I wanted to test the Google Photo Scan android app but it seems that both, my tablet and smartphone are not supported. I then tried an alternative app called Photomyne and it’s not too bad but not outstanding. Of course I shot film too back in the days, for example in the at the end of the 80`s or in the 90`s but also around millennium. So, I have a rather large stack of analog photos, or film photos in my cabinet. Mostly of family and friends, or places we’ve been together. But it seems I experimented back then too, and I shot photos of different things without people, but I don’t have too much of these photos. Here is one…
The photo was probably shot in 1999 or in 2000, maybe even 2001 because we’ve been to the Loveparade in Berlin all the mentioned years. So, what you see is an old German police car driving through the Großer Stern square and Victory Column in Berlin. They actually had much more modern cars already at that time, but when 1.6 million people are about to arrive to celebrate love, peace, and harmony… and electronic music of course, then you better get out all your cars, including old-timers (laugh).
I was always mad that I was not born at the time when Woodstock in the USA was a thing. But I realized I experienced something very similar. I experienced history, and I am pretty sure that younger people will be mad too that they’ve been born too late when they find old videos of the Loveparade on YouTube. All those years with the Loveparade, they are now contemporary events. This is something you don’t experience every day, because until today it is in my memories as if I visited another world. Obviously, because it was also about experimenting with drugs, but also because the amount of people, it was absolutely insane to see such masses. Think about it, 1.6 million people dancing around the Victory column, it was mind-blowing.
I also have some photos where you see parts of the masses, all those people having fun together. I might scan them too and upload them but I don’t have many because I’ve been there to have a fun time. I just recently talked with a friend about it, and he said “Remember the amount of people and how peaceful it was”, and he continued “Today it wouldn’t be possible anymore because it would be an easy target for terrorist attacks because it was way too public”. I think he is right, this is not possible anymore. As you saw in the photo, we had police monitoring the event too, but some of them did even drink beer, or some were dancing too. What I mean is, there was absolutely no threat, it was just about authorities making sure to be present.
We’ve always been there very early, to get the best spots near the Victory Column. That means the photo was shot many hours before everyone else arrived.
Diary of Dennis 
Yes it is sad that such events are considered risky today. I was in my teens when many of the big music festivals were taking place in the late sixties early seventies. We had some in Australia, notably a big one near Sunbury in Victoria. I longed to go and see the bands but I looked it up on a map and it was a long way from Melbourne and although I could get to Melbourne from Adelaide I had no idea how I would get any further. Friends of mine now live in Sunbury. Melbourne has grown and you can get there on an electric train in half an hour or so, it’s part of the suburbs. Last time I visited they pointed out the area where the festival used to be held, it hasn’t been built on but I’m sure it will be one day as it is a fast growing suburb.
I have loads of prints and slides from our film using years and am always thinking I should scan them but it is such a huge task it’s hard to know where to start.
I went through several stacks of film yesterday and there are so many interesting and funny photos. You’re right, it would be a hard job to scan them all. But as said, it’s to 99% people photography, of friends and family. And since I take privacy very serious, I wouldn’t upload them anyway since I think these shouldn’t be public… so, in my case, it doesn’t really make sense to scan them at all. But I found a few of general things that I might scan… I have one photo of the victory column without people, or the Brandenburger Tor and so on.
Still I think that film is more special. You can have these photos in the hand. With digital photos and if you don’t secure them in the cloud, you’re hard drive could break and all photos would be gone. With film, and I hope it will never happen, only a fire could destroy the photos. Also, in digital times, I noticed it myself, I’m shooting with the camera as if it would be a mashine gun. With film, I’ve been more careful. This makes every photo a special photo. I wouldn’t say that my digital photos aren’t special, but with film I definitely would have thinked twice before I would have shot certain photos. While I shot many hundreds of film photos, with digital I already shot several thousands in just a few years.
Yes we all had to think about our photos shooting with film. Developing it was expensive unless you did your own and if you were at an event orsomewhere you could not easily buy more film you didn’t want to run out at a crucial moment. All our old rail fan trips and our trip to China, Russia and the UK are on film and slides so I would like to scan those well at least some of them, and several years of the Australian Grand Prix when it was held in Adelaide.
Yeah, both good points. I believe I usually had two or three rolls with me and each could take 30 photos if I remember right. If you scan them some day, I will definitely take a look at your blog 🙂 I admire you that you have been in China… If I’d be millionaire, it would be one of the first destinations to visit. Funnily, Russia is not that far away from me, as same as it is not far away from you 😀 Pretty large, huh?
We visited those countries in Feb/March 1990 and they were very different then from today. Hong Kong was not yet rejoined with China and in Beijing there were still more bicycles on the roads than cars. The big western hotels such as the Sheraton had arrived but we stayed in a smaller Chinese owned one with a reception desk on each floor where you handed in your keys when you went out. Sometimes due to the lack of English they gave us back the wrong ones. Local people were not allowed past the ground floor. In Moscow the first McDonalds had just opened, we didn’t go. I haven’t seen some of those pictures in so long because it is a hassle to get a slide projector out and load them up which is why I really ought to scan them and to share on the blog of course. Right now they are packed in a box in the garage as part of my decluttering to sell the house plan.
I can imagine that it changed a lot, because now China is growing and developing fast. I saw some very interesting documentaries about todays China.