http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:coxi&section=today deviantART RSS for by:coxi en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:27:57 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/29091264/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/29091264/ Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:36:22 PST
you know. i see a lot of great portraits out there.. and then when i go into details, i often realize that most portraits that are considered to be great, are taken with a nice lens and film or sensor. someone knows their tools, be it the lens, camera or photoshop or all together..

but can you ever say you took a good portrait ? isn't it just a moment you capture, not the person. just a thin slice of life, not the whole story.

i think i'm still too young and not experienced enough in life to concider myself a portrait photographer. maybe i'll never be, maybe it's impossible. still, as long as i can walk and shoot in all conditions, i'll stick to shooting street and documentary. these moments out there is what interests me. i'm not one of those who says i'm shooting people. i don't believe that you can walk up to strangers, take their "portrait" and capture their story. there is much more behind than that. even when i think of my girlfriend, who i captured a thousand of times already - i couldn't pick one that is "her".

so i'm saving portrait for my retirement, when i'm too old and weak to shoot a roll a day all the time, develope, scan and print whenever i've got the time.

maybe i'll be able to take these "portraits" when i'm grandpa.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28858235/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28858235/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:34:36 PST
I'm in a little dilemma here. To be honest, i'm not interested in selling hundreds of machine printed DA prints or other lab prints from digital photos (or negative scans). I'm intersted in selling original pieces. Handmade darkroom prints on all kind of fiber based papers of all sizes, tonings and finishes.

I think that's a much better product to offer. Those prints are a lot of work too. I limit the number of each to about 50, larger sizes to 25 or 15. I sign them, because i made them by hand. A print takes some time. First off all, i need to get to the darkroom. Then set up everything. Adjust the negative in the enlarger and the printing frame. Have to build up all the baths. That process takes 15-20min.
Then the first teststripes that take about 10min. Then the first paper that takes another 5-10min. Even if the first one is perfect, you will always do another one, to have a second copy and often a third, because A: you never know if you ruin one of the prints in the process and you have the neg in the enlarger so you just do another copy or 2 because it's just work not a mouseclick.

So now the 2nd or 3rd enlargement of that negative is in the fixer. I got to the darkroom, i set up everything, i printed - so all together spend about an hour of time on it already.

Next step is washing. A fiber print or baryt needs about an hour to wash - in running water. So you can't really leave the place for a coffee. You need to stay in the darkroom. So it doesn't make much sense to print a single negative to watch 3 papers getting washed for at least an hour.

So you do more prints of more negatives. Again time consuming. I usually print 5-15 negatives in a session - depending on my physical state.

So after you washed a print (you can quicken this by using hypo, so it only takes half an hour... but then i need to stay with the prints and can't print more negatives... so i just wash it an hour), well after i washed the print i can decide to A: dry them, B: tone them and C: give them a finish.

If I decide for A: which means i am more or less happy with the tones and actual papercharacteristics, i need to prepare to dry the prints. I need some glass plates and a special mounting tape that drys with the paper and get's really sticky when it's fully dried. So you basicly stick the paper on the glass so that when it drys, it stays flat.

Until the print is dry some more hours will pass. So i rarely take a print home with me on the day i printed.

This is the "usual" way to print, process and dry the fiber print. Well that's how i work. I don't have industrial machines that make things faster - because they cost a fortune and are rare.

If i tone a print (depending on the toner) i will need another hour of washing. so an extra hour of work.

A ferrotype glossy finish for example goes rather quick but is a tricky thing to pull off. You roll the print on a clean, scratchfree metalplate (a ferrotype plate) and press the paper on the coated side so that there is no air, dust or anything between the paper and the plate. then you put it in a drying machine. This takes 10min but to have a perfectly glossed print it takes perfection in any way... you can also ruin prints when the gelatine stays on the plate and you tear your print in two (one of the best feelings ever!). So you better have 1 or 2 more perfect copies you can gloss.

--

If you think that's a lot of work - you're right. Each print takes about 3 hours of work minimum and often i need to go to the darkroom twice to get the prints and cut off the tape that is left. So either way, it's hours of concentration and physical work (and all that in a tiny dark room).

But i'm NOT moaning here. I love to do it, just as much as i love shooting... still, when you hire me for 3 hours shooting, you'll pay and when you hire me for 3 hours retouching, you'll pay for it - because this is my profession. So is the darkroom.

Why am i telling you all this ? Well it's easy. I claim money for my prints - the same amount of money i'd ask for a shoot that takes the same amount of time. Then i add some bucks for the paper and chemistry, so i end up having fixed prices for differntly sized prints.

And you know.. all that "artistic" value shit... whatever.. if i'd add that (how to calcualte this anyway)... then i won't find many buyers for my work... and i'm not interested in selling to rich art-collectors only.

So if you're intersted in purchasing a fiber print of mine, please have all this in mind and don't be shocked when i charge for it. This is not a DA print you can get for 20 bucks.


One last thing i want to add is that i wrote all this not to sound pissed or elitest... i'm just trying to put things into pe... ]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28838364/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28838364/ Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:16:27 PST
[link]

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28388584/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28388584/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:08:38 PST
As DA doesn't accept music videos, i can't post it here.

You can view it here: [link] or visit the band's webiste at [link]

honest votes are welcome here: [link]

technical details:
Cameras: Canon EOS 5dMKII and EOS 7D

Lenses: 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 sigma, 24mm 1.4L, 24mm ts/e, 35/1.4, 50 1.2

7d only with ts/e and 12-24 in the slow motion parts. 50fps and 60fps

the band and singer had to play the song 20% faster when recording at 30fps with the MKII and double when recording at 50fps with the 7D (bass close ups and some drumming close ups)

cut in premiere, posted in after effects.
analogue elements are selfmade with negatives and a nikon coolscan V ED.

any ideas and criticism is welcome - i learned the most in the process it self so far but i appreciate your input.

It's a german song - i don't know how that influences non german speakers but i'd like to know.

I've also updated my blog with some photostories: [link]

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28177813/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/28177813/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:02:28 PST
everytime i hit the "submit art" button, i've to smirk a little. this button gets clicked a thousand times a day and probably one time there might be art submitted.

i also wonder why there is no option to hide the amount of views, favs and comments of a deviation. it'd solve the whole stupid challenge thing on DA. i'd hide it immediately. people automatically judge by the amount of attention the deviation has - which is nonsense.

if you want to see how many ignorant people are out there, just check the comments at ^Gonzale's DDs. if there was a block button for these users, so that they can't unload their unqualified shit noone asked for anymore, i'd use it immediately.

i'm not asking or demanding any comments when i post something, but i'm still wondering why some works get hundreds of comments and favs and others less than 5. i'm just wondering what makes the difference. maybe i'm the only one who sees what the photo is about and anyone else is too ignorant or i see something that isn't really there and it's boring shit.. or it just lacks funny colours.. whatever - i'm not using DA as a evaluation of my work.

also DA puts a submission into scraps when you put it into photorgaphy>snapshots. it's funny, i think snapshots is one of the most interesting genre. i think there is some misunderstanding. also why is there no fashion category on its own ? why must it be under portraits ? and how can glamour portrait be an own category ?

weird stuff.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27944865/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27944865/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:20:17 PDT
i'm a sucker for paracetamol/sugar/ascorbic-acid combo. best before sleep.

for the day there is the paracetamol/caffeine/ascorbic-acid combo which are waiting tomorrow for the cementery. yeah, i'm shooting a sorta fashion shoot at the cementery.. i have no clue what's waiting for me there.. but i've never done something like that before - something else for a change.

i'll have another premiere soon - shooting a music video. it's all about organisation and improvisation when it comes to no-budged productions. i'll still try my best and i'm looking forward to use the 5dMKII with a bunch of neat glass to shoot that vid.

ordered some foma 131 warmtone 12x16 and 16x20. the shop owner told me that i was probably the first ordering it at that size. i know it's a difficult paper to print because it doesn't look good untoned but when you tone you make it darker (pushing the shadows). still when you finish it right, it looks great - even prefer it to the ilford warmtone - which isn't really a warmtone... but looks ace - still.

shooting some factories again - staying in austira this time though.

thinking about getting a rolleiflex 2.8 for portraits and streetshots. maybe a D/E version.. but the F and G sound great too..

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27892782/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27892782/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:42:48 PDT


i'm really curious what a 30x45in (75x110cm) would look like.
it's just an evidence of incapacity to publish an image like that (taken with a canon 5d MKII) that looks like taken with an Iphone.

critique was off - no wonder - otherwise i'd not have chosen the journal way, but where is the difference anyway - this pops up in the message centre just like the critiques.

ps: i got a littlebit curious so i pushed the shadows and squeezed down the highlights just to see how much information was left and changed image size to 200%

[link] (canon 5dMKII at 125iso at daylight)

and because i'm fair i just did that with one of my deviations:

[link] (canon 5d MKI at 640 iso avaiable light)

original can be found here: [link]

call me a freak - i think it's interesting. i do this all the time, just not publish it.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27828646/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27828646/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:05:09 PDT

I look at every 10th DD probably... this was one of them - mainly because the thumb loooked interesting to me. No naked woman, no canon ixus macro or super HDR sunset... it was a straight photo without much to it that simply worked.

When i started to read some comments, i saw something like an attempt of criticism. People wondered if the face was shopped in (WTF!?!?!). Seems like some out there are so brainwashed that they don't even believe in reflections anymore or don't know what they look like.

Others said that the photo was better without the face. Oh yeah, definitely a view on berlin from the TV tower would be much more interesting than a portrait in a reflection WITH the view on berlin... i agree to the fullest !

Others said that the face even ruined the picture... HELLO ? what the fuck is wrong with you people ?

Those people who "criticise" (in this case just talk unqualified shit) that photo are the same who praise the mainstream pretty-colours nice boobs photos and keep the machine of favs running...

I personally think that's a nice photo. It is not mind-blowing - because it doesn't need to be. It's sometimes the hardest to take a simple photo that documents life.
I know professional photographers - personally, who have shot advertising and press for their lifetime and now they wish they had captured their own life. They want to shoot b/w film again and they want to shoot what they want to not what they are told to shoot.

Some even don't know how to take these simple photos of their friends, family, travels or streetshots anymore.. because they got used to models, studio, lights, photoshop, lightroom, press converences, red carpet.... all this machinery makes you work like an ant in a system. Those professional photographers can't take such simple photographs anymore - and some of them regret that.

All these adverts, magazine, press or red carpet photos (if not epic or artistically), all these photos that pay your rent - won't make you happy in the end. It's nothing personal about it. All the studio portraits, that have only purpose but no character to them... what do with it ? That bunch of naked women you have in your portfolio - nobody will be interested in this except those who like to look at naked women, that's almost a fact. You're not going to impress with photos but with naked women.

Ever thought about if your photos will still live longer than yourself ? Ever thought about if anyone even bothers to look at your work in a few years when the digital techniques reached new levels again and another 10 billion photos got published in the internet and elsewhere..

Shoot for content. Document life. Shape your skills for that. You won't regret it when you can look at some decent b/w negatives in 20 years, because the millions of digital frames will either be lost in chaos or un-readable harddisks and simply won't have any character anymore.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27757342/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27757342/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:45:35 PDT
so i went out at ~10:30 to go there.. and there was something missing... i forgot the leica. i was thinking "should i take it with me or not..." so i went back to my apartement to take the leica with me. i still felt horrible - not motivated to take any photos at all.

left the house. f4 1/250th - 500th at 400iso. typical grey day. not a 1/125th day though - those are the worst.. i went to the supermarked to buy a red bull to get my eyes open, an orange juice (hohes C) to fight an eventually upcoming cold and a strong chewing gum - so that the poor lady at the agency doesn't smell the kebap from 5am that was still rotting in my stomache.

attached with those things to survive the first hours of the day, i went to the agency. the meeting went well, i also announced that i was still hangover and apologized for my bumlike look.. but as often i was glad to be behind the camera and not in front.

i left the agency - feeling better, two more asignments for the next 2 weeks. still my mood wasn't good enough to shoot street. so i just wanted to walk home to get some sleep - but things completely changed.

walking towards the street (from the courtyard) a rather small women passed the door from left to right with a medium sized dog in her arms. this little moment got me running, running towards the exit to catch her up to take a shot.

so i followed her a few steps to take the shot, first from behind, then walked faster to take one facing her. i didn't take a photo though. instead we started talking. her dog (natalie), 16 years old, 3 legs had a stroke and couldn't really walk anymore. so she had to carry her. she, gandhi, was a very nice soft appearance. we had a nice chat of about 10 minutes or even longer about her dog and life in vienna. i asked for a photo before i left. so she took up her dog and i took a photo.

it was almost the first of that roll - and i was really curious how it'd turned out - so i thought i'll expose this roll quickly - but i only had about 10 minutes walk home and the weather was crap for photos... so i could only waste that roll on random things... but things came different once again. several interesting moments happened on my short walk home.. and i have almost finished the whole roll with some pretty promising material.

and last but not least i found this strap for my hand - very oldschool but handy.. took a photo of it:



hope to share that roll soon!

have a nice one!

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27609099/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27609099/ Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:57:25 PDT
I'm working on a new online portfolio (website) that should go online in a bit more than a month. To select the topics and images is hard enough, but there is even a bigger project in my mind.

I want to select some black and white frames for 12x16 and 16x20 prints i want to do for galleries. If everything goes right, i'll have the chance to go to New York next year. During that time i want to go to galliers to show these prints. Now i'm going through my blog to select what's worth printing but can't really decide.

I was thinking about streetphotography in general. What has been done, what the "masters" were loved for - what's in street galleries nowadays. I have to select works that don't fall in either of those categories. Because A: street photography in galleries nowadays is mostly in colour - mostly crowded or several things happening at once or a way of combining elements in a moment that makes the scene look unique.

and B: Those classy moments in black and white we all know from postcards and exhibitions have been done already - and done perfectly. so i can't select work that would fall in that category either.

I'm having troubles to select the right photos for this portfolio.
I'm also thinking about the mandatory series. Maybe i put 10 prints of that work in the portfolio too.

any tips and suggestions ?

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27553682/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27553682/ Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:02:21 PDT
[link]

thanks for visiting!

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27150452/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27150452/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:21:01 PDT [link]

yours,
paris

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27055837/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/27055837/ Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:14:52 PDT
..things i don't like:

photographers who take photos of naked or half naked women in a submissive pose or expression because they can't handle women in real life, due to lacking self esteem, charisma and maturity.

people who use the term "art" as an excuse for producing things with inhuman content, be it racist, homophobe, sexist or pedophile.

photographers that can't take it being photographed themselfs.

the amount of dodged eyes in portraits nowadays - portraits are almost only about the eyes, by faking them you ruin the work, plus it's always obvious. try to learn how to make eyes stand out by using light and the right lenses+aperture not fuckoshop.

ridicolously overshopped HDR photos that have naturally no contrast because they were taken on an overcast day with a crappy 10-22mm sigma zoom lens that has as much contrast and sharpenes ass an ashtray attached to a lomo. tip: wait for the right light and use a better lens.

contrasty, colourful photographs without any message or interesting content beside prettyness (90% of DA). what a bullcrap... you really think anyone gives a shit about ANOTHER cute overshopped self portrait a month after you submitted ? go and try to sell it to the real world...

pseudo polariod or cross look made by people who obviously never have seen it in real life.

wackos who submit digitaly produced images to the traditional darkroom gallery and get thousands of favs for it and in real life they never ever smelled a fixer.

people who shoot canon 70-200/2.8 portraits that all look the same. good luck on finding your signature, everyone else (about 1millon other photographers) have your sensor, your lens and your photoshop too.. canon takes your photo !

people who pretend to have always been to these places, sunsets, clouds, sunstrokes... when it was obviously digitally created.


smart-alecks who try to sound experienced and professional when they obviously are far away from it.

...

things i like:

people who don't care about the newest sensors, photoshop, raw plugin... but care about content and their own style of seeing and documenting people and things.

people who have a passion that comes first - is above anything else.

people who can admit that they don't have an eye or talent for art and say it. at least when they produce medicore work they were honest about it.

people who can make a difference when i submit something completely overshopped and dare to tell me. for those who liked it, it' nothing personal, just a test - seriously.

people who get modest after time instead of the opposite

people who don't pretend to know someone because of an internet appearance.

people who understand a little irony without using a "wink" emoteicon at the end of the sentence.



had this on my mind for too long... hope there are some people out there who understand. seriously.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26950551/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26950551/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:40:43 PDT
but nothing just made me feature it.. but this young fella with a camera really deserves some good feedback and attention:

~eyeseewell






i can go on for ever..

the way he approaches life drawn people and portrays them shows how honest everything must be and honesty is the best motivation to take photos and portraits.

he's got a damn good eye and feeling for things too. better put him on your watch !

cheers

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26931288/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26931288/ Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:49:54 PDT
you can find my blog at: [link]

life is a bit crazy. no other news.

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26715901/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26715901/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:56:41 PDT right now it's the first time i'm not falling asleep cause i'm tired of work, not just getting up to get to work or not just being at work or traveling.

the bloody jenni was in vienna, we had some nice evenings. she likes to drink, which was good for going out till in the early hours.

been to zurich to shoot the swiss poker masters, some interviews and portraits. enjoyed my stay in the old city by swimming in the lake and also in the river!
(here on video: [link] at 1:25min)

wasted a lot of money on alcohol and food there too... 64 franken for a single drink... is just like 64 usd

came back to vienna, shooting promotion shots for a new coffee machine (studio). filming too (with 5dMKII) and doing the post tomorrow.

~10 films to develope and scan, and material for 2-3 blog entries waiting to be posted.

10x 16x20 + 50 12x16 inch Ilford Warmtone, some xtol and trix arrived too. so fall can come ;]

]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26545237/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26545237/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:05:38 PDT
First off all, i don't want to call it a comeback or make a fuzz about it. I'm glad about the changes of the last 3 years, so i don't want to go back where it ended.

For those who don't know i'll write a short summary (those who know can skip here).

So almost 6 years ago, i joined DA. I was a 17yr old teenager with the typical school-issues. Having the worst grades in the class, i knew i couldn't choose the classic way of education to make something out of my life.
One day when i tried to find some free webspace to put my digital crap on, i found DA!

When i realized that i couldn't link my uploads directly to someone who is not logged in on DA i almost thought i'd leave this place again. All i wanted is some free webspace.. not that green "shit" around it.. you know.

But everything came different. Even on the biggest donkey-crap i submitted people commented and told me how cool and awesome it was. So i started thinking... Are those virtual foreigners some digital retards who really think that the stuff i put on is any good or do they actually see some potential in my work and talent in me that i couldn't find !?

To answer that question i started to actually do photographs and digital paintings with some sort of meaning or artistic attempt behind. Still total bullshit but less than before. So i reached some level at DA where i had some friends in the community who supported me and my work, even when it was still in a stadium i'm ashamed of nowadays...

Things went on like that. By adding some cute self-portraits to the gallery with uber-emotional descriptions and titles like "heart on the shining side" i soon made it to several DDs and DTF (daily top favourits).
Back then when the whole popularity hype started, almost every submission i added reached the frontpage, where it will last for the next 24hours.

The DA system back then was a bit screwed. The popular ones got so uber-popular because of that DTF-system that it really got ugly. Thousand favourits back then was like a million today.. but some so called "key-artitst" like i was, even received that much attention.

So there i landed, having a million pageviews and thousands of watchers. What to do with all that ? Simply submitting more stuff that will be praised to heaven ? This kinda got boring after a while.

So i decided to actually use my popularity by writing journals about stuff that bothered me on DA. I was ranting about other people's work. I called Anime pedophile. I got banned for "insulting" others. I thought i was saying the truth about all that pseudo-porn photography in the "nude" section they later changed to "artisic nude" (lol) and the pervert pedophile anime and manga drawings you find everywhere, but DA thought different.

Usually when they ban people, it's clear, that if there is a reason, that they will not unban users. In this case there was a quite big popularity behind my account, so that they unbanned me several times. I got banned and unbanned, banned and unbanned again... it was a funny game, for me at least.
I remember using a swastika as my avatar, because it was allowed but calling an image of a 10yr old liking a lollypop showing her panties pedophile was not allowed. I don't know what are the rules nowadays, it's been 3 years.

Back then, i remember several bans that started after i got banned. Mainly people who agreed with me got banned for doing the same kind of "insulting". I think DA didn't like my influence on my watchers and friends so they banned me for my "behaviour".

After a while the whole calling Anime pedophile thing got boring too. So i thought what else to do with my popular account. I started to upload shit on purpose. Photos taken with my cellphone in bad quality, just to see how many faves i will still receive. After that got boring, I gave others my account to do whatever they wanted to do with it. The idea was to show those who always wanted to know what it's like to have 1.000.000 pageviews and +10.000 watchers, that it wasn't as they might have imagined. Those who really wanted to know got my password and could do whatever they wanted with my account.

Comments and faves were left at random stuff, people changed my profile, submitted only pink stuff anymore.. and at some point started insulting others for no reason... and after a little while i got banned again. this time permanently.

So i started my own thing. First a blog at blogspot then my portfolio and my new blog

After some after... ]]> *coxi http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26480132/ http://coxi.deviantart.com/journal/26480132/ Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:06:50 PDT
Congrats, you voted for the right guy !

]]> *coxi