This is not a shoe. It’s a mania.

Introduction

I am quite sure most of you experienced a situation, where you haven’t been really inspired by anything, when going out for a shooting without „a plan“. I had conversations about that with other street photographers during our recent photo walk in Frankfurt, in December 2018. Having a plan for collecting photos rather than hunting by coincidence might be a good idea. These conversations inspired me to publish my experiences of shooting a series.

After pressing the shutter button to take a street photo of ALL★STAR Chucks for the first time in January 2012, the idea of a series was born quickly. What I was not aware of at that point in time, was how strong this idea would grab my attention throughout the following year.

It’s all about Perception

Unbelievable how fast selective perception works. It is comparable to the following situation. Imagine buying a rather uncommon or unique type of car. You are 100% sure that it is not common at all, especially not in that specific color, for instance. Once the purchase contract is signed, you recognize tons of cars of the same model out there, having the exact same color.

Exactly that is what happened to me with the perception of ALL★STARs shoes. From the moment of the very first click of the shutter button, I started to notice ALL★STAR chucks everywhere.

It doesn’t matter where I have been … in New York, in Mainz, Frankfurt, Naples, Pompeji, Zürich or Cologne … I see ALL★STARs everywhere …

BUT be careful. Once started a series, there might be the „risk“ that you do not see anything else any longer. Jan We, from the Soul of Street Team, who joined our photo walk in Frankfurt told me that he is currently focussed on his „men with a beard“ series only and before that he only recognized yellow motives, he said.

Back to my experience … at some point in time I decided to stop the series in favor of others … BUT it looks as if some topics never let me go!

The Importance of Workshops

After stopping the series end of 2012, I participated in a photography workshop early 2013 on ‚object photography intensive‘ by Eberhard Schuy, which rocks! At least if you like excitingly staged object photos.

I’ve liked Eberhard’s object- and still photos for a long time already. However, with each minute of Eberhard’s interesting key note my respect for his work increased. In his keynote Eberhard explained some tricks about the production of selected work. Nothing seems to happen by accident. Not the way in which a glas breaks, nor the color of a drink nor the position of a drop on a bottle. Totally different in comparison to Street Photography …

In the afternoon, the participants had the chance to stage their own objects. Once the concept has been roughly scribbled, the shooting at the set started. No wonder that I decided to stage my beloved ALL★STARs, since they grabbed my attention throughout the last year.

The ALL★STAR Book

Finally, later in 2013, I even created my personal ALL★STARs book using the staged object photos for the cover and filled with my beloved street photos.

In the meantime, I am shooting ALL★STARs just from time to time on an opportunity basis.