Mario Cuic: What Was He Thinking?

Mario Cuic is a photographer based in Germany.

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The picture was taken after my first exhibition with Seconds2Real in Berlin in 2011. At night after the vernissage I had some beer with the guys. The next day with a little hangover we had the plan to do some walking around Berlin. I met Siegfried Hansen and Guido Steenkamp. We weren't focused on the surroundings. We were more talking than taking pictures. At the Potsdamer Platz, suddenly we remembered the reason we walking around. Everyone went straight on his own way to look for something. I still didn’t really feel it, and I searched for a nice place to have a rest. I found a striking yellow cable cover with a breaker box and sat on it hoping that something might be happen soon. After 15 minutes, nothing had happened. I became inattentive. Precisely when I decided to leave I saw this boy far away, wearing a jacket with a conspicuous yellow zipper. Perfect, I told myself and prayed that he came in my direction close to the yellow cable cover. My prayer was heard. The boy came directly to the yellow cable cover. I waited with the viewfinder in front of my eye for a good moment. I think I took 3 shots. During the second shot, the boy steped over the cable cover and looked straight into my lens. The surrounding people are also mostly in good position. I smiled, the boy didn't stop. He walked away and my hangover was gone.

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The picture was taken at Oktoberfest in Munich, one of the biggest and famous beer festivals in the world. Every year since 2008 I've taken one week free from work to photograph Oktoberfest. On my way to the festival area and befitting my Croatian nativity and to be on the same beer level as the other people I had also a beer with me. In my left hand the beer and in the right hand my camera but as ever looking for some stuff to happen or some absurdity. In a second there was one of these absurdities. The scene came and vanished as quick as it had come. I had a small timeframe and managed to take two shots. One frame is without the woman and in the other frame is the woman on the right edge. I liked the situation, how she looks at the guys and carrying the big bag like a nanny. In this situation I had a tribute to the beer and acted clumsy because I didn’t notice that the small carrying strap of the rangefinder covered the lens just in the moment of the shot. As result, you can see the strap on the right side on the picture. No more beer, I swear! 

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The picture was taken on my standard “photo walking” route in Munich. At this time nearly every other day I have a walk with my camera. The camera hungs as always ready over my shoulder and I am absolutely focused and observe the surroundings for interesting stuff. I passed over a bus stop and didn’t notice the guy with the porn magazine. Instead I noticed an old woman who was probably waiting for the bus and sitting beside this guy and could not stop watching him. She was totally excited and could not believe what happened here. The situation was strange. I didn't stop and went inconspicuously further directly behind the bus stop station. From this position I could see what made the lady so excited. The guy was absolutely deep in his porno magazine and didn't care about the old lady and the surroundings. I made two shots, one with and one without the lady. Both frames were good but I decided to show the picture without the woman because it already describes the situation in the best way and I don’t want present the face of the old lady in combination with the porno magazine. I was more interested to show the guy who was reading pornos in public and nothing could put him out of countenance. I also didn’t care about his behavior and I was happy that I finished my tour with a photographic orgasm.

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This picture was also taken on my standard “photo walking” route in Munich. As I mentioned before, every other day I am on my way with my camera to find something intresting. Suddenly I was in the middle of a public demonstration with young people. They demonstrated the GEMA, a German agency which is currently being controversially discussed in public. The GEMA collects fees for playing copyrighted music in public. In any
case, all the kids were very pleasant and I enjoyed their company. I took some pictures of the mass and I was looking for new perspectives. That's why I climbed the stairs to a monument behind the demonstration. I arrived upstairs and noticed the handmade warning sign. I liked the selfmade sign and I decided to compose a picture with it. The sign would be the focus of the frame and the background would be the people. I thought, “Hopefully something interesting might happen to make the picture perfect." And Bam, I got it. I was right and in luck. I finished composing, and one second later the guy was with his hand in the picture. That was it. I took one shot and was happy. 

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The picture was taken in Munich. In my company I work a two-shift system and on this day I worked the late shift. Before I went to work I had two important appointments. In a hurry and thinking don’t be too late to work, I was running from the first appointment to the second one. Inattentive and lost in thought and thinking about the second appointment. From the corner of my ey and in a hurry I saw this woman sitting behind a piano. This situation was awesome and curious. In this moment I forgot my appointment and started the long time trained procedure. I took my camera (I never leave my home without a camera), ran to the best position for taking a good frame and took two or three shots. During the last shot the woman noticed me and looked straight into my lens. I smiled at her and walked away.

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The picture was taken in Munich on a Sunday. On this day my girlfriend Steffi and I got up quite late, and we had no idea what we should do for the rest of the day. But I already had a solution, go out and do some photography and search for some curiosity. We rode the subway into the city. During the ride we had a discussion about photography about different styles, about personal devolopment and how important it is to edit etc... As ever when I'm talking philosophy I sound like a schoolteacher and my girlfriend rolled her eyes (but thats a different story). We left the subway, and I already started to set the camera to be ready. We went 10 meters, and as it always happens, from one second to another, there was the scene with the guy, like out of nowhere. I went as fast as I could to the best position and did three shots from the lateral view. The situation was not changed and I was not so satisfied with the frames. I changed my position and took two additional shots. When I finished, the scene was almost gone. Lucky enough with the shots we walked away.

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The picture was taken in Munich. It was a hot Sunday and I went on my standard “photo walking” route through Munich always looking for anything interesting to photograph. I stopped at a café and ordered an iced coffee. At the same time, approximately 100 meters away, the railway from the tram was being rebuilt. This situation raised my interest and I watched the situation about 10 minutes sitting in front of my coffee. After finishing the iced coffee I walked closer to the construction area. I went behind the barrier of the construction and looked toward the workers, to see if something interesting happened. Just at this moment, a new construction worker group displaced the other ones. It was shift change. One of the workers went suddenly to a political advertisement with a marker and started to paint out a tooth. Fortunately, I was in the right place. I went quickly to him and
took two shoots. As fast as everything starts, in the same way the scene passed by. No one recognized me and I was so glad about my luck that I decided to stay and to have a second iced coffee.

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This picture was taken in Munich. As often happens, I met my friend Holger in the city. By the way he is a great camera freak, and can speak endless hours about gear. I went to him, to present my different replacement lens for my broken lens that I bought for my rangefinder. After some time having a coffee and endless loooooong conversation, I had the urge to do a good thing and take shots with the gear. We took the subway and rode two stations. Always prepared, I set the camera properties before I left the station. My friend stayed in the subway station and took some shots in it but for me the scene in the station was not as interesting. I went outside and saw the scene which starts right now. I got in position to take some shots. During the last shot, the guy was directly looking into my lens. That made the picture more exciting for me. I lowered my camera, smiled at the guy and left. By the way, did I mention I sold the objective later because it was toooo heavy. 

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This picture was taken in Hamburg. I was there for a weekend trip visiting my friend Siegfried Hansen. We had great conversation and did a lot of photography in Hamburg. We talked about taking pictures, how to frame, the personal lost in pictures combined with tunnel vision, about the meaning of our pictures taken in the past, and the development process. With Siegfried I always have nice conversations about personal development. After a long walk, the day was almost over and we reached the neighborhood Hamburg Hafencity near the river Elbe. This neighborhood was renewed in the last few years and now it presents itself in a shining and futuristic design particularly suitable for shooting. We went quietly through the crowd. And it happened again, some scene that I was hoping to find for the entire day began to develop slowly in front of me. I saw the different characters and I liked the wall and I went straight to the place. I took 3-4 shots as the scene disappeared. I smiled to the people and walked slowly away. Later I found Siegfried nearby and we walked away. 

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This picture was taken in Frankfurt. I went to Frankfurt because of an exhibition which I was interested to see at the Museum für Moderne Kunst. For the rest of the weekend I planned sightseeing and photographing across all neighborhoods of Frankfurt. I met a friend of mine, Andrea Diener who also does some photography. So we walked together through the busy passageways of Frankfurt. The half day was already over and we got into some trouble with a guy who was not enthusiastic about the fact that Andrea took a picture of him. Some handsome words and complex and well trained negotiation skills helped us to find a solution and the world was safe in peace and love. ;) Already dusk was approaching when we arrived a construction site where I saw this "bike". I got a nice picture in my mind and thought about "what might happen here". I want to make some shot, but the traffic was heavy and I had to be very careful and fast to avoid a shot from a car and myself on the top of a hood. That's why I had to be very fast. I ran to the point, and took two shots with different image buildups.