Choosing this Year‘s Top Ten

Picking this year’s top ten was rough until I realized it wasn’t. In fact, the whole year was a difficult one for me to begin with. In March, I suffered a sudden hearing loss. It occurred during a trip to London, so I didn’t immediately consult a doctor. When I did, they told me the hearing loss was very likely to go away again. Three weeks of highly dosed cortisone treatment and another two months of waiting and hoping later, I had to accept: It didn’t. Getting used to 90% hearing loss and wearing hearing aids took much of my time, energy, and enthusiasm. Add a significant increase in day job workload to the mix, and you will understand why I didn’t photograph half as often as in previous years. And when I did, I was often tired, exhausted, and uninspired. Ironically, though, my output didn’t fall off in quality. And more of my images were closer to my heart than in previous years. As a result, my first selection was significantly smaller than in recent years, but it was much harder for me to remove images in the subsequent passes of my selection process.

I really struggled – until I finally remembered that for some of the photos, I had already decided that I wanted them in the top ten right away when I first saw them on the camera display. I had forgotten about these decisions over the troubles and worries of the year. It already filled seven of the ten slots. For the remaining three, I used my secret weapon, which has already eased the selection process in the past – I chose a motto that all ten images would have to adhere to. Looking at the seven photos I already had, I decided to go with “Second Thoughts and Sidelong Glances.” “Second Thoughts” due to the abstract pictures in the pool – I have always felt that abstract imagery requires some second looks and deeper thinking. “Sidelong Glances” due to the way the gorilla and (even more so) the griffon are looking back at the viewer.

With this title in mind, choosing the remaining three was relatively easy. So, here are my top ten photos of 2023, along with some notes on why I chose them and how they fit this year’s motto. Enjoy!

Quantumania #5

The photographs from the Quantumania series were featured on Frames Magazine‘s website. In a blog post interview for them, I noted:

“Looking for new ideas for macro photos, I watched a tutorial on YouTube about pictures of oil in water. The guy put a small glass container on a glass table, filled it with water, and lit it from below. He then used a syringe to drip oil into the water. He then photographed the droplets with a macro lens.

I wanted to try this out but had to make do with the tools I had in the house: tap water, a Manfrotto LED light, two stools, and an old glass cutting board covered with countless signs of use in the form of scratches. In doing so, I broke almost every rule in the tutorial: use distilled water (because it’s supposedly the purest), arrange multiple light sources, put everything on a spotless glass surface, etc.

The supposed disadvantages of my tools gave the resulting images their charm. The poorly controllable light created strong contrasts, and the scratches in the glass created surreal-looking lines and shapes in the pictures. Post-processing (exclusively in Lightroom) was just a matter of correcting the crop and fine-tuning the contrasts.

YouTube tutorials are fine, but one should never make the mistake of confusing the working methods and techniques suggested there with rules that one must not break.

All in all, nine presentable images came out of this session. I called the series Quantumania because shortly before the session, I had seen the latest Ant-Man movie by the same name. The photographs reminded me of the movie’s imagery of what the protagonists saw when they shrank further and further while entering into what they called the Quantum Realm.”

This photo is not only fascinating to look at but also inspires a few second thoughts about what we see in the frame. 

Liquidity

I created this photo after purchasing a brand new pane of glass and an Adaptalux macro lighting system to have fewer scratches and more control over the photograph’s lighting. The result is one of the photos I immediately knew would end up in this year’s top ten. The clarity of the detail and composition of the bubbles together create an image that stands out to me as iconic.

Winton Gallery Ceiling #7

This is another instant pick. And it also has a very iconic appeal to it, but I don’t take credit for that. When you photograph an iconic piece of architecture like the interior roof of the Winton Gallery in London’s Science Museum, our images are bound to turn out iconic. So, thank you, Zaha Hadid, for creating this marvelous roof – and providing a wonderfully photogenic subject matter.

There’s Nothing to See #2

This is one of the photos that made it into the collection after I picked this year’s motto. It takes a lot of second thoughts to get my head around it more than any other photo in this collection. And, to tell you the truth, I am still trying to figure out what I photographed here. From seeing this corner in the Winton Gallery to framing it in camera and processing it the way I did, every decision was based on an instinctive gut feeling. There is a particular mystery about this photo – a mystery that is the actual subject matter. It’s about innuendo, suggestions, and unanswered questions that will make you lose your mind if you try to answer them. Hence, the title – the subject matter is not visible here. There truly is nothing to see. All the lines are leading nowhere. But there is a lot of atmosphere to be felt. 

Ruhr Museum #2

There is something wonderfully odd about this photograph. Something about the perspective isn’t quite right. It almost resembles a composite image with the conveyor belt montaged on top of the museum. But it is indeed a single exposure taken at the Zollverein Industrial Complex in Essen, Germany. You see, I didn’t shoot from a 90° angle. It was more of a diagonal angle, shooting from the right. Then, I straightened the lines of the building in the background using Lightroom’s Transform tool. The result is striking. When I saw it, I immediately knew this photo would end up in this year’s top ten. A big Thank You must also go to whoever opened the window in the lower right-hand corner.

Victoria Regina Imperatrix #3

Even though this photo was one of the last to make it into the selection, it represents this year’s motto better than all the others. The sidelong glance good ole Vicky is casting over at the strapping fellow statue in the foreground clearly indicates that there are quite a few second thoughts in her mind. Vicky’s expression is quite ambiguous, though. Whether she thinks this guy is rather hot or if she looks in disapproval because she disagrees with the progress he is supposed to symbolize in the sculptor’s mind, we will never know. This is what makes her sidelong glance so fascinating. It may be subtle, almost furtive, and not very present in the frame, but if you are like me, you cannot unsee it once you have seen it. And even though I have taken more visually spectacular photos in London on this year’s trip, it is because of Vicky’s sidelong glance that this photo, and not the other ones, made it into this year’s top ten.

Nordkirchen Castle

Every year on Father’s Day, I get up before sunrise and head out to an early morning photo trip. This year’s outing saw me shooting at Nordkirchen Castle, about 40km from my home. I love these early morning trips because I am usually all alone, making it a uniquely silent and almost meditative experience.

This is the very first photo of the castle, taken upon arrival at the castle lake. The sun had not yet risen. I have taken many other shots of both the castle and the gardens with their statues, but none match the light and the serene mood of the first one – which makes it a clear candidate for this year’s top ten.

Eurasian Griffon #8

This one is the least pleasing of all the griffon portraits I have taken over the years. While the others are impressively pixel-perfect and well-lit, this one adds another layer to the picture. In my mind, carrion eaters that feast on the rotten remains of other formerly living beings are not exactly appealing figures – and this portrait reflects this sinister nature of the griffons nicely. You can feel its sidelong glance more than you can see it. And you can clearly hear its message: You are next!

As I said, this is not very pleasing, but it is my favorite griffon portrait to date.

Gorilla

Animal portraits on black backgrounds have been my thing for 12 years now. There has been at least one of these portraits in every top ten I have put together, and this year is no exception. While the griffon is already one of these portraits, it stands out a little for reasons I have discussed above. On the other hand, this portrait of a female gorilla ticks all the boxes of a classic black and white studio portrait – without having been taken in a studio. But it is not the photo’s technical perfection that made me include it here, but the stories that are told by these magnificent, deep eyes. They lure me to return to this photograph and contemplate all the experiences, good and sad, that shaped the expression in those eyes. 

Musca Domestica #3

So, it’s an ordinary housefly. One of those pesky little insects people tend to squash when they start getting on their nerves. Isn’t it too ordinary a subject to include in this list of exclusive photographs? Well, in this case, the image isn’t solely about the fly but even more so about the context in which it is depicted. To me, it is more about the composition of the fly sitting on top of the layered petals and leaves that are receding into the distance. And it is about the story these elements tell: A young housefly daring its very first flight but not quite being able to muster the courage for the takeoff. What is your interpretation? Please let me know in the comments.

Conclusion

As usual, I have created a video showcasing this year‘s top ten with some music. You can watch it below or on YouTube. Enjoy!

So, these are my top ten photographs of 2023. Please let me know what you think. If you go through a similar exercise of choosing your favorites of the year, please share a link in the comments. I’d love to see them all.

In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones health, success, good fortunes, and all the good things you can imagine for 2023. Take care!