Julian Köpke
I like to make things visible the naked eye isn't able to see. That's part of my profession as a radiologist, too.
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Calm before the storm ending
The first time in Japan is an overwhelming experience for me. Difficult to find words. We don’t really get to know Japanese. They are always very friendly and have a pronounced sin for beauty. There are also people here who live in homemade shelters on the street or rummage through waste bins.
Our primary touristic foci are the weather and the food. The weather starts with a capriole of a special kind. 3 days before a typhoon is supposed to hit the islands it gets sunny contrary to the announcements of all weather apps.
Sunrise in Tokyo © Julian Köpke 
Sunrise in Ikebukuro, Tokyo © Julian Köpke An earthquake is destroying our plans to observe volcanic activity in the mountains. Higher and higher waves force us to leave the coastal road to take our bus to Hakone. Traffic jam for the first time during our stay in Japan. The Pacific Ocean starts to show its aggressive moves.
Great wave off Kanagawa © Julian Köpke The threatening disaster with the approach to the mountains and the first massive impressions of Mount Fuji are forgotten. I’m a little frightened by the force of the mountain as if a curtain were drawn up.
Approaching Mount Fuji © Julian Köpke 
Mount Fuji seen from the bus © Julian Köpke Just arrived at the hotel we do not check-in, but quickly push around the shores of Lake Ashi to admire the mountain during sunset. The summit weather changes every minute.
Fuji seen from Lake Ashi © Julian Köpke 
Sunset at Mt. Fuji above Lake Ashi © Julian Köpke At such a sunset no one thinks of the threatening typhoon.
Sunset at Mt. Fuji in Hakone at Lake Ashi © Julian Köpke -
Japan, mon amour
New love. New feelings. Less than one day in Japan. Tokyo means architecture like a mountain range. Food like a fair of flavors. Mild temperatures in the urban area. Some warm rain now and then.
Tokyo Bay View © Julian Köpke Have I seen this before ? Hasn’t it been bigger ? The statue of liberty in Tokyo. Obaida: a skywalk for people and photographers.
Statue of liberty in Tokyo © Julian Köpke 
Spider Men in Obaida enjoying Tokyo © Julian Köpke A short night after a dinner in a typical restaurant. For the first time dining without shoes. Sitting low, feet underneath our tables. Lights, clouds and fog. Silence. Some sleep. Getting some rest.
Tokyo at night © Julian Köpke Dawn is coming. Pleasant change through translation in space and time. We are not lost.
Early morning in Tokyo © Julian Köpke -
Sinking ship
A reflection often leads me to a contemplation. That’s what happened to me today at the Berlin Reichstag.
At the shore of river Spree in Berlin are mounted plates to commemorate those who had been killed when trying to reach freedom. When photographing a reflection in a window front of the Berlin House of Representatives this reflection appeared slightly tilted and looked like a sinking ship.
Was the death of these people now pointless ?
What is the point of an overpopulated Reichstag, where the groups in dispute have lost fundamental commonalities and goals ?
Reflection or consideration: past and future in a window reflection ? Fall of the building Reichstag ? © Julian Köpke -
New wine X-ray photo of Pinot Noir
The expression „new wine“ is ambiguous in the German language. On the one hand, this refers to grape juice that has not yet begun to ferment. On the other hand, this means the freshly harvested grapes.
By chance we were given a delivery of fresh harvested grapes of the Pinot Noir variety, which we immediately subjected to an X-ray examination. An additional photograph of the composition from below the exit point of the X-rays was taken quickly with a Leica Q.
The result of this image fusion is shown here:
Pinot noir X-ray fusion image © Julian Köpke -
X-ray photos of grapes and sunflowers
Grapes as an object of X-raying have been inspiring me for a long time. Their structure remind the doctor of the azini of a gland or lung. The phycisist likes very much the partial and complete overlays alternating with free positions. As an artist I get an unbelievable freedom of image design.
My first X-ray imaging attempts with grapes were carried aout in October 2017. I’d forgotten !
Can something succesful be repeated ? Can it be deepened ? What is the power of the composition ?
Grapes picture in Hologic calendar September 2019 © Julian Köpke 
Grapes - creative representation of an X-ray with Lab color © Julian Köpke 
Grape X-ray photo © Julian Köpke 
Two days ago I tried toput my creativity into the composition. Two pictures were taken from grapes which differ only slightly. Their X-ray view on our monitor had a clearly different effect.
Grapes X-ray photo X-ray mammography photo © Julian Köpke 
Grapes composition II X-ray mammography photo © Julian Köpke My colleague by chance showed up with a bouquet of small sunflowers with long stalks. Amazing opportunity !
I dedicate this X-ray of a bouquet of sunflowers to my colleague Dr. Arendt. © Julian Köpke 
Bouquet of Sunflowers X-ray photo © Julian Köpke -
Vegetables X-ray photography
Harold implanted the idea of X-rays with onions in me. Although more than covered with professional requirements, I tried my hand at vegetable x-ray photography.
I can say it’s fun. Although a defective screen had to be replaced at the beginning. And you need some patience. Not every shot shows its beauty from the beginning. Some have to be developed first.
Let’s start with a corncob. It has many outer leaf layers, which lie close to it. X-rays look through and show the layers at the edge of the bulb as fine lines.
Corncob X-ray photo © Julian Köpke Here is a comparison of X-ray on the left side versus Mammography on the right side. A Belgian endive and a lettuce show much more contrast and fine structure in a mammography whereas X-ray gives more the impression of softness. Which goes well for a salad.
Chickory (Belgian endive) and lettuce X-ray photo © Julian Köpke 
Chickory (Belgian endive) and lettuce mammography X-ray photo © Julian Köpke Onions have a lot of liquid and are therefore radiopaque. I was curious to see which method would make it better to reveal the layerstructure of the onions. To my surprise mammography did a pretty good job.
Onions mammography X-ray photo © Julian Köpke 
Onions mammography X-ray photo © Julian Köpke Conventional X-ray offers more mystery, especially when you stack onions.
Stacked onions X-ray photo © Julian Köpke Some kind of layered structure also has fennel. I got two specimen that looked like mittens.
Fennel © Julian Köpke This year we had so many apples in our garden. They are red and look juicy. I had the chance to take two of them to my X-ray machine. With the help of two different orientations an interesting picture succeeds, because on of the apples still has a small branch.
May be there is some truth in the saying: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But as the dentist would say: no teeth, no apple.
Sleeping beauty's choice © Julian Köpke 
An apple a day keeps the doctor away © Julian Köpke -
Is this a photography ?
My conference schedule allowed me a walk through the Berlin Tiergarten Park in the morning. Of course, with a cam handy. While I was sitting on the shore of the Landwehr Canal, I let myself be carried away by the waves.
The waves made the reflections of the trees and bushes softly tremble. The resulting reflections became like paintings.
Reflections © Julian Köpke The processing was carried out only with regard to brightness and colors. Lab colors were used. Light-dark-contrasts were given by the waves.
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After the rain
Since days with an unsafe walk afflicted after an impact trauma with the head against a sloping roof in a Black Forest hotel last weekend I walk today after the first rain for weeks through our garden. Everything’s shines in rich colors under raindrops.
My first image is an attempt to capture two colors.
Physalis after the rain © Julian Köpke Warm and cold colors combined in these heucheria leaves.
Conflowers like stars within two colors.
Coneflower or Rudbeckia triloba © Julian Köpke -
Spider conch X-ray fusion photo
A friend gave me a shell of a spider conch to make more fusion images. The scientific name of the spider conch is lambis lambis and it is a sea snail. There is a nice Wikipedia article on it.
The hard shell with a lot of radiopaque lime made me doubt the success of my X-rays. On top, my first attempt at a HighKey image wasn’t really convincing. Only the combination of a normal photography for the color, a HighKey image for a transparency effect together with the X-ray image resulted in nice image.
Fusion image spider conch X-ray and photo seen from the bottom © Julian Köpke 
Fusion image spider conch (lambis lambis) X-ray and photo seen from above © Julian Köpke The X-ray image appear less lively, but full of formal power. The orientation of the animal is conveyed by the photographically reproduced color. There are only minimal hints wich orientation the X-ray has.
These are the corresponding X-ray images:
Spider conch (lambis lambis) © Julian Köpke 
Spider conch (lambis lambis) © Julian Köpke -
Thundercloud vortex
Has the future ever been read from the migration of the clouds ? Their forms and movements have always been exciting and inspiring for me. A vortex of clouds immediately creates a vortex of emotions.
That is why clouds have long been the subject of my photographic interest and I have created a considerable collection of cloud images.
Last night a long heat wave ended with a thunderstorm. Above our house the clouds were swirling, lightning sometimes closer, sometimes further away. Islands of brightness changed rapidly in a threatening sea of black clouds.
Swirling Thunderclouds © Julian Köpke 
Swirling Thunderclouds. Before the rain starts © Julian Köpke In some ways, these clouds remind me of interstellar gas clouds in our galaxy. In the example below the colors of the panorama image of M8 (or „Lagoon Nebula“) are suppressed to better recognize the structure.
M8 Lagoon Nebula Panorama of 6 tiles © Julian Köpke
