LomoGuru of the Week: Ck_berlin

He’s the one who makes it sure that something wonderful would happen everytime he picks up a camera from his vast analogue collection – and along the way he was able to snap lot of memorable things and he’s excitedly looking forward for more!

Name: Christian Kretke
LomoHome: ck_berlin
Location: Berlin, Germany
Number of years as a Lomographer: 7 years
Number of years in the Community: almost 7 years

Share to us your most memorable experience in the Lomographic community.

There isn’t just one special and memorable experience but there are rather a number of many small experiences I enjoyed over the past years I’ve spent with and in the Lomographic Community which is dear to me. Every so often something wonderful happenes. Take for example when winning a rumble or meeting nice Lomo-people at one of those partys or at the Lomography Galery Store in Berlin – and actually meeting them in person, real people. Or when my photo gets chosen as Photo of the Day. I also really like being contacted by other users like for instance asking me advice before deciding on which camera to buy or when they’ve got questions concerning developing films or related topics.

Have you actually met people in the Community that you now consider as close friends? If yes, name at least one of them.

Last fall there was a VIP meeting where interesting and active Lomographes from all over Germany gathered in Berlin. This was the very event during which the Lomo Matrix Berlin was created. There I met lomo people like earlybird, eyecon, frauspatzi, scorpie, shoujoai and spoeker, to name but a few. Over the course of the past year I built up a closer relationship with sushi_9009. Meanwhile we’ve conducted a couple of LomoWalks together and attended partys in the Berlin Lomo Store together. Every so often we were accompanied by sympathetic Lomo enthusiast like shoujoai (Berlin Festival of Lights), lomodirk (Mai 1st) or masha_njam (German-American Festival of the people in Berlin). I would love to get to know some other users in person though, for instance mephisto19, fruchtzwerg_hh, artichekt, brommi and pulex, to remain in the German user community. On an international level there would be many, many more – but I would exceed the limit if I’d try to name them all.

Do you think you’ll still be taking lomographs in the next 5 years? Why?

Absolutely! I am totally obsessed with photos and photography. I cannot just stop it, I don’t want it and I won’t.

What is your favorite Lomo camera and why? Do you have any memorable experiences while using this camera?

There is no favourite camera of mine as I’ve collected some 33 cameras up to now. And there will be more. I go through phases, sometimes I like this camera better, another time another one. It’s related to what mood I am in, what I am planning to use as photo objects, the season, the time of day, just about everything. I follow my gut feeling, really. Sometimes I am drawn to my LC-A. The Horizon Perfekt is my favourite baby and another time my Lubitel is the winner of the day. Currently, I tend to keep using my Yashica Mat 124 G more often than others. My all-time favourites are my Kiev 60 and Kiev 88 which I always love to take photos with. Unfortunately, I don’t have a special camera for every day use as they are all so heavy and big. I can tell that the Pentacon Six will be the next camera on top of my list. Santa Claus brought it this year, yes, a bit premature but hey! You see, I simply cannot get enough of those toys.

Is there any advice you can give to new analogue shooters?

Don’t think – do it! Act! Shoot! And always be prepared and carry a camera – put in a film, too. It doesn’t really matter what kind of camera you will be using, the photo object is key. Of course you should learn some technical details about how to handle your camera and about how photography works or how you can make it work. A brief glimpse into a book written by one of those photography gurus such as Andreas Feininger always turns out to be useful. Those who seriously consider taking up photography as a hobby and Lomography as such, I also advise to get a hold of a proper scanner, one of the kind which also develops negatives of photos and slides. The difference is significant. And who really got the hang of it, should take up developing his own photos himself. But be wary, this could lead to an addiction.

They are the ones whose passion transcends not only by what they do and say, but also with what they see and capture with their film cameras. And with such attributes aforementioned, they are what we call LomoGurus! Every week, we get to ask questions and reveal some insights with the most talented and productive of all Lomographers from the community!

written by fookshit on 2011-12-23 #lifestyle #interview #community #feature #q-a #lomoguru