2. A little bit of sunshine to cheer me up / inspiration for today

The sun was shining, the leaves were falling down from the trees and making a noise that sounds like rain hitting the pavement. It is quite nice actually, autumn in Hamburg. This city looks good in autumn colours. 

Anyway, I decided to go to the Deichtorhallen to see a very interesting (for me of course) exhibition - 100 years of Leica photography. It was great to see black and white photos on the walls being admired by visitors. No photoshop or other programmes, no photo manipulation. Just skill and knowledge. Black and white photography has this thing in it. A soul, a story. Maybe it's just a play of contrast between the shades or just my nostalgia for the film photography but it really is something else.

Gianni Berengo Gardin 'Inghilterra'

The exhibition covers basically all aspects of Leica's history - countries (Leica in Spain, Italy, France even Japan), as well as areas which use photography (propaganda, film, reportage, magazines). You have the possibility to see how the photography developed through time in its form and usage. 

I love photography because it allows me to document what I see, so I can take a piece of my experience home, not only in my mind, by what I have learned, but also as a view, something I can hang on the wall, look at it and remember, how that particular day was. Photos are a part of history, not only the small one (your own one), but also the common history - life, war, fun and misery. 

This exhibition definitely made me want to go out with my camera and take some new pieces of everyday life home. Just to have them, as a memory. 

Eva Kemlein 'Sprengung des Berliner Stadtschlosses'

Ragnar Axelsson 'Farmer Gujdón in My'rdalur, Iceland'

The exhibition covers colour photography as well, you can also see the first Leica cameras and magazines with photos taken with a Leica camera.

If you're in Hamburg now or will be here soon - the exhibition is there until January 2015. Really worth seeing!