Corners of Berlin – by Ifthul

Luthfi, aka Ifthul originally comes from Jakarta, Indonesia. He has been living in Berlin since 2016, where he is studying automotive engineering. In his spare time, he explores the world through the viewfinder of his camera and due to the current travel restrictions, the album Corners of Berlin developed as a matter of course – a series in which Luthfi explores the corners and special features of his adopted country.

"Berlin has many undiscovered corners with breathtaking architecture. Photos of the TV-tower or the Brandenburger Tor are well known, but there is definitely more that one should see or visit at least once in their life."

How did your journey with (analog) photography begin? What does (analog) photography mean to you?

When I was 12 years old I learned the basics of photography when my dad bought a camera. I bought my first own camera in 2019 - it was a Lomo Smena 35 - but since 2017 I've been taking pictures every summer vacation with a single-use camera. In 2019, while on vacation in Italy with friends, I had an aha-moment: A friend had her Lomo LC-A with her and her brother owned an Olympus XD. Compared to that my Kodak disposable camera was a bit sad. I liked my friends' photos so much that I started to get into the whole Photography thing more. My second highlight was in the first lockdown when I got my first "real" SLR camera – a Canon A1. After hundreds of photos (almost thousands, I think), several film rolls, I finally take the pictures I like.

Can you tell us a little bit about the creation of this series?

It was only created because of the lockdown! Since the beginning of the pandemic, I haven't traveled that much or far, because of course, you can't just do that anymore. However, I've walked around the city a lot and discovered many corners from a different perspective. I also took part in a couple of walks with the cool people from Berlinonfilm (@berlinonfilmmag on Instagram) - even to places I never discovered myself. My idea was to bring all the photos, even some older ones, together in one album. That's how this series came about! And now the second lockdown is coming, and I'm sure I'll go for a walk. Maybe there will be a lot more photos :)

Which equipment do you usually use for photographing/have you used for this series?

In general, I am (was) a proud owner of my Lomo Smena 35: very compact and a lot of fun. With it, you can intentionally take pictures with multiple exposures, which was actually the main reason for the purchase or why I fell in love with the analog world! Unfortunately, its life is slowly coming to an end now and I already have a Canon A1, which is now my daily companion. Otherwise, I have a Point and Shoot camera from Minolta (AF-E II) and another SLR (Canon T70) – all 35mm. All these cameras I bought second-hand.

For color films, I like to use Portra 400, but most of the time I work with Kodak Gold 200. I have only recently started to photograph in b&w: I like Ilford HP5 quite well for that. I've never used Lomography film before, but I'm very interested in LomoChrome Purple and Berlin Kino – maybe I'll get Berlin Kino with my next purchase – I'm sure I will.

For this series I only used my Canon A1 with Portra 400 and Ektar 100 films – the colors are unique. But I am still relatively new to this analog world, and there are still many undiscovered corners of Berlin. So the series is certainly not quite finished yet :D

Last but not least Do you have some inspiring words/tips for our readers?

Don't think, just shoot – Lomography's motto still touches my heart today! Especially when you're a hobby photographer, not everything has to be perfect – everyone takes bad pictures once in a while. Photography itself is the main attraction of this analog world.

Many thanks to Luthfi for sharing his photos and thoughts with us here! Have a look at his LomoHome and be inspired.

written by alinaxeniatroniarsky on 2020-12-30 in #people #places #berlin #luthfi