Allgemein – milansoos.com

1. November 2022

Work holiday in Verona

No assignment, no NDA, no customer or guidelines: there only was a cancelled job in Munich and a spontaneous idea for a 2-day city break in Verona Italy.

I love the freedom of pondering around and discovering new places through the lens. Kind of level 2 to that is when pictures match up and pairs, sets of 2´s emerge.

On day 1 i´d see a tree trunk being washed down the river, the other day im suddenly in front of a bush seemingly swimming on the water. The light goes up: of course if i put these 2 images together, they really start to enhance each other and call for a new way of reading. In my mind, it becomes a tragic story of a single tree: once the trunk is shown next to it, the bush appears to be the crown of the tree.

Verona, Italy, 2022

20. September 2022

Business Card as Film Negative

London, UK, 2007

One had to hold this business card against the light to read the contact information as if it was a film negative. Once handed out, folks instantly started to zoom in and out composing a picture through the unexposed middle section of the translucent foil.
I always got a great response to this creative card. It’s a shame i still have so many of it. Soon after i had them made, i decided to leave London and embark on a journey that took me 8 years of travelling, not exactly needing a business card in anarcho-primitivist, permaculturist, activist, and let´s admit it, hippie circles.

8. April 2022

Glass Ceiling

New Series / Work in progress: I´m currently looking for participants, feel free to get in touch.

A glass ceiling is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic (typically applied to women) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. – Wikipedia

An unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities. – Oxford Languages

The term „glass ceiling“ refers to the sometimes-invisible barrier to success that many women come up against in their careers. – BBC

13. März 2022

Full Frame No Cut – Haha

Radio City Music Hall, New York, 2000

This A4 enlargement was to see how to dodge and burn a final print of a 35mm film negative.
It has my lab instructions on it: where to make it darker, to watch out for the middle to have an even gradient, but also to have it cut! I´m surprised because I remember myself taking pride in not cropping at all, respecting the moment to compose the shot.
It seems I cheated indeed!
The actual final print is in a private collection.

(Now thinking back, I´m pretty sure it got a new fake black edge.. One had to expose the paper using an enlarger, then remove the negative, mask the undeveloped image so that the desired new edges remained uncovered, and then give some extra white light to have the emulsion turn black, hence creating a new frame.. as if it was the unexposed shine through outer side of the full frame negative..)

12. Februar 2022

Erwähnung in der Süddeutsche Zeitung

https://jungeleute.sueddeutsche.de/malerisch/ Süddeutsche Zeitung 28/08/2017

21. Dezember 2021

Imagekampagne für eine Kaffeerösterei

[Ad] Recent work for a coffee roasting manufacture in Munich.
These are typical images i enjoy doing but i would not showcase them in my portfolio. I particularly like to use a 3-light setup shown on the first image here, though. Two soft lights from the side and from behind, and a beam of rays hitting just a strip: kind of a morning sun atmosphere that goes well with a cup of coffee.

15. November 2021

Der kleine Prinz der Gentrifizierung

Apr 2016, Budapest, Hungary

To the Memory of Attila Ónodi (2003-2020)

Attila was a gifted young singer, he lived in the 8. district of Budapest, a rapidly changing, once ghetto-like part of the city. He made it to talent shows of a major network and had regular appearances at events across town.

We knew each other from a nearby cult pub and community center called Golya, seen in the background in some of these images. I used to take pro bono photos for him as he came from a financially stricken family and was badly in need of portraits ahead of a major TV show.

Attila welcomed the changes in his neighborhood thinking that his left-behind community would be able to stay there. He admired the new glass buildings, he envisioned cafes where he would have his pictures exhibited as a well-known singer.

He climbed up to this little island with a single tree, that once stood in the backyard of buildings 100 meters to his home. He posed there and suddenly started throwing stones towards his very own block of flats.

He hoped to ride the wave of fame of the TV publicity, though dropping out of the show at an early stage. The rumors were that his social media following was not presentable enough.

The next time he entered national attention was his tragic car accident: he drove without a license double the speed limit through red lights onto a lamp post.

14. Juni 2021

CVat41

Preparing your CV @41:

Lesson 1: Photoshop is not a freaking Vector / PDF Editor. Period.

Question 1: How to bridge a huge gap you spent as a Squatter / Activist / Hippie / Traveller / Eco Freak?

1. März 2020

Self Portrait at a Yoga Aktuell Shoot

This is a quick snapshot kind of self-portrait at a Yoga Aktuell photoshoot back in September 2019.

Chiemsee, Germany

15. Januar 2020

Self Portrait

Sept. 2005, Budapest, Hungary

Yes, that was real grass covering the top floor of Tüzraktar, a 10´000 square meter atelier complex where I had my own studio.

10. Februar 2018

Diploma in Photoshop

This 2-month online course was my update to the latest tools of photo editing. The newly released content-aware functions I liked the most. Also, the frequency separation method I learnt here makes beauty retouching much quicker for me. It became my go-to option for toning down wrinkles on a headshot.

PS: In 2018 I completed the Advanced Diploma in Photoshop as well.