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Posts tagged “street

POINT BLANK: MAKING OF EXHIBITION / AFTER PARTY

“The way is the target!”  ..like always!

I love it… …dreaming, planing, fighting, realizing, photographing, motivating, being angry, being happy, feeling doubt, changing things, doing things together…  …all that what happened to fulfill the mission.

Early December I had to change the complete concept to start already everything new. ..and it turned out to be good. Even better than the first idea. Like Victoria always says: “everything that happened, happened for the better”. But even we would have to cancel everything..  …the way to that point had so many amazing moments and wonderful encounters.

Thank to all helping hands, all motivation, all criticisms and all joy we had….  ..and yes of course, thanks for the after party! 🙂 😀

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..hey, and what do we guys start next?!!!

 


POINT BLANK: “PRICELESS MOMENTS 2019”

wow, OMG, that was 2019…  …that fast?

But it was a great year! I won’t miss it!

A lot of stunning photo shoots with wonderful and lovely persons. Preparing a new photo exhibition..  ..and Germany gets a new lovely and wonderful citizen: my beloved Victoria! My congrats to fighting for that for so many years and succeed in the end.

A very special thanks goes out for my russian friends and family. You were there for me whenever I need you and gave me so much love and hope. I love you for that.

The same for my german friends. Let’s rock Russia in 2020! Looking forward to have you there next year.

No complains about this year..  …hhmmm..   ..except our football team could do some better…  ..but as you know:

YOU NEVER WALK ALONE !!!

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All of you a merry xmas and a stunning 2020! Rock it!

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photos by:  Lena Fomina, Victoria, Denis, Johanna (I love you for doing that football photo of us at the ground, it rocks!) and me.

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…and of course Darlene again:

Watching the photos is best with that music (click)


POINT BLANK: PHNOM PENH

Phnom Penh / Cambodia

“Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was once known as the Pearl of Asia before the country spun into turmoil with the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Over the last few decades, Phnom Penh has grown into an economic center, sprawled with high rises, hotels, historical architecture, modern malls, and an incredible food culture.” (source: tripadvisor)


POINT BLANK: STREET PORTRAITS

Samarkand / Uzbekistan / Central Asia

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..some street portraits of these kind and open people of Uzbekistan


POINT BLANK: FINDING TAISIJA’S GRAVE (# 2)

Finding Taisija’s and Mamadi’s grave. Part 2

Samarkand / Uzbekistan

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After we found the house of Alisher, the cousin who could help us to find the grave of Taisija and Mamadi, we got a warm welcome. Alisher was pretty surprised to see Victoria for the first time in thirty years. (hey, bro, would have you payed your phone bills, you would have known that a few days before, huh?)

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He lives with his two (!!!) wifes and three kids in this typically self-supply household. Fruits and vegtables they grow in their garden.. ..and tabac of course. I know this from my mom in law. She spends most time of the the year at her dacha and grow all the groceries she (we) need. A happy and peaceful life. (btw, this peaceful life and all her love to me was put to the test when one day I stood with a bag of tomatoes from the supermarket in the door. But we clarified that..  ..I am refraining from then ....or do not tell her and just hide it).

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There was a lot to tell. Sad stories, funny stories…  …and a lot of memories from former times. Many members of that families died already and many new kids where born who meanwhile are already parents. Stories of lifes that took place in different places, in different cultures, with many disappointments and many opportunities.

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And then we finish our journey to fulfill our wish and the request we have received, to put flowers on grandma Taisija’s and her husband Mamadi’s grave in Samarkand / Uzbekistan.

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POINT BLANK: FINDING TAISIJA’S GRAVE (# 1)

Finding Taisija’s and Mamadi’s grave.

Samarkand / Uzbekistan

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After WW2 the sister of my wife’s grandma, Taisija, married the Tajik called Mamadi and they moved to Samarkand. Over there they started a good running business by trading flowers and after a few years they became a quite wealthy and respected family. Mamadi died in 1991. Taisija in 2000.

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In May Victoria and me spent a wonderful time in Uzbekistan. My mother in law asked us to bring some flowers to their graves, if we have the chance to find it somewhere in Samarkand. So our seach began.

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The only thing we knew was the street were they lived and that the cementary suppose to be near that street and that Taisija is the only Russian on that uzbek cementary…  …meant a piece of cake to me. But it wasn’t. Indeed we found that place…  ..but it was huge (#01). Ooops. ..or in other words, we were looking for the needle in a haystack. – ‘Ask, and you will be helped!‘ like this saying means..  ..and we asked. Our pretty good idea was to look for eldery people who may have known them and know where the grave is.

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At the mortuary (!) we found a cock fight (..I would appreciate if you click here, but please come back to this story.. ..it’s good! Of course the cock fight story is also good.. ..but this story is more touching.. ..or human..  ..uuhh, you know what I mean..), but none who knew Taisija and Mamadi. But the gentlement on image #04 told us, that there is an other old russian woman living somewhere in this district… …’where?’…  ..’somewhere uphill’..

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Honestly, I must say that this helpfullness of these people was terrific and cordial…   …as we will see later in our little story. So we asked around for this russian lady..  ..and we found a family (#07) that showed us where she is living. And we were lucky. She (#08, #09) although did not know where the grave was, but knew where a cousin lives, who could help us. Okay, I have to confess, we knew about this cousin. Even had his mobile number. Even called him (but the mobile was switched of, as we learned later, because he refused to pay his bills). But I didn’t mentioned him at the beginning of this story because my little storytelling-for-dummies-guide says that good to conceal some details to keep the story more thrilling.

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Not only that the family that showed us the house of the russian lady, was a really big help to us .. … they even offered us (without being ask) to give us a lift to that place. Wow. Like I said, I love the people over there and I decided if ever an Uzbek will ask my in Germany about his cousins place.. ..sure…   ..I will give him a lift. Promised!

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So, we finaly got to that place where we will get help…  …and we knocked the door…

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to be continued

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POINT BLANK: FRIDAY NOON

…nothing special…  ..just Friday noon in Buchara / Uzbekistan


POINT BLANK: ‘TRAIN I RIDE …’

Buchara / Uzbekistan

..it feels so good to be on the road again…
– this wonderful country
– these warmhearted people
– to be on the way
– the impressions
– the encounters

…everything so precious.


POINT BLANK: TBLISSI / PEOPLE

 


POINT BLANK: A SHORT ENCOUNTER

I asked people I met in public…  …on the street, in bars, hotels, restaurants…  …if I could take a potrait of them. Most of those short encounters were just for few seconds. One even ended in a really nice long chat.

There is this question of ‘How good you should know a person to do an authentic portrait?’  …and I asked myself ‘…and what will happen if you do a protrait of someone that you absolutely do not know?’ Will he/she put up a face the he/she want to show to the world?  …I will never know. But what I mean to see is, that there is something really personal in their features which raise the thrilling question of who these people could be like.


POINT BLANK: 3rd ANNIVERSARY / WEBSIDE

Just in time for the 3rd anniversary of POINT BLANK on the 31st of March, I splashed out a website for me. 🙂

www.markus-mehring.com

The reason was that I could never provide an overview of my portfolio on requests. Voila … … problem solved!

At this point I would like to thank everyone for the great time, the fun we had, all the inspiration and the wonderful exchange.

..so, but now I’m going to party that!  😀

cheers, xoxo, Markus

 


POINT BLANK: VIETNAM / OUT IN THE STREETS

‘When that whistle blows
Girl, I’m down the street
I’m home, I’m out of my work clothes
When I’m out in the street
I walk the way I want to walk
When I’m out in the street
I talk the way I want to talk
When I’m out in the street…’

(Bruce Springsteen)


POINT BLANK: VIETNAM / PEOPLE AT WORK

 


POINT BLANK: MOSCOW METRO

…people at the Moscow Metro with my eyes….

 

If you wanna see the view how the Moscow Metro looks like with Andreas/JETAMELE eyes, please click here..