KITSCHKRIEG: Beginnings and Monochromatic Love with Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition

We teamed up with Berlin-based producer trio KITSCHKRIEG to create a cool special edition of the Lomography Simple Use Reusable Film Camera. KITSCHKRIEG members °awhodat°, Fiji Kris and Fizzle are currently flipping the German music scene upside down with their fantastic music through stunning high contrast black and white visuals, and exciting collaborations. To ring in the release of the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition, we invited KITSCHKRIEG for an interview!

Hi KITSCHKRIEG, and welcome to the Lomography Magazine! First of all, our readers are certainly curious to find out more about you – can you give us a little insight?

Thanks for the invitation! KITSCHKRIEG was born in 2015 in a Kreuzberg flat-share. Life had brought all of us to Berlin where we "re-met". We already knew each other from previous projects or failed studies. In Berlin, we started working together and one thing led to another. Today we are still in Kreuzberg, but we each have our own apartment. :-)

You don't see your music as mere acoustic masterpieces but as a complete package with catchy visuals, why is that so important in your eyes and why did you choose black and white?

The whole package has always been important to us, that is music & visuals. As a crew like we are, you're usually always shooting videos with a new production company, working with new people, and so on. That's not our thing. We want to make art together as a gang and that's why factors like photography and video art are equally important as music is for us.

Black and white is enough color for us. ;) No seriously: black and white images often have a greater impact by reducing to the essentials of (natural) light, shadow, and the subject – that's enough to tell good stories.

°awhodat° has always been enthusiastic about black and white photography - how did it start and what connects you with film photography?

I had two must-haves that I took everywhere with me from a very early age: a Walkman and a small compact camera with which I captured everything around me – a kind of visual diary – just for me. Color photos have found their way into my life quite a bit later, in our house there used to be only black and white photos which were partly developed by myself. So it was completely normal to photograph a colorful world and to hold the result in black and white in my hands.

Digitally, everything can still be edited and faked afterward and there are so many possibilities. With film photography, on the other hand, you are more reduced: to 24 or 36 images, the decision whether to insert color or black and white film. Analog is also not so easy to plan and leaves more room for coincidences.

In your songs, you often have artists working together that one would not expect to hear together, songs are sampled and boundaries are crossed – would you describe your music as experimental? Do you see a connection to your joy of experimentation when it comes to photography?

We don't see ourselves as being more experimental than average, we're more surprised at how monotonous everything else is out there, especially in Germany. There are a lot more intersections between genres and artists in music than you think, you don't always have to do the same song with the same people. ;-) We just allow ourselves to do what we feel, and that's also parallel to photography. Everything is allowed if it feels right. A picture can be 90% black and be our official press photo or an album cover.

What is your inspiration for the design of the camera and what is the message you want to pass on to your community with it?

Splash black white, Colors black white, black white, big up °awhodat°, everything black white! We just wanted to bring some Lomography into our world and we succeeded. We are very happy with the result.

What do you like most about the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition?

Even though we don't shoot analogue and our format is 16:9 and not 35 mm, the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition carries features from our own visual world, such as low ISO, intense contrasts and a slight noise or grainy film look.

It's so beautifully straightforward to use and you can instantly point and shoot, capturing moments right there and then. It's not about ultra-technical photography, it's about capturing the moment, moods, and emotions and those are always the most important. It's the same with music, where it's much more important to capture the right moment than the perfect combination of mic, preamp, and all the other technical bells and whistles.

What are your tips for beginners who are trying film photography for the first time with your Simple Use Film Camera?

Just do it. Seriously. SIMPLY DO IT! Listen to your gut and do your thing. Don't listen to people who say, "You can't do it this way, you have to do it this way!" If you ignore that you develop your own style and from experience, we can say that often the "mistakes" are the most interesting at the end of the day. So make more mistakes!

We are already super excited about your future projects and are sure, there are still exciting things to come! Can you already tell us a little bit about what we can look forward to?

We could, but we won't! :-)

Thanks so much to KITSCHKRIEG for this exciting interview! Shop the new Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition and check out our Community Competitions for a chance to win exclusive merch from KITSCHKRIEG.

You can find more from KITSCHKRIEG on their website, their Instagram and their YouTube channel.

All photos from KITSCHKRIEG taken with the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera B&W KITSCHKRIEG Edition.

written by Kathi on 2021-10-20 #gear #people