bailey's autobiography on MyBlog 2022Q3

Whilst not particulalrly interested in 'vintage photography', I am intersted in history and have work by Ruben Lundgren on China (in which I have a specific interest as well). Browsing I cam across a few more interesting articles!

I gather it is printed once a year, coinciding with the 'Dialogue Vintage Photography Festival'.
'Vintage Photography' is classified as photography during 1839 – 1989.

From 2022: 'On Dialogue you will find photos from the earliest history of photography: salt prints, daguerreotypes but also photo albums from the Dutch East Indies, press photos from the 20th century, vintage art photography, amateur photography and snapshots.
With prices between € 5 and € 100,000, there is something for everyone. A treasure trove where visitors can browse, search, dig treasure and marvel.'

focusmagazine.nl/2022/09/13/dialogue-vintage-photography-festival

This is the prequel to the Laidlaw trilogy, written by the late William McIlvanney and which was completed posthumously by Ian Rankin.
I hadn't read any other books featuring DC Jack Laidlaw, I came across this book title because I am a fan of Ian Rankin's books...
This was a drawback because while reading The Dark Remains I never became much interested in the character of Jack Laidlaw, wasn't even sure who the pratagonist was at first: Laidlaw or Bob Lilley?
The subtitle,'Laidlaw's First Case' could have been a clue, but then again I am not a detective, ha!

The story is situated in Glasgow (1 particular week in October 1972) which I visited for the first time last May, so that was nice in terms of familiar locations. Maybe I should read the other Laidlaw books too (1.Laidlaw 2. The Papers of Tony Veitch 3.Strange Loyalties) to appreciate the character better, in this book it is unclear why he behaves like that and why people put up with his behaviour.

When William McIlvanney died in 2015, he left behind various unfinished manuscripts, and his estate commissioned Ian Rankin to complete The Dark Remains (published in 2021).

Laidlaw is a detective sergeant, not a detective inspector in this timeline. In some ways this is an origin story. How does Laidlaw become Laidlaw? He certainly arrives with a certain reputation as an outsider and not the world’s best team player; but at the same time a person of integrity as well as hunches. The Laidlaw here is nevertheless recognisable. He is a kind of flâneur, drifting through the streets, going on buses, staying in slightly run-down hotels despite having a wife and children.

www.scotsman.com/ - / - /book-review-the-dark-remains
en.wikipedia.org:_William_McIlvanney

Made a walk in the grounds of Castle ('Kasteel') Rosendael, it was a lovely sunny and mild autumn day.

Rosendael Castle is originally a late medieval castle, which was built by the Count of Gelre (Guelders?). The castle is located in the Dutch province of Gelderland.
It is first mentioned in 1314, and Count Reinoud I was the first occupant. His son Reinoud II was also lord of the castle.
After the counts and dukes of Gelre, the castle became the property of drost Willem van Scherpenzeel, who sold it to Dirck van Dorth in 1579.
Van Dorth had a lot changed about the castle, and had the gardens, ponds and streams built.
The shell galleries are 18th century.
Superb!

NL.wikipedia.org:_Kasteel_Rosendael
More on www.flickr.com/photos/Gelderland

During a recent stay in Rome (Italy) I came across this catalogue of work by Robert Doisneau published for the exhibition in Palazzo Roverella (Rovigo, Italy) during 23Sep21-30Jan22. Would have loved to visit that exhibition but the photobook is certainly second best!

Robert Doisneau (b.14Apr1912 – d.01Apr1994) was a French photographer.
From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism.

In 1931, he left both the studio and advertising, taking a job as an assistant with the modernist photographer André Vigneau. In 1932, he sold his first photographic story to Excelsior magazine.

In 1934, he began working as an industrial advertising photographer for the Renault car factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. Working at Renault increased Doisneau's interest in working with photography and people. Five years later, in 1939, he was dismissed because he was constantly late.
He was forced to try freelance advertising, engraving, and postcard photography to earn his living. At that time, the French postcard industry was the largest in Europe, postcards served as greetings cards as well as vacation souvenirs.
In 1991, he said that the years at the Renault car factory marked "the beginning of his career as a photographer and the end of his youth."

In 1939, he was later hired by Charles Rado of the Rapho photographic agency and traveled throughout France in search of picture stories. This is where he took his first professional street photographs.
He was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1984 by then French president, François Mitterrand.

en.wikipedia.org:_Robert_Doisneau
www.robert-doisneau.com/en/robert-doisneau/
Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau on Facebook