:: Bea Uhart Photography ::

Wanderings in Wien

Bea — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:25:17 +0000

I spent a few days holidaying in Vienna over the 1st of May weekend. 30 degrees to Brussel’s 10 and, although I am a big fan of Brussel’s outdoor spaces, Vienna probably has the edge since you can actually swim in the Danube! Just a 15 minute bike ride from the centre is the Old Danube which is now a large lake surrounded by green… it costs the same as a swimming pool to enter as it is considered to be a ‘public bath’. Closer still to the action, is the recreational Danube Island – a sort of elongated lake (21km long but only a few hundred metres wide). Here again, you can laze in the sun and take a dip whenever necessary. So that was my weekend – lounging, dipping, eating ice cream, drinking shandy by the waterside, eating schnitzl and sausages with cheese inside (filthy!) – I also joined the Viennese socialists for the 1st of May march under the blazing heat so that was about as hard work as it got!

Flying High

Bea — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:32:56 +0000

Busy times, hence the small blog hiatus – but I’m quite excited about today’s post! I spent a great few hours with Belgium’s ‘Modelplane flying’ champion (I’m not entirely sure what the title should actually be… but you get the gist). Benoit Dierickx has been a pilot for the past thirty years but when he steps out of the cockpit he lives and breathes model airplanes and has done since he designed his first one at the age of 12 (pictured). He has added a large annex to his house which is crammed full of half built models of varying sizes, motors, wing parts, tools, saws, paint cans… has bought a van especially to transport them, competes across Europe most weekends and now coaches the future generations (he is particularly excited about an 11 year old who is the ‘most talented’ in his age group he has ever seen!). It all sounds a bit mad until you see him in action and then it somehow all makes sense:

Mont des Arts²

Bea — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:49:03 +0000

This was actually an assignment I gave during a recent lesson – shoot a very obvious tourist spot (Mont des Arts here) a little bit differently by seeking out specific shapes, in this case the square. It is a simple way to focus the attention away from the very obvious, help create coherence and is pretty good fun.

International Rugby

Bea — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:44:50 +0000

Nothing quite as glamorous as the 6 Nations but rather Belgium Vs. the Netherlands in the Roi Baudouin’s Annexe stadium, €5 a ticket, just over 7000 spectators. We headed up there with a few of the rugby ladies, grabbed some plastic-cupped-beer and sat in the sun on the concrete bleachers. Really nice atmosphere and Belgium literally decimated Holland (58-3) which doesn’t happen too often in sport, so that was nice. Back to the couch to watch Wales beat England in a super tense 6 Nations game, so a pretty perfect sporting day really. A slightly larger selection of shots on flickr.

The Very Centre of Belgium

Bea — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:24:56 +0000

I was driving home from a gig this morning when I spotted a tourist (brown background) sign for the ‘geographical centre of Belgium’ – thinking it might be fun to stand in the middle of a country, I followed the – very methodical – signposting to a small car park with a walking sign pointing down a small path. I followed this for a few hundred metres until it petered out and became a messy mudpit instead… The whole thing was slightly underwhelming! Lovely day though, and I can knock ‘standing-in-the-middle-of-Belgium’ off my bucket list (I’m making it up as I go along, it’s more satisfying).

ICC Mediation Competition

Bea — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:21:45 +0000

I recently spent a week shooting the 7th International Mediation Competition organised by the International Chamber of Commerce. Over 500 students and mediation professionals from around the world converged in Paris to participate in this massive competition. Throughout, university students faced international business problems, which they attempted to resolve by mediation. Occasionally, the photographer has the best job – in this case, it meant being the only person who could sneak in and out of the rooms and follow many sessions at once. All in all, a fun week with lots of great faces, encounters, chats and champagne! The full sets are here. To all my Paris friends, I apologise for not having a second to see you.

Imagine Huy

Bea — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:32:47 +0000

The 2012 Imagine Competition (all styles music competition for Belgian youth) semi finals kicked off yesterday in Huy. I documented the 2011 competition as a collaboration with the JMI Foundation which led to an exhibition at the Botanique – With the freedom to pick my angle, I focused mostly on the backstage energy, shooting only very little of the actual performances. I was invited back this year as a ‘worker’ – my brief being to shoot mainly stage action. Quite nice to actually watch the whole event! The lighting was crap, the stage set up was very deep and the stage way too high… but you have to go with the flow (thank you 5DMarkII)! The deserved winners of this semi-final: Salad Bar (this is not a photo of them, here’s one :p)

The Ziggy Way

Bea — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:29:43 +0000

Band shoot with the lovely & talented Ziggy a couple of weeks ago… it was so icy that I literally couldn’t straighten my shutter finger for a while (and they were out there in t-shirts!).

The Best Cat in the Whole World

Bea — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:47:56 +0000

a little love for Marley… and that title should help my SEO!

Open Space @ The HUB

Bea — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:24:31 +0000

The HUB Brussels is an amazing, innovative co working space right around the corner from me. I’m often tempted to grab myself a desk there but can’t quite justify it … a lot of my editing is done later at night and I have a perfectly good space at home. It’s always nice to have an excuse to spend some time there though, which is what MediatEUr‘s open space event offered me on Friday. So two posts in one really – some open space action and some HUB vibe. Here’s the full flickr set