This year, I participated in the Second Annual Negative Positives Double Exposure Challenge. The contest pairs up two listeners of the Negative Positives Film Photography Podcast, and each shoots the same roll of 35mm film. This year, I was paired with Marc Schoolderman, a photographer from Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, and we collaborated to create double exposures featuring scenes from our two cities. Partners then submit their two favorite images, which are judged by the two hosts of the podcast, Mike Gutterman and Andre Dominguez.
Marc and I decided to shoot a roll of Fuji Pro 400H. He shot a Pentax MX, and I shot my Canon AE-1 Program. We decided not to make specific plans or even share what we shot or planned to shoot, other than scenes around our respective cities. Although we followed procedures to line up our frames, the cameras appear to have advanced a bit differently, and frames did not line up, particularly the deeper you went into the roll. Because of this, or sometimes in spite of this, we ended up with some pretty awesome images.
Let’s kick it off with the two images we submitted to the contest. The first we entitled, “Looked Too Deeply Into The Glass,” which is Dutch slang for being intoxicated. Marc shot a series of doll heads peering out a window, and I shot a beer flight at a Milwaukee brewpub.
The second, which we entitled, “Stairway to Heaven,” featured stained glass from Saint Stephens Church in Nijmegen over the Greek Orthodox Church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
It was tough to choose our two contest images because we had a lot of great images on our rolls.
The tallest office building in Nijmegen, glowing colorfully at night, with the Denis Sullivan Schooner in Milwaukee’s Harbor in the foreground.
A Nijmegen windmill and the Denis Sullivan Schooner in Milwaukee Harbor.
A typical Dutch bike, in the classic orange, and the skyline of Milwaukee as viewed from the harbor.
A statue honoring the opening of the railway between the cities of Nijmegen and Cleve, Germany, set against Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle museum.
A statue of Mariken van Nieumeghen, a legendary girl that gets seduced by the devil and later regrets it, appropriately set against Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee.
A row of patron saints next to Saint Stephen’s Church, Nijmegen, overseeing Kitt’s Frozen Custard, Milwaukee.
A spire in the City of Nijmegen and the roofline of the Greek Orthodox Church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
A Nijmegen cafe in the shadows of an ornate gate at the Greek Orthodox Church.
A sign for a cannibis dispensary in Nijmegen over the bottling building at Milwaukee’s Pabst Brewing Company.
A street sign for a flight of stairs over the Pabst Brewing bottling building at night. “Lieve vrouwentrappen” is grammatically ambiguous in Dutch. The intended meaning can be interpreted as “very sweet stairs for women” and even with some effort as “the act of kicking sweet ladies.”
The Waalbrug, the arched bridge over the Waal River in Nijmegen, and boats outside the local bait shop in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
A view of the “kruittoren” inside the Kronenburgerpark, constructed in 1426 as part of the old medieval defense wall, set against an old barn in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
An artist’s interpretation of a Les Paul Gibson guitar the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Les Paul, set against First Things First, coffee roasters, in Nijmegen.
The new bridge over the river Waal in Nijmegen, De Oversteek, serving as a war memorial for American paratroopers that tried to cross the river in 1944, set against the interior of the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by Santiago Calatrava.
The Milwaukee Art Museum designed by Santiago Calatrava on the left, and De Witte Molen (The White Mill) in Nijmegen on the right.
Dutch teenagers dressed in typically silly garb for the celebration of the King’s birthday, set against an interior hallway of the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Many thanks to my great partner, Marc Schoolerman for all the wonderful images! I had a great time sharing photos and information about our cities and would encourage everyone to give a listen to the podcast, join the Facebook group of listeners, and compete in next year’s Double Exposure Challenge!
