Blog | Jakob Berr Photography

Being fed up and frustrated with the distanced and removed nature of my recent photography and inspired by a dear friend, I have decided to take a step back in time to when photography for me was not merely a tool to tell stories, but rather a little miracle, a slowly revolving series of secrets, without a delete button and a display for instant results. A time when a picture wasn’t born out of the feeling that what’s in front of me is an important part of the story that I am expected to capture, but simply out of a mere impulse, a feeling of space, time, light and moment all coming together that makes my finger push down the button.

Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t think that telling stories in pictures isn’t good. In fact, I believe that it’s one of the most wonderful forms of communication, otherwise I couldn’t be doing what I do. But I do believe that with going digital, I have lost part of my passion for this medium, and lately I was approaching photography very stiff and methodically. Going back to shooting analog black-and-white is my form of therapy to regain what I’ve lost somewhere along the way – and ideally what I find will carry over and enrich my “professional” photography.

These are just some random images from a day out at Devil’s Backbone with Sibylle and Marine last week and some shots of a hilarious night of Ping Pong and Karaoke last Thursday. It was the first roll of film that I shot in almost four years, and I loved it…

Finally, after all my deadlines are over, all the papers have been submitted and all the final projects finished, after buying Christmas presents and packing my bags, after saying good bye to all my friends in Columbia and after a 17-hour journey back home to Germany and a loooooong and refreshing nap, I get some time to update my blog, even though it’s 2.30 am (hello, jet-lag!). Here’s is the final product of my 30-day story in our Picture Story and Photographic Essay class. Feedback welcome!

Earlier this week, I joined Aidan and his parents during an appointment at the audiologist where his hearing spectrum was tested. The test went really well and with his implants, Aidan is able to hear the entire spectrum of human speech.

Aidan sits in a sound booth with his parents while the audiologist plays a number of sounds that he has to hear. When Aidan can hear them, he drops a chip into the grid of a four-in-a-row game.

After the successful testing, the audiologist goes over the results with Aidan’s parents. I love the moment between Aidan and his father in this picture…

For my final projects in both the Electronic Photojournalism and the Picture Story class, I’m working on a story on the Moog School in Columbia. Moog is a school for deaf and hearing impaired children that uses highly specialized educational techniques in combination with cutting-edge hearing technology to teach hearing impaired children how to listen and talk. To give the story a more personal touch, I’m focussing on one kid and his family. Aidan is two years old and lost his hearing at age four months through a meningitis. He got a cochlear implant soon after and is now able to hear the entire spectrum human speech. To get en impression of what it is like to hear with a cochlear implant, check out the website of the House Ear Insititute. Here are some of my first pictures that I took at the school last week.

Deaf educator Jessie and Aidan play a fishing game where Aidan has to recognize and say what is on the pictures that he catches with his magentic fishing pole.

During individual pull-out hours, Jessie works one-on-one with the kids. She tests their hearing and plays games that are designed to improve their pronounciation and language skills.

Jessie tests Aidan’s hearing by pronouncing six sounds covering the entire spectrum of human speech through a screen so that he can’t read her lips. If Aidan repeats the sounds correctly it means that his cochlear implants are working properly.

In the morning, the teachers and children gather in a circle and sing a song for every child that is present. Every activity at the school is designed to practice language and pronounciation.

During one of the “warm-up” games in the morning.

One of the educators adjusts a child’s cochlear implant.

Story time.

Kids play outside during play-time.