Holger Brune - Photography

Gibran

HolgerBrune — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:43:14 +0000

July 2011

HolgerBrune — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:42:55 +0000

Commuting – a lomographic approach

HolgerBrune — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:06:06 +0000

The word commuter derives from early days of rail travel in US cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, where, in the 1840s, the railways engendered suburbs from which travellers paying a reduced or ‘commuted’ fare into the city. Later, the back formations “commute” and “commuter” were coined therefrom. Commuted tickets would usually allow the traveller to repeat the same journey as often as they liked during the period of validity: normally the longer the period, the cheaper the cost per day.
Before the 19th century, most workers lived less than an hour’s walk from their work. Today, many people travel daily to work a long way from their own towns, cities and villages, especially in industrialised societies. Depending on factors such as the high cost of housing in city centres, lack of public transit, or traffic congestion, modes of travel may include automobiles, motorcycles, trains, buses and bicycles. (taken from wikipedia)
While commuting every day between home and work I photograph moments in a Zen-like style. Lomography is a way to express the pictures I see while commuting using public transportation.

Istanbul – Megapolis am Bosporus – zwischen Orient und EuroCent

HolgerBrune — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:48:09 +0000

Istanbul – Megapolis am Bosporus
von Holger Brune

Istanbul, die gigantische Stadt am Bosporus hat eine außergewöhnliche Geschichte zu erzählen. Als erste Stadt außerhalb der europäischen Union wurde Istanbul von der EU zur Kulturhauptstadt Europas 2010 (neben dem Ruhrgebiet und Pécs in Ungarn) ernannt. Viel wichtiger ist jedoch, dass Istanbul ein funktionsfähiges Modell einer Megacity des 21. Jahrhunderts ist – Städte mit 10 Millionen oder mehr Einwohnern, in denen bis 2050 20 Prozent der Weltbevölkerung wohnen und leben werden.

Durch eine enorme Ausdehnung (5.400 Quadratkilometer) und eine enorme Dichte (2.400 Menschen pro Quadratkilometer) hat Istanbul in den letzten fünf Jahren jedes Jahr (!) einen steten Zustrom von mehr als 250.000 Zugezogenen aus den umliegenden Gebieten sowie der Vielzahl neugeborenener Babys verkraften müssen. In den letzten Jahren hat die Bevölkerung kontinuierlich um 4,5 Prozent jedes Jahr zugenommen. (Zum Vergleich: die flächenmäßig größte Stadt der USA hat eine Ausdehnung von 2.292 Quadratkilometern und eine Dichte von 354 Menschen je Quadratkilometer bei einem Bevölkerungswachstum von 5 Prozent per annum)
Bis 1980 war Istanbul mit dieser Bevölkerungsexplosion und den damit einhergehenden Veränderungen überfordert. Das Versorgungsnetz konnte mit dem enormen Bevölkerungswachstum nicht Schritt halten. Die Schwerindustrie verschmutzte die Gewässer, das berühmte Goldene Horn galt als industrielle Müllhalde. Gecekondu (wilde Siedler) besetzten unbebautes Land – die Hügel, die Peripherie, die Altstadt, sogar das Universitätsgelände.
Heute hat sich viel geändert. Istanbul wurde zu einer Weltstadt, die für ihre effektive Modernisierung gelobt wird. Natürlich ist noch nicht alles perfekt – massive Staus auf Istanbuls Straßen und wilde Siedlungen sind immer noch vorhanden – aber die Verbesserungen sind spürbar. Das Goldene Horn ist gesäubert und mit seinen angrenzenden Parks und kulturellen Einrichtungen eine der touristischen Sehenswürdigkeiten in Istanbul. Der Hausbau, für alle Einkommensgruppen erschwinglich, ist explodiert. Die Hauseigentümerquote ist auf 60 Prozent angewachsen – vorherige wilde Siedler eingeschlossen.

African moods

HolgerBrune — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:48:53 +0000

The dance of life

HolgerBrune — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:09:59 +0000

“I have loved in life and I have been loved.
I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar,
and have been raised above life’s joy and sorrow.
My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it.
My heart has been rent and joined again;
My heart has been broken and again made whole;
My heart has been wounded and healed again;
A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet.
I went through hell and saw there love’s raging fire,
and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
I wept in love and made all weep with me;
I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;
And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.
The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;
With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved,
I shook the throne of God in heaven.
I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,
“Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret.”
She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,
“My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover,
and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.”
— Hazrat Inayat Khan (The Dance of the Soul)

On Children – Khalil Gibran

HolgerBrune — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:20:26 +0000

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

the music of life – Hazrat Inayat Khan

HolgerBrune — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:59:48 +0000

When we look at life with a philosopher’s view we see that every person is like one note in this symphony of life; that we all make this symphony of life, each contributing the music which is needed in that symphony. But if we do not know our own part in the symphony of life, naturally it is as if one of the four strings on the violin is not tuned, and if it is not tuned it cannot give the music which it should produce. So we must each produce that part for which we are born. If we do not contribute what we are meant to and what we should contribute, we are not in tune with our destiny. It is only by playing that particular part which belongs to us that we shall get satisfaction. (from Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Sufi Message Vol. VI The mystics of all ages have loved music most. In almost all the circles of the inner cult, in whatever part of the world they are, music seems to be the center of their cult, or ceremony, or ritual. Those who attain to that perfect peace which is called nirvana, or in the language of the Hindus samadhi, do so more easily through music. Therefore the Sufis, especially those of the Chishti school of ancient times, have taken music as a source of their meditation. And by meditating thus they derive much more benefit from it than those who meditate without the help of music. The effect that they experience is the unfoldment of the soul, the opening of the intuitive faculties. Their heart, so to speak, opens to all the beauty that is within and without, uplifting them and at the same time bringing them that perfection for which every soul yearns. (from Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Sufi Message Vol. II, Music) In the Vedas of the Hindus we read: Nada Brahma – sound, being the Creator. In the works of the wise of ancient India we read: ‘First song, then Vedas or wisdom’. When we come to the Bible, we find: ‘First was the word, and the word was God’, and when we come to the Qur’an we read that the word was pronounced, and all creation was manifest. This shows that the origin of the whole creation is sound. No doubt the word, in the way it is used in our everyday language, is a limitation of that sound which is suggested by these Scriptures. Language is made up of names of comparable objects, and that which cannot be compared has no name. Truth is that which can never be spoken and, what the wise of all ages have spoken, is what they have tried their best to express, little as they were able to do so. Music as we know it in our everyday language is only a miniature: that which our intelligence has grasped from that music or harmony of the whole universe which is working behind us. The music of the universe is the background of the little picture which we call music. Our sense of music, our attraction to music, shows that music is in the depth of our being. Music is behind the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life’s greatest object, but music is life itself. Hafiz, our great and wonderful poet of Persia, says: ‘Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music’. I should like to tell you what made him say this. There exists in the East a legend which relates that God made a statue of clay in His own image, and asked the soul to enter into it. But the soul refused to enter into this prison, for its nature is to fly about freely, and not be limited and bound to any sort of captivity. The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then God asked the angels to play their music and, as the angels played, the soul was moved to ecstasy. Through that ecstasy – in order to make this music more clear to itself- it entered this body. Hafiz remarked: ‘People say that on hearing the song the soul entered into the body, but in reality the soul itself was song’. (from Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Sufi Message Vol. II, The Mysticism of Sound and Music)

the smile

HolgerBrune — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:04:51 +0000

The Smile
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet;

And there is a frown of hate,
And there is a frown of disdain,
And there is a frown of frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain,

For it sticks in the heart’s deep core,
And it sticks in the deep back bone,
And no smile that ever was smil’d,
But only one smile alone

That betwixt the cradle and grave
It only once smil’d can be,
But when it once is smil’d,
There’s an end to all misery.

Who am I ?

HolgerBrune — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:50:17 +0000

What is to be done, O Moslems? for I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr [Magian], nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.
I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulghar, nor of Saqsin;
I am not of the kingdom of ‘Iraqain, nor of the country of Khurasan.
I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;
‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the lest, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except “Ya Hu” [O he] and “Ya man Hu” ["O He who is"].
I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;
I have no business save carouse and revelry.
If once in my life I spent a moment without you,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with you,
I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.
O Shamsi Tabriz, I am so drunken in this world,
That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell.

Rumi