Sanssouci on Film
The splendid Sanssouci Palace that was the much beloved home of its builder - Frederick the Great. 1/25s 111mm F32 Focus set at 8m Kodak Gold 200.
Potsdam was always on my list of places to visit whilst I was staying in Berlin. Handily the hour-long train journey is cheap affair with the station sitting at the end of Berlin’s inexpensive S-Bahn. However, I never did get a chance to really see much of Potsdam itself despite spending the whole day there. Why? Because I was so enthralled by the wonders of Sanssouci. The former residence and playground for the Prussian Kings of old, ‘Sans Souci’ itself means ‘carefree’. I challenge you to find another place with so many beautiful and grand buildings in a single area.
The colonnades in the castle courtyard. This area is where you line up for your tour inside the castle itself. 1/25s 111mm F22 Focus set at 15m Kodak Gold 200.
One of many marble statues you will see at Sanssouci. Unfortunately the large, orange light leak is very visible and is also present on many of the images of this blog. 1/25s 111mm F22 Focus set at 3m Kodak Gold 200.
The star attraction is Sanssouci Palace itself. Built in splendid Rococo style by Frederick the Great in 1748, it was his summer palace where he would eagerly receive guests and even held small music concerts playing music that he himself had composed. Whilst visiting Sanssouci Park is free, for those so inclined, you can go on a paid tour inside the palace. It’s a little bit steep for the forty-minute self-guided tour but it gives you a chance to experience the Frederician opulence up close. The furnishings are exquisite and there’s numerous famous painting on display including the Andy Warhol of Frederick the Great right at the end. You even get to see the green leather chair that the King died sitting in. I didn’t take any photos though as you need to pay extra for that and there was simply no time or space to set up a tripod for my No.1 Pocket Kodak camera.
The famed Sanssouci Windmill that irritated Frederick the Great to no end, yet he failed to buy it from its defiant owner. 1/4s (B) 111mm F45 Focus set at 3m Kodak Gold 200.
Approaching the Monopteras, fake ruins that Frederick the Great built as oversized garden decorations. 1/25s 111mm F22 Focus set at 15m Kodak Gold 200.
If you’ve read last week’s blog, then you’ll know I had to go out and buy more 120 roll film as I ran out faster than I expected. I decided to pick up a box of Kodak Gold 200 and have my first proper attempt at shooting colour film with this camera to see the results I would get. These cameras lack any real coatings present in modern lenses, so I was curious how true to life they would be and how much detail I could eke out of ISO 200 film, as opposed to the ISO 50 Ilford Pan F Plus I’d otherwise been shooting with.
The sight that impressed me the most. The architecture of the Orangery Palace is simply exquisite and this was my favourite photo from the four rolls of film. 1/25s 111mm F32 Focus set at 8m Kodak Gold 200.
Approaching the Belvedere on Klausberg through the avenue of trees. 1/4s (B) 111mm F45 Focus set at 8m Kodak Gold 200.
I managed to shoot a whopping four rolls in a single day, a new record for me with this camera. That may not sound like a lot being only thirty-two images, but that is very intense for the mental and physical effort of carefully setting up a shot after finding a composition. Frustratingly many shots were blighted by light leaks which caused me to curse no end when I got the film back from the lab. I’ve subsequently learned my lesson to cover the film number window over with black tape and not to allow direct sunlight into it. However, shooting with this camera is not about perfection and I’m really happy overall with what I captured. I even had a very enjoyable conversation in German when someone more local than me came up to ask about what I was shooting with.
New Palace is the largest and grandest building at Sanssouci. It is also said to be the last of the Prussian Baroque palaces. 1/4s (B) 111mm F45 Focus set at 15m Kodak Gold 200.
Believe it or not this building is actually part of Potsdam University. 1/4s (B) 111mm F32 Focus set at 8m Kodak Gold 200.
After walking through and around the Palace I tried to walk around the rest of the grounds in a somewhat sensible loop that ultimately took up the rest of the day. Frederick the Great is also responsible for the biggest palace, New Palace, which sits at the opposite end and really does dwarf the rather small Sanssouci Palace. However, whilst the latter was only ever for private use the former was built with state functions in mind. The other grand palace known as the Orangery Palace was built much later by Friedrich Wilhelm IV, and as its name suggest, built to house large numbers of tropical plants. This was my favourite of all the things I visited and luckily also the subject of my best photo of the day.
The students of Potsdam University are very lucky to be able to study in such historic buildings. There must be bountiful levels of inspiration for those who are here on a regular basis. 1/4s (B) 111mm F45 Focus set at 30m Kodak Gold 200.
My attempt to shoot the pocket camera wide open. At least the top of the statue came out in sharp focus. 1/25s 111mm F7.9 Focus set at 3m Kodak Gold 200.
With endless bright sunshine and a higher ISO and I had a lot more opportunities to shoot with the built in 1/25s shutter speed, making life a lot easier than guessing fractions of a second with bulb mode. Colour negative film still has decent tolerances for overexposure but you certainly wouldn’t want any weird colour shifts. Looking at some of the images up close it’s clear that not everything is in focus at times, but to me that doesn’t matter all too much, especially as this camera was designed with small contact prints in mind. There were no 4k monitors to blow images up to one hundred percent in the 1920s. But when everything is in focus the detail is very impressive for such an old camera and simple lens, with images that still have a certain retro feel to them as though they belong in a copy of National geographic from fifty or sixty years ago. I did even try to photograph something wide open at F7.9 to see what would happen. As expected, the depth of field was all over the place but at least some things came out sharp and it was good to make the attempt. I think I could get better results with a lot of careful practice in angling the camera, but I doubt it’s worth that much stress.
The Roman Baths at Charlottenhof. Despite its name this building never contained dedicated bathing facilities and came from inspiration derived from a trip to Italy in the early 19th century. 3s (B) 111mm F32 Focus set at 5m Kodak Gold 200.
The opulent figures that decorate the exterior of the Chinese House. Also built at the time of Frederick the Great. 3s (B) 111mm F32 Focus set at 3m Kodak Gold 200.
If you do make it to Berlin than I cannot highly recommend enough visiting Potsdam and Sanssouci. Being so easy to get to there’s really no reason not to go and you will be seeing something you’ll have a hard time seeing somewhere else. The level of wealth, both monetarily and culturally, on display here is breath taking and it is very fortunate that these buildings were not destroyed in the dying days of the Second World War like so much of Berlin. They are well preserved for future generations to enjoy and photograph. I think next time though I’ll take a more straightforward camera so I can relax and unwind just as the royals intended.
The end of my journey through Sanssouci, looking upon the vineyard terraces as the sun was sinking in the sky. 3s (B) 111mm F45 Focus set at 8m Kodak Gold 200.
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