last preparations/ blue and golden

(another "looking back" - these are pictures from the last couple of years)


to all: thank you so much!! danke schön für all' die guten wünsche!
i would say "and the same for you too" but christmas is over ;) anyway..

looking back

no, these are not my images.
it's 1973 and i'm a bit older than a year (or perhaps two - it depends on whether it was the winter 1972/1973 or the winter 1973/1974, nobody knows anymore).
the photographer is my brother who's 12 or 13 at that time. these pictures are taken with tschaika, old soviet super-mini-format camera: the frame is 24 x 18 mm, and the quality reminds me of some super-8 film (in cinematography)...
this year christmas time and snow makes me want to look back. i'm searching for old images, those of my brother, and my own - winters of the years passed by... if i only had more time to "dig" in the archives......


these pictures tune me blue - this is the house of my childhood, it doesn't exist anymore, it was torn down ten years ago (the street had to be made a bit wider once more). it is still a scenery in many of my dreams.


credits: photos: guntars jansons --- camera: tschaika, film: diapositive, orwo (?)

a place for 4 candles

adventskranz. advent wreath. a place to put in 4 candles symbolising the four advent sundays. "wreath" implies fir twigs, i guess.
well, not necessarily for me ;)


some three years ago our advent "wreath" was: four candles in the form of a fish on a cake stand full of coarse sugar, decorated with some bright red glass hearts.




last year i bought a steel framework for advent candles to be hung from the ceiling. and i admit, first i did think of "wrapping" the staple in fir twigs, then decorating it with some christmas tree decorations.
but somehow i liked the lightness of this "construction", so fir twigs were left in the woods.


these christmas tree decorations are very special ones - my mom bought them in the early 60s in riga, they were the precious IMPORT from czechoslovakia or eastern germany (my mom doesn't remember anymore). they are part of my childhood memories. now as i've grown-up, my mom allowed me to inherit them ;)




this year our advent wreath looks like a warm-coloured bunch of candles: there are the four big ones and in between them - lots of small christmas tree candles, put in another inherited treasure from my faraway home.
these candlestick holders are another memory from my childhood's christmas trees, but until a couple of days ago i didn't even know that my father remembers them from HIS childhood! so they're at least from the 30s, if not even older. they're made of pine cones, acorns and haselnuts, some of them covered with golden, silver or bronze paint.

just another winter morning

credits: text fragments (next to the last picture) by indre zetzsche. --- tableware: plates by dibbern, knives: vintage wmf. --- advent calender: philippi, design by christian von ahn. --- pictures are taken with polaroid SX-70 camera on 600-film using ND filtre.


replies (dec.17): @jane: thank you for your mail too. but i still have no idea what to answer on your question. all i understand is, that the 600-er film is much faster than the original sx-70 film (but that's not available anymore), and the filter compensates the difference. how much it is, i cannot say. just that the pictures look almost the same now as if they were sx-70-film...
@ all: thank you for letting me know what associations and feelings this little series awaken in you, that's so nice to hear!
@mano: oh.. wenn das kein kompliment ist!!! danke schön! na dann... muss man ja da was machen ;) ich arbeite schon dran, dauert noch etwas.... aber ein paar postkarten wären schon jetzt zu haben. melde dich, wenn du welche noch dieses jahr möchtest!: ieva(at)jansone-photo.de

if you happen to be in augsburg...

... you still have the chance to see some of my work "live":


weltvermessung (measuring the world)


technique: 100 instant photographies, polaroid grid film, 100 x 112 cm
group exhibition: 61. grosse schwäbische kunstausstellung
where: toskanische säulenhalle im zeughaus, zeugplatz 4, augsburg
until: january 6, 2010

a project i've been working on for more than two years. the beginning of it can be seen here.



closed & secret


technique: instant photographies, polaroid image film
group exhibition: sonderausstellung (special part of the 61. grosse schwäbische kunstausstellung)
where: bbk-gallerie in abraxas, sommestraße 30, augsburg
until: january 6, 2010


morgen schneit es (tomorrow it will snow)


technique: analogue b&w and colour photography, polaroids, both originals and prints
solo exhibition
where: laukaitis & kapfer, apothekergässchen 4, augsburg
until: march (?) 2010

i already posted some insights here and here.


i am aware that this post goes against the original concept of my blog, which was - first and foremost - sharing my love for interior decoration and things, which i imagined myself selling in a little shop called dinge die ich mag.
all the rest of my "other" photographer's life (exhibitions, projects..) would stay outside.
now, since i seriously start thinking of opening a shop (unfortunately not a real one, but online), i see myself loosing the strictness of the original concept ;)


late replies (dec.17): oh, thank you all, again! and thank you for the encouragement!
yes, it is a pity about the big geographical distances, but what an ingenious invention the internet is - it makes the borders of the states irrelevant! anyway, i hope to exhibit in other cities as well. i'm working on it :) .... curators, ideas, proposals - all very welcome!
@mano: "ungute stille" - oh ja, das ist gut getroffen ;) danke dir!

my christmas quilt

there have been years when all of a sudden christmas-feeling overcomes me in the middle of november (unfortunately, it doesn't always last until the calendrical christmas then;).
and there are years when it's - as camilla says - "like trying to re-dream the magical dream you had last night", meaning quite a struggle to "get into" the christmas spirit.

trying to re-dream the magical dream you had last night... well, perhaps it's a bit like that this year.
although, i really do love christmas.

so dived in my archive searching for visual memories and made a patchwork that one could name my christmas quilt.


note: feel free to click on the picture to look at it closer. all pictures are - as usual - made by me, except: the second photo from the left in the first row and the third from the left in the second row from above are from my family archiv, author unknown, but most possibly it is my brother and/or my parents. the drawings are made by me at age of 3-4 years. and in the second row from below the first picture is a sonogram.

late replies:
oh, thank you all for your nice words, makes me happy!

vielen dank an all eure gedanken und für das mitteilen! besonders vielen dank an helene und mano, die ihre lieblingsbildchen genannt haben, - es ist interessant zu hören :)
ja, wie kjoto schon erraten hat - der "rote zwerg" (wie mano es genannt hat) bin ich! es war im winter 1973/74.

the inner life of a cupboard II

and here some snapshots from the inner life of my beloved steel cupboard, more precisely - from its more or less public side of life: the one behind the glass doors ;)




the left side, january 09:

" inventory": glass bottles (mostly dating from the first half of the 20th cent., latvia), eggcups (20s-50s ?, germany), antique photography (a christmas gift from my sister, she brought it from prague), cream jug from a thrift shop,
incense grains.

the left side, november 09:

others as already listed: old cutting board (villeroy & boch dresden, bought in riga), some pieces of coal found on the river shore (wertach) in augsburg, handmade earings (zagatas bode, riga), porcelain spoons (butlers, germany), postcard with a portrait of louise brooks (photographed 1928 by eugene robert richee) and a greeting card (from gallery istaba, riga, author: laima bikse)

the right side, january 09:

inventory: mostly old pharmasist bottles, glass cubes, plate (kusnetzow,
the beginning of the 20th cent., riga), vodka bottle (the 20s, latvia)

the right side, 11.09:

others as already listed: a mannaput - a piece of art (a gift from the author) out of an extraordinary project by nora van der decken, pebbles from the riverside near my home, a bottle of mini-gems, letter "k" as a magnet, snail shell

remarks and answers (dec10):
oh, thank you all for your nice words! some of you wanted to know where's that cupboard from..
well, it was an ebay-find, and if i remember it right, it's from the 20s and made in amerika (virginia?).
the original colour was already removed. first i wanted to paint it off-white - therefor the white sides behind the glass doors. but somehow it didn't work well, and my husband vetoed my original intention saying that without paint and a bit rusty the cupboard looks just perfect. well, perhaps he's right after all ;)

vielen dank an all die schönen kommentare!!
der apothekerschrank ist ein ebay-fund, stammt (laut vorbesitzer) aus den 20-ern, aus amerika, ich glaube, virginia. die originalfarbe war schon entfernt. ursprünglich wollte ich den schrank gebrochen weiß streichen, daher die weißen innenwände hinter den glastüren. aber es funktionierte nicht so gut (wegen anti-rost mittels, der vorher aufgetragen worden war), und auch mein mann legte ein veto ein - ohne farbe und mit ein wenig flugrost sähe es perfekt aus. vielleicht hatte er ja recht ;)

the inner life of a cupboard

i love displays, especially those which are not carefully styled but rather naturally "grown". little treasures, gifts, postcards, newspaper clippings... collections like this possess the quasi coincidental character of flotsam and the intimacy of a diary.
with the time, some pieces disappear and new ones appear, or change their placement. that's what i call "the inner life of a cupboard" (sounds even better in german: das innenleben einer vitrine).



such "naturally grown collections", inspiration boards, as well as working places in general always draw my attention when i am in other peoples' homes. i think i'd like to have a book on this theme, or - to make one myself!! (this idea queues up right now into the endless list of ieva's ideas ;)
recently i even discovered a blog dedicated to creatives' working places: inspiration board!



all pictures in this post were shot last summer as i visited a friend of mine, a wonderful sculptor, kristina johlige. she works mostly with wood often integrating material found in the nature, like seeds, grass, cones...
i really like the subtlety of her sculptures and objects. as well as her inspirational collections, of course :)

7 things that i love

beautiful jane from the blog if jane tagged me some days ago and asking to write down 7 things that i love.
only seven?! how do i choose - from all those million things that i love? ....

ok, i won't speak about persons, my children, for example - it goes without saying.
i won't speak about my three BIG LOVES neither: photography, cinema and interior design.
i'd rather pick a random choice of small pleasures, just as they come to my mind:


1. the smell of snow in the air some hours before it actually starts to snow.
and freshly fallen snow.



2. to make small presents for somebody i like or somebody i love.



3. the smell of my darkroom (photo processing chemicals, films, paper....?).
and my inspiration board in my studio.


4. glass. and - to stroll along the seaside looking for flotsam glass.




5. signs and typography in the public space.




6. wood. wooden toys, used and with patina. and the smell of freshly chopped wood.



7. the look of sleeping children.


and soooo many other things, like - typewriter, stamps, old family albums, baby shoes and clothes, trains, newborns, magnolias....
.. oh, and polaroids, of course, but this is obvious ;)


and now i should tag 7 other "well deserving and creative bloggers".
here again, i know far more than 7 wonderful bloggers which i would like to tag, but ok...
i'll ask these (some of them my friends), let's see if they agree:

ann - ann wood
camilla - bloom (update 8.12: camillas answer)
catherine - hyggelig
elisabeth - fine little day (update 2.12: elisabeth said "i have to say no because i have too many things on the agenda")
indre - frau mima (update 8.12: indres answer)
julia -giant peach industries (update 17.12: julias answer)
jutta - hujour
rike - fränkisch