visual stimulation 015

keeping things short and simple. here is a look at some of my recent reblogs from tumblr. for an extended look at what has been visually inspiring me lately, follow my public tumbler, inspiration247. For a look at my personal fashion choices (aka the crap I put on my bodaaay), follow my personal style tumblr.

lg, Rae
instagram: lovefromberlin
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all images taken from: tumblr

Go get 'em

Kaffeemitte in Mitte, Berlin, 2014.

I'm tingling from the top of my head to the very end of my toes. Everything is coming up roses, despite the obvious fact that there is a layer of snow on the ground, meaning there are no flowers in sight, and I am still having to wear my hideous green parka everywhere in order to keep from freezing my arse off. What, pray tell, has got me all excited? Life. Ah, life. How good it can be. I could not be more exited about 2014 and all of the things I am planning to accomplish. So far, I am working on graphic design work and flexing my programming fingers for my internship at FLUX, babysitting an adorable 4 year old girl twice a week, jump-starting my blogging and photography once more, finding a place for music making in my life again, cuddling on sofa with the mister while watching dexter, and grabbing coffee and dinner with friends. If only there were more hours in the day!

Now I am aware of the fact that one of my lifestyle resolutions for good ole 2014 is to prioritize, meaning limiting what I do and weeding out what I do not have time for in order to actually get really good at what I do still have time for. But ... I also have never really tried to do just what I have wanted to do. With Uni and Grad school occupying much of my adult life, NOW is the time I have to do what I want. I figure it makes more sense to start to do everything and simply see what things I tend to not prioritize rather than sitting around not doing anything trying to narrow down what I "should be doing". Besides, I am one of those people who is happiest when she has a shit ton of things to take care of and actually tend to get down and feel really empty when I have nothing to do. And in any case, one of the best parts about all the things I am currently doing is that they tend to overlap. Oh, that and that much of the work I am doing can be done remotely, meaning you can often find me at my favorite cafes scattered across Berlin... or in my PJs in my living room glued to the computer shouting at illustrator...

The photos in this post were taken on Wednesday at KAFFEMITTE, a cafe/restaurant in Mitte, Berlin (I know, something really new and different for me) as well as the location of my meeting/catch-up with David. We talked over tea and food before taking care of business in Hackescher Markt where I shot David's streetstyle photos in the bitter cold. My hands literally started to go numb. Streetstyle photos may not be the most creative to take, but they still give me the opportunity to practice my photography. I have also been contacted about a collaboration with a photographer, which means I will be flexing my in-front-of-the-camera muscles sometime soon. It's always great to have friends who can model for me for my photographic work, but it's also awesome to have enthusiastic friends and photographers who can make my life a bit easier by helping me keep this blog alive by snapping photos of myself as well ... which is sort of funny because I cannot exactly say I am the most comfortable in front of a camera, so who knows how I even really got started with all of this blogging ... I am just thankful I don't have to rely on my tripod and the timer 100% of the time.

And as much as this craziness has got me extremely excited, it makes it that much more important that I make sure I take time out for myself to relax and clear my mind (something else that is on my list of resolutions). And i've basically been doing just that during during most weekdays. As much as I love spending time with my darling boyfriend, I have to admit that I am also really starting to appreciate alone time and evenings by myself because it's time I can take out to just relax and sink into bed with candles lit, music playing and my kindle. These evenings are also a great opportunity to take care of any of the "girl maintenance" I need to attend to like painting the nails or re-dying my hair. As annoying as that shit can be, dem nailz ain't gonna paint deyselfs and dat hair ain gonna dye isself.

lg, Rae
instagram: lovefromberlin
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photography: david (photos of me) and rae tashman (all other shots)
post-production: rae tashman

photogRAEphie 001

practiced my portrait shooting a few weeks ago.
shot in: Xberg, Berlin, fall 2013
photography* and post-production: rae tashman
*special thanks to david, who snapped some shots of me as well.

lg, Rae
instagram: lovefromberlin
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tag & nacht

the following photos bring my little sweden holiday series to a close. no photos from thursday, but to quickly recap, thursday was spent exploring the city by myself. as you all already know, adelinn was sick and had to stay in falköpig and steffi had to work thursday and friday during the day, which meant having to do some quick on-the-toes thinking. i got in contact with friend of linnea's called karin and made plans for friday during the day. thursday i was left to my own devices, which in all honest was completely fine. exploring a new place alone can be relaxing and exciting. i was able to get in this very important thing called shopping and was able to do so at my own pace. visited beyond retro and basically fell in love. okay, okay, so thrifted clothing mainly shipped over from the us with a price tag that of 10 times the amount the item undoubtedly originally was priced at over in the bargain bin of some small town good will before being snatched up to be sold there did make me cringe a little, but the selection is pretty top, and hey, you only live once. i picked up a pair of shoes, a shirt, a backpack and a tote bag.

on friday karin showed me around the older parts of stockholm - karin had previously worked as a tour guide for exchange students so i basically got all the benefits of a tour without the i-think-i-am-so-funny-and-ironic-watch-me-make-some-uncomfortable-jokes-and-laugh-awkwardly middle aged tour guide. we also had a chance to see the david lachapelle exhibition at fotografiska, the photography museum in stockholm. it was unexpectedly crowded but we still managed to see what we wanted to see. if any of you are not familiar with lachapelle, i suggest you get informed or at least read his bio on wikipedia. here, i did all the work for you so now you have no excuses. his work is simultaneously beautiful, stunning, haunting, and downright uncomfortable. there is this sort of unapologetic objectifying of the human form in his work. his pieces do not only showcase the immense beauty of the human form. in many cases the form, physically perfect, is downright grotesque, due to its hyper-realistic presentation and almost too perfect physique. this creates a tension between the viewer and artwork where although the figures are displayed like objects, creating a level of passivity and vulnerability, they retain a level of control over the viewer due to their unapologetic often half nude or fully nude bodies. he also plays with a lot of interesting political and religious themes. but hey, do not just take my word for it, go check out his artwork!

later that night, steffi and i met up with her friend anna for dinner at this tapas restaurant in the city. pretty amazing food, but extremely greasy.

all in all i found sweden to be pretty amazing and will definitely be visiting again soon.

lg, Rae

maia flore (visual stimulation 003)