Today we have good and bad news for you.
Max’s philosophy is that it’s better to hear the bad news first.
Well, here they are. Due to the current crisis we have to cancel all exhibitions until after the summer.
Max also had to cancel his trip to Florence over the Easter week.
This is heartbreaking as we wanted to visit Olivier Mathieu and we also wanted to meet with Corrado Pinci who was the assistant of star photographer Angelo Frontoni. Corrado and Max have planned to publish a book with romantic photographies together. All this is now delayed until the crisis has ended.
We strongly recommend to visit the blog of Olivier Mathieu.
His books, which are blessed with incredible writing skills, and his interesting blog will banish your boredom in isolation in no time.
It is also merely possible to go on a shooting trip for Max because of the extensive curfews. But we try our best and maybe there is a ray of hope soon.
The good news are, we have a very new and very beautiful jeune fille for you. Max met her before the crisis really started and they already did a short photo shoot together. We will not reveal her name yet, but soon there will be a post with the first pictures here.
We are also pleased to inform you that the online shop is open without restrictions. However, there may be slight delays in shipping the pictures due to the current situation.
So why not just buy one of Max’s beautiful pictures and decorate your home with it! Maybe this will help you to get over this unpleasant time of isolation.
The pictures you see in this post have been done by Max just before the crisis started. It was one of the first days with a bit of sun after several weeks of constant rain. We love these pictures very much. They truly look like landscapes from a fairy tale.
Our thoughts are with you in this hard times and we hope Max’s pictures bring some joy into your heart!
Take care of yourself and stay healthy!
Soon this time will be over and new hamiltonian times will dawn.
Dear Max Stolzenberg, I fully share everything you say here. The quarantine is going to keep people away from each other. I wouldn’t want, when we get out of that quarantine, if we get out, everything starts again as before. I would not want to see the mistakes that led to this situation being made again. To be concrete, I would like to stop making deadly viruses and biological weapons in laboratories. I would like no one to let out such viruses, or spread them intentionally. I would like the huge sums that some States are certainly spending on the creation of biological weapons to be used to strengthen the health systems of the countries of Europe, or to search for vaccines. Assuming, of course, that this is possible. I would like to stop torturing, by vivisection (or by bullfighting), unfortunate innocent animals. It is also not to be ruled out that some viruses were once injected into animals, guinea pigs, and that their neat frames were sold in the markets of certain countries, thus making the “species jump” of their species to the human species. In any case, coronavirus should remind the masses that we, as human beings, obey the laws of nature, and that we are not immortal. Only our work can be attained, and I say this because I have waited today to answer you, on the eve of the day when we will celebrate the memory of the birthday of the great British photographer David Hamilton (15 April 1933). I, for one, am not in favour of excessively gregarious and conformist social phenomena. But between the herd and the “social distance” that will nolailly lead in fact to distrust, individualism, asexuality, it once existed the philosophy of David-Hamiltonian life where beings could still want to share emotions and artistic creativity. On the one hand the photographer, on the other hand his models. All ensenble are the people whose collaboration is likely to give way to Beauty. Just as a novelist also needs, quite often, a Nabokovian nymphet, an inspiration, a muse. More than ever, today, being critical is crucial. The information that is given day after day to the masses, often contradictory from month to month, from week to week, from one day to the next, must be analyzed. Coronavirus is probably linked behind the scenes to complex political and state issues, and it is certainly huge sums of money that are at stake in the search for a vaccine. For my part, I hope that these days will not be those of the end of freedom, or of what there was still freedom in this society. I hope that the artists, and you are one of them, will be able to continue to practice their art. I still want to hope that will remain an art of love, an art of seducing, an art of being seduced. I hope that there will still be a place for emotion. In these weeks of quarantine, I observe with terror that it is still very difficult, if not impossible, to forge beautiful and moving relationships through the Internet, with young girls. Yet four hundred million Europeans are forced to stay at home. So what is the use of the Internet, if it does not even bring people together and discover elective affinities? And what if, one day, the Internet no longer exists? Thank you, dear Max, for the beauty of your photos and for the beauty of your models.
Dear Max Stolzenberg, I believe I have never left a comment on your blog. May it give me the opportunity to salute the beauty of these photographs, which is also the characteristic of your works.
For the rest, we have entered the crisis of Covid 19 (coronavirus), and also in its phobia, with the first result the quarantine of hundreds of millions of Europeans forced to remain locked in their homes. This is an unprecedented crisis, the origin of which is probably still unknown, nor the outcome. How long will this quarantine last? Will it be renewed in the future? We’re in a state of uncertainty. I would like to address the Readers of your blog. By telling them that if the future is worrying, they can also delve into the world of David Hamilton, arguably the greatest photographer of the second half of the 20th century. You know very well, Max, you who were his friend. If admirers of the work of David Hamilton, Gunter Sachs and a few other geniuses of photography want it, and if there is still some Young David-Hamilton-Girls, let everyone have that he can visit my blog “In Defense of David Hamilton.” I would also be happy to make personal contacts (oliviero44@hotmail.com) and have dialogues. Because, beyond the beauty of the works of a David Hamilton or a Gunter Sachs, it is to be hoped that remains, in the spirit and heart of today’s girls, something of their aesthetics, their philosophy, and the worldview that underpinned the creation of masterpieces.Can I say it in other words? If time is running out, if we can feed doubts about what will become of the Internet in the near future, if Thanatos threatens, what other way than that of Eros and Beauty? O you, lovers of Beauty, o you, last nymphs who still live in a world that seems to be collapsing today, do not waste any more time!
Thanks, my friend. You are absolutely right in what you say!
We don’t know how long this situation will continue.
At the moment I am replenishing a lot of strength from my own pictures and in the hours of isolation I let the beautiful time blossom again before my mind’s eye. Also the illustrated books of David are a source of joy for me again and again. I hope to start new projects soon.
The isolation has its advantages as well. The often unconsciously hectic life is slowed down. I notice how my creativity increases. I am full of zest for action. The anticipation of the next meetings with the girls and the pictures that will arise from them is indescribable.
I would like to mention the following.
Hölderlin, the famous philosopher of the Romantic era said, “Aesthetics is the supreme discipline of philosophy!”
But aesthetics today is unfortunately being sacrificed more and more to turbo-capitalism and the associated bad habits like thoughtless consumption and senseless leisure activities. Always according to the motto that everything can be achieved quickly and constantly without any effort.
But that does not make you happy. On the contrary! It is just the effort, for example, the effort to bring a thing to completion, which brings happiness to the last corner of the soul. One could also simply quote Seneca who puts it in a nutshell with the sentence “per aspera ad astra”.
Unfortunately, very few people want to walk the stony path today.
Maybe, but only maybe this crisis will make one or the other of them think about it. Perhaps aesthetics and maturity will soon have a higher weight in our society. The screw of capitalism cannot be tightened endlessly at any price. Consumption and social media have become a substitute religion and substitute satisfaction for many.
But that does not make you happy either.
To my delight, the beautiful girls I have been allowed to photograph so far have understood this. I think this is also expressed in my pictures.
I would be very happy if even more girls would get in touch with me in the near future to let a new age of romantic photography dawn!