In your bag No: 1626 – Marvin Lawrow
Marvin hauls his beloved beast and its friends everywhere he wanders to capture monochrome magic.
My name is Marvin Lawrow. I’m a photographer from Königswinter, Germany and I am 21 years old.
Photography became the big thing in my life next to music, when I was about 12 and my dad gave me his old Canon EOS 50E, together with the 50mm f/1.8 and a 20mm f/2.8 and I started to shoot my friends, things and places on some Agfa APX 100. After finishing school, when I was 18, I started and finished an apprenticeship as a photographer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where I am still working today. So my daily business is industrial and scientific photography. Currently I am visiting the photography masterclass to become a photography master of crafts in the german tradition.
In my free time I just love to go out and shoot. My work mainly focuses on old industrial facilities, interesting buildings and minimalist/suprematist forms, structures and details. My biggest Inspiration are Bernd and Hilla Becher. I never shot people that much but since the last months I’m developing a new fondness for portrait stuff. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting older.
At work everything is digital of course, but my big passion still is black and white film. Tri-X to be exact. I just love this stuff, use it almost exclusively and I develop and scan/print all myself. A lot of my private work is shot on my Mamiya RB67 Pro S, mostly with the 90mm. Sometimes i reach for the 50 or the 180mm, but the 90 is on my RB for 90% of the time. And I take the darn thing anywhere. I literally carried her for days over the Portuguese mountains and through endless German forests. But when I want to go light I grab my two Minolta SRT Bodies. Usually one with a 50mm f/1.7 and the other with a 28mm f/2.8. I also got the 45mm pancake lens, which I tend use when I grab only one body. I’m currently saving to “upgrade” the Minoltas to a Leica M6 and a 35mm Cron – My dream for years now.
My digital camera of choice is the X-Pro2 together with the 23, and 35mm Fujicrons. As you can see I am thoroughly a prime shooter. There are no zooms in my life. Matt Byrne referred to the Fujis as the the monochrome shooter’s colour cameras. And that’s kinda true, at least in my case. I just love the colors sooc and the film simulations. I shoot RAW+JPG but I never develop the RAWs. I only use them as a kind of backup if I decide that I want a different look on a picture, then I do a conversion in camera. I even don’t load the RAWs on my computer. Just expose like slide film and there you go. I just like to keep everything as minimalist and flexible as possible. The bag pictured is a (cheapo) Rollei Leather Bag, but it’s holding up surprisingly well for a few years now and I carry it every day. For the RB I got a very large “Fotima” vintage bag from the 80s – It’s not the prettiest but large enough to fit my RB67, three lenses, two magazines, a polaroid cassette, some filters, a prism finder, a hand grip, my light meter (a Sekonic Twinmate L-208 btw), a cable release, my Metz 45 CL-4 and some other smaller stuff.
When I’m not holding a camera I’m playing bass in my punk band or hitting the keys of my analog synthesizers.
You can see some of my photos on Instagram: www.instagram.com/m_lawrow
Cheers!
-Marv
Photography became the big thing in my life next to music, when I was about 12 and my dad gave me his old Canon EOS 50E, together with the 50mm f/1.8 and a 20mm f/2.8 and I started to shoot my friends, things and places on some Agfa APX 100. After finishing school, when I was 18, I started and finished an apprenticeship as a photographer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where I am still working today. So my daily business is industrial and scientific photography. Currently I am visiting the photography masterclass to become a photography master of crafts in the german tradition.
In my free time I just love to go out and shoot. My work mainly focuses on old industrial facilities, interesting buildings and minimalist/suprematist forms, structures and details. My biggest Inspiration are Bernd and Hilla Becher. I never shot people that much but since the last months I’m developing a new fondness for portrait stuff. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting older.
At work everything is digital of course, but my big passion still is black and white film. Tri-X to be exact. I just love this stuff, use it almost exclusively and I develop and scan/print all myself. A lot of my private work is shot on my Mamiya RB67 Pro S, mostly with the 90mm. Sometimes i reach for the 50 or the 180mm, but the 90 is on my RB for 90% of the time. And I take the darn thing anywhere. I literally carried her for days over the Portuguese mountains and through endless German forests. But when I want to go light I grab my two Minolta SRT Bodies. Usually one with a 50mm f/1.7 and the other with a 28mm f/2.8. I also got the 45mm pancake lens, which I tend use when I grab only one body. I’m currently saving to “upgrade” the Minoltas to a Leica M6 and a 35mm Cron – My dream for years now.
My digital camera of choice is the X-Pro2 together with the 23, and 35mm Fujicrons. As you can see I am thoroughly a prime shooter. There are no zooms in my life. Matt Byrne referred to the Fujis as the the monochrome shooter’s colour cameras. And that’s kinda true, at least in my case. I just love the colors sooc and the film simulations. I shoot RAW+JPG but I never develop the RAWs. I only use them as a kind of backup if I decide that I want a different look on a picture, then I do a conversion in camera. I even don’t load the RAWs on my computer. Just expose like slide film and there you go. I just like to keep everything as minimalist and flexible as possible. The bag pictured is a (cheapo) Rollei Leather Bag, but it’s holding up surprisingly well for a few years now and I carry it every day. For the RB I got a very large “Fotima” vintage bag from the 80s – It’s not the prettiest but large enough to fit my RB67, three lenses, two magazines, a polaroid cassette, some filters, a prism finder, a hand grip, my light meter (a Sekonic Twinmate L-208 btw), a cable release, my Metz 45 CL-4 and some other smaller stuff.
When I’m not holding a camera I’m playing bass in my punk band or hitting the keys of my analog synthesizers.
You can see some of my photos on Instagram: www.instagram.com/m_lawrow
Cheers!
-Marv
Thanks for sending us your bag shot Marvin. Takes some young shoulder and back muscles to carry this sweet setup, jealous!
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Japancamerahunter
