About the author
The addiction to Facebook and email is no different than the addiction to slot machines; it’s fuelled by an obsession with random rewards. Every once in a while I open my inbox, not really expecting to find anything interesting since I last checked it about four minutes ago, and suddenly there’s an exciting new email. One by a Latvian photographer I spoke to six months before, for example.
Daily way to the film lab
Viktorija Eksta came to Amsterdam in April for a three month internship at film processing and restoration lab Haghefilm. When we met, she told me she was working on an experimental analogue photo series using expired and damaged film, and she was looking to get some of her photography published. A few photos from her home town got me interested, and I asked her to keep me updated on any work she might produce in Amsterdam. I never heard from her again, until last week.
“My camera helped me to observe the phantasmagoria of the city of Amsterdam that I experienced on the daily way to the film-lab where I was working, while shopping at its markets, while living through the never-ending changes of the accommodation and walking in the evenings. These were the small details of the everyday life that inspired and fascinated me and I’d like to share them with others. It is best to view these images in the given order because the interaction of the images (not only of the adjacent, but also of the distant ones) creates a poetic character of the city.”
Perspective shift
Along with the email were 22 photos, that at first sight seem to be a random collection of snapshots from the streets of Amsterdam. Sights we see all day, making our way through the city. But when you look at these photos in the right perspective —that of a Latvian young lady living in Amsterdam for the first time— something interesting happens. Shift your viewpoint back to objectivity, let go of your familiarity and blaséness, and look at these photos like you see Amsterdam for the first time too.
I asked Viktorija to select 12 photos to represent the series, as that is our standard gallery size, but she told me that ‘taking out or changing the order of the elements would destroy the idea. So if there’s no chance to publish it as it is, it is better to leave it unpublished.’ That boldness is something I respect, so I’ve included the full series for your enjoyment. The first one’s up top, the others below.
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