Ben Wilhelmi

wildlife in B/W, Tanzania

 

sepia portraits, Tanzanian women

 

I personally find this Sonjo woman particularly pretty! Beautiful eyebrows for instance.

 

recently excised Masai girl. She will be ready for marriage soon. The baby is not hers but she insisted to pose with him.

 

Tanzania, wildlife photography in B/W

 

Dented lioness…eye and ear.

 

B/W landscapes on medium format films, USA

 

Monument Valley.

 

On the great scenic route 12 near Bryce Canyon, Utah.

 

the Little Colorado River near Grand Canyon.

 

OK here there is a trick, this is an infrared picture in Zion nat’l park, Utah.

 

 

My beautiful Rolleiflex 3.5F, a medium format twin lens reflex that uses 6x6 cm negatives. This vintage great beast is from 1961, But older models from the 30’s , barely different, are still out there doing great pictures. Not the easiest camera to use but it gives great pleasure.

Paris, Street b/w photography with a Rolleiflex

a 1961 Rolleiflex 3.5F medium format to be precise.

The advantage of a ‘weird’ Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex is that it looks so special that people don’t see it as a threat. Maybe these 2 pretty girls wouldn’t have posed and smiled at me had I been pointing with a bulky modern digital reflex and big lens… then they may have seen the link between my vintage camera and their vintage Vespa?

 

this other pretty unaware model didn’t even notice me. Special feat of the Rolleiflex: the usual position to shoot is to hold the camera on your belly. People sometimes don’t even notice you're snapping away. 

 

on the Trocadéro scene.

sepia portraits in the Tanzanian bush

 

when I don’t have to help the medical staff nor fix something on the aircraft or the airstrip, I do some pictures. Lately I’ve introduced that studio look to the portraits. I was a bit anxious people might not be used to this white background but when I brought the prints (still in colors though) 2 weeks later they seemed utterly happy, so did I. They kept on asking for more anyway…Maybe I’ll bring some B/W or sepia prints next time and see. I’d love to bring an enlargement but that would create jealousy…

 

This Masai warrior was a bit of an exception: he insisted to keep his umbrella for the shoot…

 

in the bush, Tanzania, B/W portraits

 

 

Tour of duty with Flying Medical Service, people in the bush

 

I just came back yesterday from a tour of mobile clinics with Flying Medical Service. I flew to Loliondo area, that is northern Serengeti, then lake Natron and the Gol mountains. In Tanzania that is. Weather was mostly bad, we’re in the middle of the rain season, and thus I couldn’t land on 3 airstrips. One was quite flooded, another one was damaged by trenches made by flowing waters, and the 3rd one located on top of a cliff was shrouded in clouds. So badly that even flying alongside the cliff I couldn’t find a hole in the clouds  to crawl up. The cloud ceiling was at 4000 feet against the cliff…and the strip is still 2000 feet higher in the mountain.

In the Sonjo Valley, there is a village I particularly like for various reasons, one being that 3 tribes live together there, more or less peacefully. Women seem to go by much better than men, the latter still tend to fight each other, with Kalashnikovs even sometimes. Every year we get emergencies with bullet wounds…

A Sonjo woman with a typical Tanzanian-flag necklace.

 

 

 

a Mangati woman, with a typical spiraled necklace.

 

an elder Mangati lady, with scarification marks around the eyes. Younger people seem to drop that traditional feat.

 

 

and some Masai women fully equipped.

Anyway, these women like their pictures to be taken and they trust me that I’ll bring prints later. This time one model was a bit shocked that I also wanted a picture of her alone, without her baby. Shocking indeed! Many women would rather have their babies pictured rather than themselves. It must be said that in remote areas women have only one right: produce and raise children (preferably males). So being childless is a social stigma, disaster. And so denying that role by requesting a picture without the baby must be seen as slightly insulting?

I also got some nice shooting with the Sonjo kids playing with an old bicycle rim. Sonjo kids still dress very often in these bright colorful pieces of cloth, the same 4 colors for the 13 years I have been flying out there. No red, no purple, no black, no white… nope just these yellow, light blue and orange colors. And green but not on this picture.

Paris, B/W photography

 

I’m not a translator, but basically here we go

“Passer-by, stop here, the building was dedicated to the muses and to the joy by R.S., he welcomed therein the famous Cabaret du Chat Noir”. The Muses and Joy… what a program

 

Cologne, street B/W pictures, eighties

 

I was just 18 or 19, roaming Cologne streets and practicing street photography…

B/W portraits, Tanzanian bush

 

B/W street photography, Cologne in the 80's

 

During holidays and some weekend, I’d pay a visit to Mom who lived very close to Cologne, Germany, like 20 min by train. Funny enough I was not that inspired to go to Brussels and shoot street pictures there. Of course I lived far from Brussels, and it was quite a mission to reach the capital…

these guys were numerous on the cathedral square…

once in a while, a priest would come out and ask for calm…

 

Paris on B/W films, street photography

 

 

one of the excellent  Yellow Korner galleries. A young connoisseur admiring nudes.

 

did you know LP’s are back, brand new? There was a t-shirt with various dates of birth and death for music tapes, Walkman, LP’s…but for the latter there was a rebirth date!

 

 

London, street photography 20+ years ago

 

1989 to be precise… I had been mostly learning photography in the street by then. London…only 5 days unfortunately. 

Agfa films and a Minolta X700 camera.

‘

Yep that’s me, experimenting with mirrors…

 

chatting up girls…

 

Street photography, Brussels

 

Lace is supposedly a Belgian specialty. I admit I found this girl’s curves more interesting….

 

the legendary and wonderful Grand-Place in Brussels.

 

a Manneken Pis (litt’ the little pissing man) copy, here peeing chocolate in a chocolate shop.

street photography, spring time in Paris

 

Champs-de-Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, people enjoying some puffs.

 

Prints for sale, Les Tuileries.

 

La Pyramide, le Louvre.

 

Le Pont des Arts, nice place ofr pedestrians to relax over the Seine. Notice the numerous padlocks on the fence. They express eternal love or wishes for…

 

les Colonnes de Buren.

 

les Tuileries near the Obélisque entrance.

  

Paris is peppered with many little green spaces.

Paris in B/W photography

Spring in Paris, "à la Doisneau", that is a with an old Rolleiflex camera, his favorite. 

Burma, B/W photography

 

recycling seems to be taken very seriously by Burmese people. These shops were selling the smallest oldest and most various items, salvaged from any appliance. Smoking ladies are common sightings.

Pictures above were shot in Rangoon but the same vision could be seen anywhere else in the country.

 

Burmese food… luckily there were big Indian and Chinese communities for proper food. I did try some Burmese dishes for the sake of it but that’s it. Prunes marinated in salt will always come to my mind… I was later confirmed that salt intake was skyrocketing in the local diet, enough to give kidney problems to many people in their 40’s.

I was a bit surprised, in 2004, to spot these modern clothes and attitudes on many youngsters. Not what I expected to find there according to my readings.

 

a tourist and a camera seemed to be a rarity in this neighborhood. One girl left running but giggling, the other one stayed there laughing too.

 

My Leica M6 at work, its first trip outside Europe and Africa.

B/W photography, people in the Tanzanian bush

 

 

 

so sweet, and proud, with her scarf!

 

Flies are not always seen as a nuisance, even for a portrait…

 

Paris, b/w pictures

 

 

shot with a 1961 Rolleiflex 3.5F, medium format

a Rolleiflex in Paris, b/w street photography

 

 

a wink to Cartier-Bresson, a man in partial profile with family eating on the Seine bank.

 

B/W portraits, Tanzanian bush

 

Northern Tanzania, various tribes share a vast and remote territory around lake Natron.

Older women are not easy to approach for pictures.

Masai portraits, B/W photography

 

Tough mean looking mama. Even her Masai husband must think twice before coming home late and drunk…

 

 

photo shoot with a Masai model, B/W

 

Last week, I was flying for Flying Medical Service in northern Tanzania. This is mainly Masai territory near volcano Lengai. Here is Olpirikata, a tiny Masai hamlet, one of the numerous airstrips where we operate on a regular basis, that is a  2 week-rotation system.

This Masai girl, quite a stunning face, was initially shy, I had to insist a bit when tings got much easier when she was her friends enjoying the prints I had brought from a previous photo shoot. Curiosity and a bit of envy got her!

At first she didn’t quite know how to behave in front the lens but that didn’t last….

 

This one is my favorite of the lot. I often wish I could only shoot the same model for 5 or 10 minutes, instead of changing model with every click. But then there are sometimes 20 people waiting and I’m not sure how they would react to that.

 

This is really unusual for many people out there. Whereas mirrors exist, one cannot see one profile. So a profile picture always comes as a surprise initially, sometimes confirmation from friends is needed, but in the end, I get asked to shoot more.

 

In 2 weeks hopefully she’ll receive a few prints, although they’ll be in colors. B/W wouldn’t be fashionable and appreciated in Masai culture I bet….

Paris, B/W street photography

 

with a Leica M6, great camera for street shooting. Zeiss and Voigtlander/Bessa for instance have done great similar great rangefinder cameras too. Nikon and Canon too but decades ago...

Burma, B/W pictures

 

smoking home made cigars is very common even amongst women.

 

shot on Leica M6, Tri X films (another probably dead film soon when Kodak goes on its belly...)

B/W portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

Pininyi village on the lake Natron western shoreline.

a proud Masai lady. Round scars on the face are not rare but scarification such as on the arm is rare.

 

this girl is Masai nevertheless her ears are not extended. Her father used to be the village leader, is educated and might have decided she would have an easier future outside Masai life with untouched ears. His 2nd wife is Sonjo, which could explain the more common ear rings and the typical haircut drawn by a razor blade.

 

this woman seems to have some mental problems. She was talking to me but women behind her back were talking mute and gesturing to explain she was living in her own world. Still she looked so pleased that I did ask her to pose for me. I could see she was hanging around but too shy to ask. I hope she’ll like the print I’ll give her on the next meeting there.

 

a really unusual thick mop of hair for this Sonjo girl. I can’t remember having seen one before, even in cities. Hair extensions are thus very common because African hair don’t grow so easily.

 

spring time in Paris, B/W photography

 

 

Leica M6, Delta 100 films

B/W portraits, the bush in Tanzania

Paris, B/W, Rolleiflex

 

that is a vintage 1961 Rolleiflex 3.5F

Notre-Dame.

Montmartre, caricature artist at work.

Le Sacré-Coeur

Masai male portraits, Tanzania, B/W

 

some men for a change. I realised I blogged a lot about women lately. They tend to attend our medical clinics in bigger numbers of course and also more prone to pose.

this guy was a bit drunk on a market day.

2 friends.

extended ears can be a nuisance when beating the bush. Imagine getting caught in acacia branches. So the extended lobes are often flipped over the ears, like on these 2 shots.

Burma, people at work, B/W

 

 

 

B/W photography, Tanzania

 

one of my favorite place for portraits (though I’d need to be there at other times than midday for better lighting), that is Pininyi on the western shore of lake Natron. Here there is a peaceful mix of Sonjo and Masai tribe, oops sorry people. I heard one photographer has been pressed to change his book project title. The word 'tribe' was indeed deemed offensive so 'people' it should be. I had no idea 'tribe' had joined 'negro' ranking. The politically correct tribe should be declared offensive to the human race if you ask me...if I were to burn a fuse everytime a Frenchie has fun on Belgians, everytime a woman mocks men because we are variously 'challenged'...in turn many humorists feel they have to walk on eggs in fear of losing jobs or face a law suit.

 

talking about challenge, I was clearly shown and explained that this woman was 'mentally challenged'. Well to all the PC's I might piss off, I don't have to apologize since I'm socially challenged and can't suffer morons. How about that?

B/W street photography, Paris

 

my great Leica M and black’n’white films at work in Paris, springtime.

Champs-de-Mars, 2 girls napping after lunch.

 

ZZ Top on the Seine?

 

Jardins des Tuileries, an illegal souvenir seller bothering 2 girls.

 

la Pyramide du Louvre and around.

 

la cour carrée du Louvre.

 

Colonnes de Buren, young model having fun.

 

les Jardins du Palais Royal.

 

complementary t-shirts.

Paris, vintage cars in B/W

 
B/W film, Leica M6.

Steve Mc Queen's Ford Mustang in "Bullit". What a beast, huh? Paris got a few hills but nothing to match San Francisco.

 

more of the Ralph Lauren's collection. A Ferrari above and 2 Alfa Romeos below if I remember well. And I remember well that pictures were forbidden...a concept I just can't stand in exhibition places.

and a Jaguar below. What a profile...

 

a Citroen 2CV, a myth! The big competitor of the Beetle, well at least in Europe since the USA refused to let them in for some obscure safety reasons. On the other hand, and I love America for its numerous paradoxes, no problem for junk and OGM food or free guns for all (especially for the unspotted retarded...)

Starting in the 40's the last French 2 CV was built in 1989 but Chile kept on assembling them for a while under licence. Like the Beetle the general shape hardly changed, no need to change a winning team. I used to have a bright red one and loved it so much I wish I had one here. The conditions would be perfect as over the decades those cars were notorious for handling world trips without problems. I saw one the Kenyan roads.

 

a bit older, here are a bunch whose drivers stopped by for a take away at Fauchon restaurant, here is the Fauchon doorman.

 
 

portraits in B/W, Tanzanian bush

 

a rare occurrence, an old Masai lady accepting to pose.

 

the ear is pretty damaged but she chose that profile whereas the other ear is much better (to what standard, true)

 

middle-aged woman who was shy but keen to pose.

 

 

below are Sonjo women. Ears are un touched, scarves or bandannas are quite common, tiny tattoos are seen on face

 

and some kind of other portraits, 2 of my drawings done in the same place.

a friend of mine, a real artist, told me to persevere, mostly on perspective and proportions.

B/W portraits, Sonjo and Maasai people, Tanzania

 

I just came back from a tour of flying medical clinics. Here a few portraits of Sonjo girls on lake Natron, Rift valley.

nevertheless this model has an imperfection in the eyes, I find her quite photogenic. Or maybe that feat makes her photogenic…

 

 

 

and some Maasai girls. Those 2 tribes used to be at war for centuries, some clashes still happen over land issues but these women seem to live in peace. Women know better usually, right?

Paris, cemetery le Père Lachaise

 

the most beautiful cemetery in Paris and around, le Père Lachaise. This spring, I went back to Europe with only film cameras, my Leica M6 and vintage Rolleiflex 3.5F, I had decided to shoot Paris and Brussels old-school style. I had also reused my very first camera, a Minolta X700. Below the Leica at work.

another stylish example. If I were to get some inspiration from this dude, I’d have a statue carved like an aircraft with cameras dangling from the propeller. “His friends and admirers” says the caption, nothing less!

 

Oscar Wilde’s tombstone, angel style for Oscar Wilde?! Cool isn’t it?

 

she looks bored amongst the dead people.

 

 

cobble stones and high heels don’t mix well.

 

 

 

 

Rangoon, street photography, B/W

 

yeah I know, Rangoon became Yangon and Burma became Myanmar. I usually hate those name changes wherever they happen. It seems to me the sounds are always worse to the ears…well my ears anyway.

pretty lady!

 

Luckily for me and my palate there was an Indian and a Chinese community in Burma. So I could eat nice dishes. Burmese food, for what I’ve seen is horrendous. Like packed prunes with a high concentration of salt? A Burmese I talked to admitted his countrymen suffered a lot from kidney problems because of the high salt contents in staple food.

Leica M6 and b/w films.

street life in Paris, B/W images

 

street photography again in Paris last spring. Only film stuff, B/W films, here used with a Leica M. Such a wonder of a camera.

 

 

Canal St Martin, young woman reading. A feat in this age of  iPod and various electronic devices. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder what’s the point of visiting such a beautiful city, or whatever else, and spend so much time with the nose stuck in an apparatus… gulf between generations I guess.

 

the typical old artistic sign and posts for the metro or tube stations.

 

les Buttes Chaumont, the belvedere is the highest point of view.

 

food! In Paris, lots of choices of course.

 

 

an American in Paris?

 

not an artist but a guy selling posters, employed victim of the Asian mafia apparently.

 

the famous Hotel du Nord, used in the eponymous classic French film. I guess had the director chosen another title, that hotel would be by now forgotten as there is not much to it.