Message from Michael Feistel
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SOMETHING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY
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All of us seem to come equipped with filters on the floors of our minds, and all these filters having different size and meshes. What catches in my filter may run right through yours. What catches in yours may pass through mine, no sweat.
All of us seem to have a built-in obligation to sift through the sludge that gets caught in our respective mind-filters, and what we find there usually develops into some sort of sideline. The sludge caught in the mind's filter, that stuff that refuses to go through, frequently becomes each person's private obsession. In civilized society we have an unspoken agreement to call our obsessions 'hobbies'.
Sometimes the hobby can become a full-time job. But because 'hobby' is such a bumpy common-sounding little word, we also have an unspoken agreement that we will call our professional hobbies 'the arts'.
Painting, Sculpture, Composing, Playing any instrument,Singing, Acting and last but not least Photography too. Enough books have been written on these seven subjects alone to sink a fleet of luxury liners. All these 'Hobbies' and 'Arts' have one ting in common:
Those who practice these arts honestly and with passion would continue to practice them even if they were not paid for their efforts; even if their efforts were despisedly criticized or even reviled; even on pain of imprisonment or death.
This is a pretty fair definition of obsessional behavior. I'm lucky as I might have a showable, producable obsession.There are many not so lucky in padded cells the world all over.
I leave it to others to call me an artist, but I always felt impelled to take pictures. So each day I sift the sludge anew, going through the cast-off bits and pieces of observation, of memory, of speculation and theoretical reviews, trying to make something out of the stuff that didn't go through the filter down the drain into the subconscious.
I cordially invite you and I'm prepared to share some of that sludge with you if you want, dear visitor, but there is no obligation to do so.
EQUIPMENT
- Canon EOS 500 with Canon EF 35-80 and Sigma 28-200
- Canon EOS 30 E with Canon USM 28-90
- Olympus C960-Zoom
- Canon EOS 20D with Canon 17-85
- Kenko Extension tubes
Photographic CV
I started taking pictures around about ten, following my fathers footsteps.
It never was my dream to transform my hobby into a business job, since my believe is that one will loose creativity once doing it for live, because you'll have to do it.
Doing my own enlargements from the very beginning in black and white gave me lots of technical experience which I could helpfully use later when switching to slide photography only.
Later when digi-live approached human kind, I decided to carry on "liquid-free", enjoying the immediate availability of the pics for first judgement.
Since April 2005 I am fully on digital, but planning to use my "analog devices" for resuming in the b/w field.
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