Bert Stephani

Bert Stephani

Anything but the Highway

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PHOTOGRAPHY AND BERT STEPHANI

I chose this picture by Derek Clark from his essay Death by 74 cuts to use as my theme. I love the graphic nature of that image although I’m usually trying to stay away from highways. I had a busy week and very little spare time to get on my bike AND shoot a story, so I tried to combine both.

Anything but the Highway

I get the idea: the fastest way to go from A to B. It’s useful but the fastest way is usually not the most interesting one. Whenever I can, I take the backroads. And ever since I saved up enough money to buy my first mountainbike when I was 16, I’ve been attracted to the even smaller unpaved roads. For decades one after the other was asphalted for the sake of progress. But in the last few years, it seems like there’s a renewed appreciation of unpaved roads and paths. Even some new slow roads are built without concrete or asphalt.

It was only when I was brainstorming about this story that I came to understand that the unpaved roads serve as a metaphor for the ways I choose to travel in my life and career as well.

DEFINITION 42 | DARKNESS DESERVES BETTER

BY BERT STEPHANI

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I’ve always liked the night, dark clothes, dark images.
The association between “black” and “bad” doesn’t exist to me.
In the shadows I find simplicity, peace and elegance.
The darkness shuts out the noise and makes time irrelevant.
Darkness deserves a better rep ...

DEFINITION 32 | THE PAGE THAT STAYED BLANK

BY BERT STEPHANI

Yesterday was my deadline for a new KAGE story. Yesterday was also World Photography Day. In the two weeks leading up to yesterday I was aware of both facts and determined to shoot a great story. So I took a blank (virtual) page and grabbed a(n Apple) pencil and ... nothing happened.

Usually the hard part of starting a new story is just to write those first few keywords down. But once that’s done, the rest flows into a finished story pretty easily. It still can be hard work, but it isn’t difficult, not really. It’s just a matter of forcing myself to get going and then do the work.

But this time, the story just wouldn’t come and believe me, I tried. I had some ideas, but they all seemed artificial and forced. So I just kept a camera close and shot whatever caught my eye.

For a moment I thought about investigating which story was hidden in the random images:

The dark tones reflect the cloud that hangs above us in these trying times. The obscured self portraits are a sign of insecurity and the clouds symbolise the fear of change. However I clearly look for light, light at the end of the tunnel. Not everything is lost, after all, the compositions express a desire for order and new structure ...

Bullshit of course. These are just images ... or is there more?

DEFINITION 024 | THE EXPLORER

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BY BERT STEPHANI

As a kid I devoured books about polar expeditions, climbing Everest and dangerous travels in the rainforest. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew were my television heroes and I listened to the cassette tapes my aunt mailed to my parents while she lived in the Congo. I was destined to become a famous explorer. But as I got older there was the preparation of the basketball season that prevented long travels during the summer, work got in the way and then came a family that I just love being with way more than the highest mountain or the deepest abyss.

I still managed to see a nice chunk of the world and explore different cultures and places. During my twenties and thirties it bothered me sometimes though that I never completely released my inner Indiana Jones. But I also started to understand that my childhood heroes all paid a big price for following their passion, a price that I am not prepared to pay.

It’s very unlikely that I’ll discover a new dolphin species, be the first to climb Everest while playing a saxophone or swim across the Bering Sea in just a pair of Speedos. But like in sports, exploring doesn’t require you to be setting new records to enjoy it.

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During the lockdown I got restless and started to understand that I really need a healthy dose of adventure to stay sane. Luckily I rediscovered bicycles as a way to explore. In the early nineties I got hooked on mountainbiking. Back then it wasn’t about trails and bike parks, it was about the adventure to go places where a normal bike couldn’t go. It wasn’t about speed or distance (although I experienced plenty of both), it was a way to see something of the world, hang out with great people and it wasn’t bad for my health either (except for the crashes).

Somehow, I found all of that back in the last month or so (minus the fitness and adrenaline kicks). I started taking a camera with me on my rides. It makes me stop more often and enjoy the moment. I’m exploring again, exploring how to explore on a bike again.

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All images shot with the X100V

Definition 016 | Forty-Five

BY BERT STEPHANI

Today is my 45th birthday. I don’t find that particularly old, nor young. For once having a brain that doesn’t understand numbers, is a blessing I suppose. Don’t ask me to come up with resolutions. Don’t ask me to look back onto the past 45 years.

I just want to be ... now ... in the moment.

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I’ve been working on lockdown-stuff on my blog, social media, YouTube and a webinar, but not today.

Today I just want to be ... now ... in the moment

Strangely, my birthday is probably the most normal day I’m having since all that virus-craziness started. I’m enjoying the attention from my family, friends and colleagues ... just like I did on any other birthday.

And that’s a blessing. You know, just be ... now ... in the moment

Definition 008 | Hanging up the Cape

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By Bert Stephani

Let me tell you a secret … I’m a superhero. At least I used to be one until a couple of years ago. My superpower to solve pretty much anything: work harder and longer. There was always more of that unlimited supply of energy. But then, one day, I was flying high as usual, right arm stretched forward, left arm along my body, my cape flapping in the wind … bam … I hit a wall and tumbled from the sky. Who would have thought they build walls in the sky?

After spending some time on the earth, dazed and confused, I started to feel a bit better. I raised my right arm again … but … nothing.
It took me a while to realize that I’m a mere mortal right now. I slowly got to grips with the fact that my energy supply is not endless. From time to time, I still forget. But I got better at it and I started to find my way in this human life.

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Lately I’ve been finding peace and beauty in the imperfection. Surprisingly, accepting that my energy is limited, gives me more energy than ever. A different energy, calm, steady and more profound.

Every now and then, I look at my old superhero cape and think of all the great adventures I had wearing it. But I’m completely fine with entering a new chapter. I’m actually looking forward to what this mortal life will bring.

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I'm glad I failed

GENERATOR

Guidance: Don't break the silence

Assignment: Today you must shoot crowds or total emptiness, using a lens closest to the current temperature in Fahrenheit and your newest camera.
You must also use your device's square ratio.

BY BERT STEPHANI

I could have easily shot this assignment one or two months ago. But now, I absolutely hate it, it's the shittiest assignment I ever did for KAGE. Don’t get me wrong, I love the generator-idea, I just don’t like what came out of it for me.

I've started the year looking for silence, but lately I have moved on to conversations, meaningful real-life conversations. I've never liked crowds and I don't want to look for emptiness at a time when I'm starting to feel whole again. It's too warm to use the lenses I'd like to use and the square ratio limits my expanding view on things. 

I tried to get some pictures within the assignment and I failed badly. But you know what? I'm happy that I couldn't shoot anything decent for this one. It means that I've broken the silence.

Just ... Simple

BY BERT STEPHANI

A friend asked me to show him how to shoot simple, elegant portraits and so he set up a shoot for us with a lovely young German student. In a way this was pure comfort zone stuff for me but it made me become aware that I’m often overthinking portraiture. In the pursuit of killer-images my mind gets away from the person in front of my camera. For this series I kept it super simple: My X-Pro2, the 35mm 1.4 and the 56mm 1.2 and a big window.

My friend’s next question was: what if I don’t have a window? I usually don’t light with a huge soft light source because it just seems too easy. But why would that be a bad thing? I hadn’t used a softlighter-type modifier for ages because it’s impossible to control. But on the other hand, it just pumps out a bunch of pretty light which gave me and my subject room to move.

We then went outside in a non-descript residential area to see if we could find good light and interesting backgrounds there. I think we did.

In many ways this shoot was effortless and if the wheels in my head were spinning it was just because I was trying to explain how my intuition works to my friend. I was pleasantly surprised by how the images came out and how enjoyable the process was. I’ll keep it in mind not always to try so hard but just enjoy the shoot, the light, the company.

And on the Seventh Day

BY BERT STEPHANI

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Like in pretty much every country in the world, consuming is the national occupation of choice in Belgium. But on Sundays consumerism takes a break. There are exceptions but by law, stores have to close on Sunday. There’s a lot of pressure on the government to loosen or even completely change the rules. Multinationals have to feed their ever growing machines and consumers want to shop 24/7.

But honestly, it’s not so bad to be unable to buy more meaningless stuff once a week.

My oldest working digital camera is the X-Pro1 and my oldest lens for that camera is the 35mm F1.4, so that’s what I used for these pictures. The viewfinder is a bit low res and the controls are a little sluggish in 2019. But if I’m completely honest, I could probably still do 80% of my photo work with this “old” combination. The original X-Pro forces you to slow down and that’s necessarily not a bad thing. Shooting this story reminded me how enjoyable the slow simplicity can be. My X-Pro1 was pretty much retired, but it’s still way too good to sit in the back of my cupboard.

Cycles

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BY BERT STEPHANI

I used to live near these fields and I walked them often for a couple of years to get some air, think, forget, despair, hope or just be. I liked how things changed with the seasons but as soon as I entered the second annual cycle, I got bored because it was like watching a movie again just after finishing it the first time. What's the point of life if it's just a constantly repeating pattern?

It took a while before I started noticing the subtle changes that came with each cycle. I saw wildlife that wasn't there a year before, the puddles on the path were in different places, there were new sounds, unfamiliar faces and so much more. 
This morning, when I walked these fields again for the first time in a couple of years, I noticing that these small changes are all it takes to transform an area over time. 

Nature is wise teacher, small changes do have an impact. Our actions aren't pointless, so let's make them count.