OPEN SOURCE FESTIVAL 2016

Same festival, different year. Once again I spent a beautiful sunny Saturday at the Open Source Festival in Düsseldorf. So here we go, a few photos and a small review of this year's edition of Düsseldorf's very own festival. 

AMFI ATELIER SHOW

A few weeks ago I had the incredible chance to photograph back- and frontstage at the ATELIER SHOW of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed this, running around between the people, capturing these moments of excitement and fear, curiousness and tension, observing all the people rushing around getting ready for the show. I can finally show you my favourite photos, and yes, it's a lot. Photographing real models is super fun, and backstage even more.

SCOPOPHILIA ARTS FESTIVAL

Being part of the Art Committee at my uni we spent the last months organising Scopophilia, our arts festival, which took place in the beautiful garden of Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam Noord. Working on the event was an incredibly intense experience and even though there were quite a few ups and downs (and maybe more downs than ups), all the work definitely paid off in the end. 

HOTSPOT: THE EYE - AMSTERDAM NOORD

A few weeks ago Maja visited me and after cycling through the whole centre, eating stroopwafels and wandering around the 9 staatjes district we took the ferry to the other side of the Ij. 

SATURDAYS

When Cosi was here we spent a wonderful sunny Saturday in the 9 Straatjes district, wandering around, having baguette and hummus sitting in the sun by a canal and taking far too many photos. The weather was so beautiful and the colours so nice that I'm getting more and more excited for summer to come.

AMSTERDAM MY LOVE

Cosi is here in Amsterdam for the weekend and the weather couldn't have been any better on Thursday. It's still quite cold but super sunny and we cycled along the canals and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the city centre.

FLOWER FESTIVAL CHIANG MAI

It's been almost 9 months since I went to Thailand and I still have to think of it so often. I was going through my photos the other day and found all these ones, already edited but never posted. I took them at the Flower Festival in Chiang Mai, we were walking around and somehow ended up behind the stage. All the dancers were getting ready for their show, clearly aware of how beautiful and sparkly their dresses and decorations looked like and I just couldn't stop photographing. So here we go, another throwback to Thailand.

MALOU, SOMEWHERE IN DE PIJP

Malou and I went to De Pijp to buy a present for a friend and I just thought how "Amsterdamish" does she look like? 

A DAY IN JORDAAN

Having a friend over for the weekend makes not-studying for a while reasonable so instead of hitting the books (and procrastinating) I spent a perfect Saturday in Jordaan which is really one of my favourite neighbourhoods.

OPEN SOURCE FESTIVAL 2015

DEEP DARK BLUE // KO TAO

15/05 PREVIEW // PHOTOSHOOT

TO THE SEA // ZANDVOORT

SPRING IN AMSTERDAM

18/05 NATHALIE

11/05 ANTHRACITE

Easy to see that these photos are taken right where the latest outfit post was taken but this time it's not me but my friend Lea (@distinctual) who totally rocks these anthracite coloured flared pants. Lately I also really have been enjoying playing around with the layouts of the posts, keeping it clean and minimalistic but still it's a bit different to older posts. It's not a big change but I have to stick to constantly progressing on my blog.

Lea and me spent some time discovering new places in Duesseldorf and also visited a friend who is studying in Amsterdam so there are more posts planned! Xx

MEET MELISSA / HOME IN NYC

Born and raised in New York Melissa Adames is a real local in the city, especially after moving to Upper Manhattan last year. I am meeting the 24 year old super stylish and nice blogger and instagrammer in SoHo where we get a delicious greek yogurt and cafe latte and sit down in the hidden backyard of Greecologies to chat about Melissas New York.

20/12 IDA

So I was on a coffee-and-christmas-shopping-date with my friend Ida last week and we took some photos, how could we not, she is SO photogenic! It was so much fun finally taking some portraits again and even though the sky was grey and started to turn dark they turned out to be quite bright and sharp. I love the colours and I think this door we found was just perfect matching her hair. Was so nice seeing her again! :)

I thought about doing some photoshootings again, like this one, or these for a little money, also for friends or something, so if you're living aorund Düsseldorf and interested feel free to contact me: cocomathilde@gmail.com

-

Letzte Woche hab ich Ida getroffen, zum Kaffeetrinken und Weihnachtsgeschenke-kaufen und wir haben bei der Gelegenheit ein paar Fotos gemacht! Es hat so Spaß gemacht, mal wieder ein bisschen zu fotografieren, also so richtig und obwohl der Himmel verdächtig dunkel-grau war und irgendwie immer dunkler wurde sind die Bilder überraschend hell und leuchtend. Ich liebe die Farben und Kontraste, die Tür war als Hintergrund auch einfach perfekt. War schön sie mal wieder zu treffen! :)

Jedenfalls hätte ich Lust in nächster Zeit mal wieder ein paar Fotoshootings zu machen, so wie das, oder diese hier, also, wenn ihr Lust habt oder noch ein Weihnachtsgeschenk für eine Freundin sucht und im Raum Düsseldorf wohnt meldet euch einfach bei mir: cocomathilde@gmail.com

27/11 THE BUNKER

I have been to the bunkers before and didn't take my camera, you can imagine how upset I was considering this amazing view! Well, the second time I was prepared but of course, though the sun wasn't so the photos didn't turn out as I had hoped they would but still they give you quite a good impression what it is like to spend an evening up there. The Bunker del Carmel is on the top of a hill in a parc called "Parc del Guinardo", it's not that easy to get up there but it is worth all the pain (yes, pain, walking upstairs for about 30 mins. can cause pain...) But once you reach the top, sit on the edge of the roof dangeling your legs, the whole city spread out in front of you, it's hard to describe that feeling. The idea that you just sit there, at the top of a hill, watching the whole city, with all it's 1.6 million habitants and so many more tourists, so many stories, so much happening in that very moment, seems so crazy. How can we take every tiny little thing so seriously and worry so much when it's just a tiny part of a the whole thing? The atmosphere up there is kind of like that, people sitting together, talking quietly, facing the panoramic view... It's an unforgettable experience so make sure that you get there even if you have only 2 nights in Barcelona!

-

Ich war vorher schonmal da oben auf dem Bunker, hatte aber meine Kamera nicht dabeigehabt, nicht schwer vorzustellen wie mich das geärgert hatte. Dieses Mal hatte ich sie dann mit, und war vorbereitet, die Sonne leider nicht und das Licht war deswegen nicht so super. Trotzdem zeigen die Bilder ganz gut, wie es da oben ist. Der Bunker del Carmel ist ganz oben auf einem Hügel im Nordwesten der Stadt im "Parc del Guinardo", ist nicht ganz so einfach hinzukommen aber die Aussicht sind die 30 Minuten Treppensteigen auf jeden Fall wert. Oben anzukommen, auf der Kante des Daches zu sitzen und die Beine baumeln zu lassen, die endlose Stadt vor einem ausgebreitet - ein unglaubliches Gefühl. Der Gedanke, dass da in dieser riesigen Millionenstadt so viele Leute sind, so viel passiert, während man da oben wie abgeschnitten alles beobachten kann, ist einfach so verrückt. Ein bisschen so, wie wenn man im Flugzeug nachts über eine Stadt fliegt. Einfach wunderschön, und eine gute Erinnerung daran, dass man manchmal vielleicht nicht alles so wichtig und ernst nehmen sollte, es ist doch meistens nur ein winziger Teil von etwas ganz Großem. Wie auch immer, ich will jetzt hier nicht so melancholisch werden, eigentlich wollte ich nur sagen: wenn ihr mal in Barcelona seid haltet euch einen Abend für den Bunker frei, ihr werdet es nicht bereuen!

15/11 THE SHORE

Waking up, the sun shone through the window I immediately decided to go to the beach. It's november and certainly not the best month for sunbathing and going for a swim (at least not here in Europe) but I took a book and even some shorts and sat for 2, 3 hours on a bench by the water. The wind was strong and I missed that so much, for me wind belongs to the sea, it makes me feel so free and it's so calming. I love the sea here how it is now, windy, strong, the water is crystal clear and blue. Some friends joined me later, we sat in the sun drinking Café con Leche, walked around barefoot and I finally had the chance again to take some portraits. It was such a nice afternoon, I try to get outside as often as possible, knowing that a few weeks from now I won't be able to enjoy so much sun anymore. I am so grateful that I got in such a beautiful place for such a long time, Barcelona so took into my heart. 

-

Heute morgen schien die Sonne durchs Fenster und ich konnte mich gar nicht genug beeilen um so schnell wie möglich rauszukommen. Bin ans Meer gefahren und hab mich mit Buch und kurzen Hosen (!) ein paar Stunden ans Wasser gesetzt, es war so schön, windig, sonnig, perfekt. Für mich gehören Wind und Meer zusammen und ich mag es jetzt so viel lieber, das Wasser ist viel sauberer und klarer als im Sommer, der Strand ist fast leer und die Luft ist frisch und salzig. Nachher sind noch ein paar Freundinnen dazu gekommen und wir haben im Sand gesessen und Café con Leche getrunken, sind barfuss rumgelaufen und ich bin endlich mal wieder dazu gekommen, Portraits zu machen. Ich bin so dankbar, so lange in so einer wunderbaren Stadt gewohnt haben zu können, Barcelona wird für immer ein wichtiger Teil meines Lebens und ein bisschen wie ein zu Hause für mich sein.