Ben Wilhelmi

Old pictures with Flying Medical Service

I'm faffing around through my old pictures from 1999, the year I arrived in Africa, here in Tanzania.

 

One of my first proud Masai warriors posing for me. Impressive guys for a newbie. Greater Serengeti.

 

A village in western Tanzania, Kasulu.

My colleague Steve on take off, Olpirikata, Sanjan plains.

The stunning lake Natron, I couldn't Believe such a marvelous and stunning place could exist. Rift Valley.

Teenagers are the same everywhere.

A Flying Medical Service Cessna 206 on landing.

Me on my first time in the bush, Olaika, Greater Serengeti.

FMS has a knack for the craziest and or most beautiful places to land and operate. Olorbelin, lake Natron, Kenyan border.

My second emergency! This man had been dragged into a brawl with cow thieves. An Arrow landed through his forehead to his lower jaws. He sufefred a momentary speech impediment but sadly lost one eye. I had been in Tanzania for 2 weeks ...

 

Landing with a strong crosswind, Ngaresero, Bottom of the Rift Valley. The mountain is the active volcano Lengai. Another stunning place to operate into.

I was using a great SLR film camera, a Minolta X700 which I still use once in a while.

London, street photography in the 80's

 

street photography is a good way to learn photography.

I swear she was not posing for me.

 

aaahh…the 80’s haircuts….

Hyde park Corner, anybody with something to say out loud is allowed to…

 

Cologne, Germany, street photography, 80's

 

I was born in Cologne, or Köln, and left when I was a teen but Mom stayed there for quite some more years. So when I turned 18, I asked a camera and got a lot of practice while visiting her on holidays

Street photography before it became fashionable. I was young, eyeing Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson…I learnt a lot with a great Minolta X700.

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I know I should clean those white specks and scratches. But I wanted to show what it looked like in B/W before hitting the brush and ink and correct the whole lot. Painful work. As opposed to the various editing programs nowadays.

street photography in London, 80's

 

As heard in “Desperate Housewives” from Karen, this guy could grate cheese on his abs.

 

 

Those punkettes...I kept on seeing them near Trafalgar...for people supposedly against the system, they seemed to enjoy the touristic establishment.

 

London in the eighties, street photography

 

the 2 classics.

 

if these 2 had had a child, it would have been an interesting one…

 

Hyde park, anybody can jump on a box and harangue the crowd.

Germany, street photography

 

I started photography in 1987 with a wonderful 35mm Minolta X700. Cologne, where I spent much of my holidays, looked much more alive than Brussels for instance.

 

 

 

 

Cologne, street photography, 80's

 

 

 

 

 

street photography, Cologne, 80's

 

 

 

 

 

 

street photography, Germany, 80's

 

late 80’s, Cologne, my early years in photography. Great opportunities.

 

 

 

 

bicycle trip around Mt Meru, Tanzania

 

we were used as guinea pigs by a friend who had hopes in mountain biking treks. For a weekend like this, a truck would carry all the camping supplies and we’d meet at the end of each day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

resting with a view.

Tanzania in the rain season, film photography

 

zebras, Katavi nat’l park.

 

my early years in Tanzania, good old film cameras, Minolta X700 or Nikon FM2/F3. I still relish and use them. I added a Leica, a Rolleiflex to the little collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

somewhere in the Ngorongoro area, my good old 300mm fixed lens at work, which I now have to throw away for mushrooms growing inside, snif.

Cologne-Köln, street photography, 80's

 

I loved it by then, a new camera and a lot of practice with these artists were my luck. The street performers liked best to act at the foot of the cathedral (the Dom), with a large square.

as a would-be artist, I’d hate this for myself; Lose my piece of art everyday…wasted under the wind, the rain, the soles…

 

 

Cool artist giving a demo to a homeless man.

 

friends and their bands in the 80's

 

Some friends were band members, with names like Korange or Eclipse.

I thought I’d better experiment before going to Pink Floyd, Brian Ferry…

so my first camera, a Minolta X700, was at use with various films such as the Fujicolor 1600. It looks grainy today but by then it was a great film for low light.

 

Cologne in the eighties, street photography

 

Capoeira dancers, pretty unusual in Europe by then.