1P1S

one photo one story

Twoj Blues Best Top Photo Award

| 1P1S, concert

In my trip this year (2026) to the European Blues Challenge in Katowice, Poland, I met again Jorg Danielsen, the musician representing Austria at the European Blues Challenge 2023 in Chorzow. Seeing him again reminded me the story of this picture. Photography is made with a lot of observation, a few technical skills, some patience and a fair amount of luck!

Chapter 1 : During his show, Jorg decided to get down from the stage and play in the audience. I followed him, thinking this was an opportunity to make a different shot: I could see the audience, I could see the bottom of the “Prezydent” coal mine tower, which is very representative of the city of Chorzow. The lighting was not too bad, although a little dull due due to a cloudy day. Jorg was wearing a nice outfit with a yellow shirt and was showing his back, and all of a sudden turned around to make a sign to his musicians. This simple move – which probably lasted not much more that a second – changed this capture into something much more interesting.

Chapter 2 : The world famous polish blues magazine Twoj Blues (= Your Blues), who received a “Keeping the Blues Alive” award in 2011 by the Blues Foundation and in which I have published a few photos from time to time, published this photo in magazine TB94/45. Every year, Twoj Blues magazine opens an internal reader poll to choose the “Blues Top” of blues artists, performance or recordings in Poland and I had the great pleasure to receive the “Best Top Photography” award for 2023, which was given to me at the official gala during the “Bluestracje” festival in 2024.

Photo with Andrzej Matysik on the left, chief editor of Twoj Blues, taken by Krzysztof Szafraniec, a great polish photographer who had obtained this same award 5 times: I still have a progression curve :-).

Photo Collection EBC 2023

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Carmel

| 1P1S, concert, music

I became a fan of Carmel in the first 10 seconds I heard her first album released in 1984. I immediately loved her voice and the groove brought in by Jim Parris and Gerry Darby, I had the chance to see her for the first time in Montreux in 1984 and heard her again when she came to Geneva in 1986, where I managed to meet her and show her some of the photos of Montreux.

I had scanned and published the slides of the 1986 concert in 2010 already, but had not yet scanned those black&white photos taken in 1984 in Montreux. I only remembered that these BW photos were much better than the color slides taken in 1986, for reasons old photographers all know, I might come back to that topic one day.

I only found one of the prints I made in those days but was surprised to see that it had been signed by Carmel, which I had completely forgotten about. Anyway, it was fun to see those old negatives again.

Carmel

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Seattle Pike Place Market

| 1P1S, travel

1P1S – One photo one story – A series of articles in which I will tell a story related to a photo. I’ll start today with Seattle, an article which could also have been titled ‘a new beginning’, if we had been in an episode of a great saga..

I first visited Seattle in February 2008. After a 16-hour and two-stop trip, I landed at the end of the day and was in juste in a foggy state, completely disconnected from my internal clock, and had only one idea in mind: get to my hotel and sleep until the next day, despite a huge desire to discover the city. Unfortunately, at the airport, I looking at the luggage belt which had been running empty for a few minutes, when a friendly employee approached me to ask if I was Mr. Losberger, and to inform me that my suitcase was somewhere in London. Change of plan: after checking in, there I go in zombie mode to buy some clothes to make myself presentable at the conference at I was attending the next day.T

The sun was still shining a bit and I took with my Nikon D300, the first ‘serious’ digital camera that I had just bought a few months earlier, wishing to start photography again which I had neglected a little for a few years. After buying some clothes at GAP and as the sun was starting to get down on the horizon, I headed for the nearest touristic site, the famous Pike Place Fish Market. I was in Seattle only for a few days, and despite my lethargic state of the moment, I felt it was probably worth effort.

As I arrived at the top of slightly downhill street, very close to the original Starbucks, I suddenly saw this magnificent view with the neon lights, the sea and islands in the background, and this perfect light and perfect moment to press the button. My slow mind also woke up during these few moments admiring the scene. I only took 4 or 5 shots with slightly different angles, then the light decreased, the fatigue stroke back and I returned to the hotel to crash in my bed.

In the end it was really worth making that effort because in the following days the sky of Seattle was cloudy, foggy or loaded and I never had again the opportunity to shot a sky as blue as the one I had taken on that first evening. This photo is certainly nothing extraordinary and thousands of tourists probably have the same, but for me it remains something very special and the signature of my return to photography.

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