photo copyright by fotogravirus

In the Netherlands, the 4th and 5th of may are days of remembrance and of celebration. Of course, 5th of may, liberation day, we all party hard to celebrate the Netherlands being freed from the Nazis in WWII, and nowadays, simply celebrate freedom in general. Fourth of may however, is the day where we remember the dead. Those who have fallen, especially in WWII, but of course our hearts go out to anybody who has lost a family member to a war, anywhere on earth, ever.  At least, that is what I like to think.

T he Mayor of Vorden, I think, shares my beliefs on this  matter.  In village of Vorden, where casualties of WWII are buried, of course, they have a ceremony to remember the dead as well. Slight difference is, that on this cemetery, there are some German casualties of war buried as well. The mayor of Vorden wants to at least give people attending the ceremony the chance to also pay their respects to these german soldiers. Something that is totally ok in my eyes. I mean, they were people just like us, serving their country. And it was not as if they had a lot of choice in the matter. So yes, they are also casualties of war, and they to, can be remembered.

There is however a group, that seems so stuck on their anger, their rage that they will take the community of Vorden to court to try and prevent the remembrance of the german soldiers to happen. They even go as far as calling the Mayor of Vorden a so called “foute burgemeester”, which stands for a mayor that would have been a collaborator in 40-45. Excuse me? This can really not be happening.. We live in 2012 for god’s sake. This group, and I will not name names, should actually, based on their religious beliefs, be able to overcome their anger, and try to show a little compassion after all this time.

It is never good to condemn the people of a whole country.. It was not right for Hitler to do so to the jews, and it is not right for the jews to do it to the germans now!

So please, people show a little tolerance, show a little compassion, and show a little respect. And let’s all remember that many died throughout history, because of the decisions of a few.. And let’s all work on a world where the few are not allowed to make such decisions anymore!

Just my 2 cents.

regards

/B

Yup. Me likes a lot.

regards,

/B

…a.k.a. The “Easter Dis(e)aster Tour”.

Well, that indeed was a hellride and joyride all in one. We haven’t counted up all the fails and wins of this tour yet, but it sure was a lot. One thing I can surely say though: however bad things get, however depressing the weather, the fail-after-fail-driving-for-hundreds-of-kilometres is, there is always a win in it. The good company of a good friend, with whom you have embarked on this adventure. Sven Fennema, thanks a million for being that friend. I hope to embark on many such an adventure with you, with or without the fails. The win, we’ve got anyway!

So, I’ve been busy editing some of my photos. And something struck me. The amount of photos I make are getting less and less. I get more and more choosy about which motives I photograph, and which I just leave. And what struck me as well, as you will see in the first set I have edited, is that more and more, I tend to go for the minimal approach. An approach that, as I will later prove, doesn’t need to be in abandoned buildings. Contemplative, minimal photography motives can be found anywhere. Still, I just love decay and abandonment too much to say goodbye to that. But it is a fact that is good to know. I need to get out more with my camera! But yes, minimalism, it’s something I seem to fare well by!

See for yourselves, the first 4 edits of last tour:

So, here goes. Let me know what you think!

regards,

/B

So… Last night was probably one of the worst nights of our lives. We found a hotel-kind-of-thing, run by a chinese family. Obviously we had not expected very high standards for the price they were asking. But there were no standards at all!! The bathroom was a shared one, and smelled mouldier than most  locations we visit on average. But the worst thing was, there was no heat! Now imagine spending a good bit of money on a hotel, because it is  too cold outside for camping, and then having to sleep with your clothes on in a hotel bed… Not funny.. But somehow fitting for the last two days..

But this morning, after we got out of that h(ot)ellhole, a new day began. The sun was shining, it was cold, but! The sun was shining! We drove off to our first location of the day, an enormous factory complex, which could take hours to explore and find the good spots. Thank god Sven had already visited it before, so we made the quick run-through, which all in all lasted about 3 hours. 3 hours well spent I may add. After that, a quick run to a Manicomio Sven had already visited, just a quick snap, and another one in the pocket. After that, a huge Manicomio, which took 4 hours of our time. Man, what a beauty that was. Building after building, there was lots to shoot there. This day made up for both last days, as far as I’m concerned.

After that, we drove up north to do some more checking, visited a Castello which we thought much of, but it was quite dissapointing. We didn’t even take out our cameras. Luckily we found another beauty, which was good for a couple of shots. Now, in a nice hostel, with heat working, we can safely say that this was a very good day. Good locations, sunlight, max temperature of about 19 degrees, good food on the way, and again, a good german brewski to end the day. Life is beautiful. Tomorrow, more of this please!

Signing off, with kind regards and a big smile on our face

B/S

Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail.

Drove 400 kilometres again, almost slid down a mountain because it was snowing like on the north pole up there, went through numerous traffic jams again, checked location after location… In the end we did one, which was small in photographic. Perspective, and large as far as the area is concerned. We entered another, which wasn’t even worth taking the cameras out of the bag…

Dead tired in the crappiest cold hotel room we ever had… Well, it ain’t only about fun, I can tell you that. We hope for a better day tomorrow…

Signing off with a beer in hand…

Regards

B/S

…. Or, as we have eloquently baptised it after today: “the Easter Dis(e)aster tour”

Man oh man, do we have days behind us.. we started yesterday wirh a nice manicomio, on which one of my best photos of the tour has been made already. I just know it! After that a chiesa in the mountains, where we met the owner, who was very nice and interested in our photography. He was sorry he couldn’t give us the keys for the other building. But, maybe we can do that next time. After we were done we had a nice warm ravioli dinner in the sun, and proceeded to check some other locations. Again, some were shit, some reconverted, and some we didn’t get in. We found a nice campsite in the evening, where we grilled some veggie burgers, drank some beers and froze our asses off. Damn cold it was…

Today, we started with a villa, which was (some people will not understand me) nice, but I found it nothing spectacular. I finished it off with about 4 shots, and we went about our way. The rest of the day we spent driving 450 kilometres, waiting in numerous traffic jams, checking dozens of places, and not getting in anywhere. Quite dissapointing at some point, but that’s what you get when you want to check new stuff instead of doing the tourist highlights-of-the-urbex-scenesters-tour. Which most of course do. Well, whatever. We had a good day, did some real exploring, even if it mounted up to no result. Tomorrow will be better. Some cool decayed heavy industry coming up. The grounds are huge, entrances have been checked, so we can’t wait untill it’s morning. Now, signing off, brewski in hand, goodnight from Italy.

/B&S

Well well, the first 2 days of the tour, and I’m already behind on the updates.. so here goes:

Night 1& day 1:
We left for Italy on friday evening around 2030hrs, and drove all the way down to the most southern point of the tour. One stop on the way, to check a villa, but it was stripped bare, reconversion was on the way. So we made our way further down to the south to the real starting point. We knew we were going to mostly check stuff, so it was a well worth day, one of mostly driving and checking. In the end there was one location we actually did. But it was quite a nice one. It had rained all day, and just as we left the location, a thunderstorm hit us. It was right on top of us! So we decided to not only call it a night, but find a hotel instead of a camp site. And so we did. Tired after bring awake for about 40 hrs, we soon went to sleep.

Day 2:
We got up early to enjoy breakfast and a cup of coffee that would have my blood running fast for the next couple of hours. What a great way to start the day! We got moving soon, and went to a really great first location of the day. I’m not that much into industry, but this location simply was a dream. It (next to the coffee) sure got my heart beating faster. Especially for minimal photography, which I love anyway, there was a great deal to do. After about
4,30 hrs we got out to go to the next location. What a bummer that one was. Stripped bare, and the stuff still in there just too boring. I sure hope the cooling tower shot worked out the way I want it. It was not a nice one with (again) that rain. We met up with a friend from Italy and did some more location checking, and then went to look for a place for the night. We had some great pizza verdura with fresh raw spinach on top (without cheese for me of course) and are currently back in the hotel room, enjoying a good glass of red and contemplating on the tour, based on a lot of new intel we got today. Well, nightynight

/B&S

Only 3 more days, and then we’ll hit the road again. An honest to god coolness tour, packed like never before. And we have a plan! well…. sort of… so.. yep.. We’ll see

8 days of Italy,  like always, I’ll try to serve up a daily update on this site, which then of course will be spread to the social media somehow. So, yup, stay in tune for some awesomness

regards,

/B

It has been a while. I have moved, in many respects. Moved to a new home, moved on in my life, and have been working on moving the website to a new server. It took a while, had a lot of testing to do, so the site was offline way too long. That also due to me simply forgetting to put it online again, because of all the other stuff going on.

But now we’re back in full effect, site is faster than before, and all is good. Watch for changes to this site and the building of my official portfolio site: www.basbrader.com in the near future. Things are going to change.

And of course, I will start on photographs again as well, and post again soon.

cheers

/B

Another one from a recently pointed out to me Villa, which wasn’t very much to see, but hey, who’s counting

/B