Essay – milansoos.com

26. März 2025

Some Grid

August 2024, Munich, Germany

This screenshot is straight from Capture One. I remember preparing these images with Instagram’s grid in mind.
Well, that workflow just got flushed down the drain—Instagram decided to change the layout!
A well-curated profile, once utilizing the now-gone iconic 1×1 format, suddenly looks like a mess. I’m so frustrated about this!
How can someone create images for a format that’s so unstable, only to lose all their work due to a corporate decision that suddenly favors Reels? There are still many of us who primarily use Instagram as a photo-sharing app.

30. Juli 2024

Crows are punk, they sound rough and act like a gang. I’m fascinated by their look, and I tend to see them against an urban backdrop.
There is a black and white series in the making: every once in a while I go out and capture some images of them, mostly in the Olympic Park of Munich.
This photograph is demonstrably not the one I have in mind, though. I’m in for some 20´s style architecture images in the background, in the feel of Lewis Hine of New York, but with a focus on these birds.
This juxtaposition tells the story of a distinctively new species, a Corvus Urbanis maybe, that long inhabited a built environment and acquired an urban character different from their natural, now only close relatives.
I’m posting this picture above, as it will not make it to this new essay, but I love it nonetheless. It’s so studio-like and crisp. The morning sun acts as the main light but also reflects on the side of the BMW building opposite to provide the perfect backlight. I like this picturesque character to it, though it is not the clean metallic look I aim for.
Best explained I include an image below: it has those large bolts, kind of the timeless, or more like modern picture elements I would very much like to see in the background.

Furthermore, I imagine this could be an interesting direction for the series to go. See below:

14. Juli 2024

i Wish

July 2024. Munich, Germany

I got up early today, drank my coffee, and went for a photo walk.
Upon my return, I was amazed by some of these pictures—those colors and divine details are mesmerizing.
But that’s only as long as I’m looking at them on my 4K monitor.
I mean, I exported a copy for Instagram, but I deleted it as soon as I saw the draft on my phone! What a shocker—it didn’t work at all, not even a bit, even though it looked perfect full-size, in its entirety, with all its depth.
It’s insane to spend all that money on a Z8 body and a 4K monitor (the latter alone costing 2.7K), only to present your work on an sRGB smartphone that’s just 2-3 inches wide.
Recently, though, I’ve started having fine art-quality images printed!
How about we meet up for a coffee, and I’ll bring a few prints to show you in person?

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

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

12. Januar 2020

Non-motorist Perspectives 2006

This photo project was commissioned by the late writer, editor and photo historian Mihály Gera. One day he just called up and invited me to his private library. It was a great honour to work with him.
He came up with the idea to try and capture Budapest with the theme of traffic in the city.
I was at the time already a passionate cyclist and my critique about urban planning became more and more obvious as I was taking pictures for this upcoming book. And exactly that seemed to create a problem. What I did not know from the start that this book was meant to be published for the City Hall of Budapest so that they could use it in their protocol as a present to mayoral visits.
But there were suddenly bigger obstacles, too. I left Budapest to pursue further studies in London and my flat got nicked back in 2007: there it went all my equipment and my archive as well!
I was though fortunate enough to have had a colourful pillowcase, and a good friend who´d recognise it on the sidewalk close to Brick Lane. Apparently, burglars like to stuff their plunder in the bedding, in order to grab as much as they can. Once out of the property, they can sort out the items they really need.
This is how I recovered at least these preview pictures!