The final ideas for my project are coming together. It has taken a while because I was quite experimental. Whether my work looks ambitious and original or not, it has been a journey and a big step for me because I pushed myself into the realms of what I would call street photography. I was made to take photos of people during the diagnostic stage and I think my ideas lead on from there. It's important to me because I've developed in this area which I neglected for so long though fear.
So either way, Saul Leiter has been a big influence on my work during the past few months but after seeing Friedrich Seidenstücker in Berlin, I appreciated the aesthetics of black and white a lot more, shot a black and white roll of film and have started to make prints (which I hadn't done in over a year). I'm just getting the hang of getting the right exposure so my final resolved images will be black and white film prints, I think. The subject matter got a bit woolly because I was focusing on the architectural and also people in the city while trying to abstract it and it all got very messy but recently I've tried to focus on very important bits of information and telling as much of a story as I can through one frame- primarily being a voyeur into someone's life (picking out individuals in a busy city) while also showing the environment they are in. I find the best way to do this is through reflections, condensation on windows etc, and this gives the abstraction that I was always looking for after seeing Saul Leiter's work. I need to put everything I have learned into one more roll of film and make fantastic prints.

the following photos are some of my scans of my black and white prints.

Some of my self developed 35mm black and white film for my current project.

Highlights of Berlin

Anselm Kiefer, Lilith am roten meer (1990) / Hamburger Bahnhof

Lugwig Mies van der Rohe, Highrise at Friedrichstrasse Station (1922) / Bauhaus Museum

Tomas Saraceno, Cloud Cities (2011) / Hamburger Bahnhof

Friedrich Seidenstucker, Women Jumping Over Puddles (20s & 30s) / Berlinische Galerie

Visiting Kunsthaus Tacheles (this is my own photo joiner)

There are other personal highlights for me like finding vintage shops and eating at a vegan cafe directly opposite from our hostel. Also just walking the streets of Berlin and taking photos kept me happy because I can see so many differences between the our streets and their streets. Tacheles was a really strange place to be and I really suffered from the cold that day so it was a bit of a weird experience, but I've never seen anything like it before. I saw so much art in Berlin I could add more (like all the postcards I picked up and everything I saw in the New National Gallery/Neue Nationalgalerie) but the pieces above are things that really stood out to me.

After weeks of stress and one thing or another failing for me, I've prepared my portfolio for interviews. It may need tweeking and perfecting and I am still waiting on some interview dates but for now I'm just going to forget about it and have a good week in Berlin.
I haven't been abroad in ages and I really can't wait to see new things and become inspired and ready for interviews, most of all I can't wait to take my instant camera to a different country for a change.