Eight Minutes Old

A wonderful slating review of the new German esoteric-magazine “Happinez” by Jenni Zylka on Spiegel Online. Beautyfully written, but unfortunately in German.

As you know, I’ve been in Munich two weeks ago to visit two photo exhibitions and enjoy the weekend. This is my review of one of those exhibitions: “MAGNUM’S first - Face of Time 1955-1956″. The next, on Egglestons “Democratic Camera” will follow.

This exhibition is old. The pictures were originally presented in five cities in Austria over 50 years ago, making it the first exhibition of the photography agency MAGNUM. After the last exhibition ended, the works were put into two crates, stored in the basement of the French Cultural Institute in Innsbruck and forgotten. It isn’t even known who put them into the crates and why. But some 50 years later, the big surprise: they were found. And put on display again in the Gallery WestLicht in Vienna, Gallery Flo Peters in Hamburg and now in the Versicherungskammer Bayern in Munich.

I’d like to comment on all eight photographers, but will put more emphasis on the series I liked most. Afterwards there will be some comments on the exhibition of a whole and the catalog. The corresponding portfolios at Magnum Photos can be found here.

• Robert Capa: Famous for his war photography (e.g. the republican soldier killed while jumping in the Spanish Civil War or his photos from D-Day in Normandy) contributed a series on a celebrating town, showing that he also had other subjects, too.
• Henry Cartier-Bresson: The documentary on the last hours and the burial of Mahatma Gandhi was his contribution to this exhibition. He, by chance, had a appointment with Gandhi mere hours before he was assassinated and thus had the chance to create this unique photographic chronology of the events. First, calm pictures of Gandhi with a few people only, then the nightly photo of the Indian prime minister Nehru announcing Gandhi’s assassination in front of a crowd, followed by photos of the mourning masses. The increasing number of people in the pictures and the more and more tight standing transport well the dramatic events and the overall mood of shock and grief, but is ended with a photo I interpret as a glimmer of hope: a young boy, isolated by the framing, during the funeral, lets some sand fall in front of his feet. As if he wanted to spread the ash. This again calm picture may be read as a hint that these kids are the future, they are what counts now.
• Erich Lessing: His pictures documents the childrens’ life in Vienna, Austria. The kids are depicted while playing, but he manages to put them on equal footing with the grown-up.
• Werner Bischof: The series of seven works from his trips somehow stand out of the others. First, it is no coherent series, but should be seen as a collection of single pictures. What they have in common (and what at the same time separates them from the other series) is the poetic, dream like appearance and the impression, that this world is somehow distant from our experience. It might have to do with the locations (Peru, Cambodia, Japan and India) but is also a matter of style. People are seen from behind or maybe from the side, but in contrast to the other series you never see their complete faces. The most fascinating shot is from Cambodia. He took it from the ground, showing two cows and a person with a big leave acting as a sun shade, with some thin trees in the blurred background. The scenery and perspective appear surreal to me, but fascinate me each time a look at the picture. And a technical note: the shades of gray in the sky, on the cows and the grass are perfect, even after over 50 years in a box.
• Inge Morath: She took her series for the “Holiday Magazine” in the districts of Soho and Mayfair in London, showing mostly rich people and their isolation.
• Ernst Haas: These pictures are a strong contrast, because here, nobody is in isolation. He shot at the film set of “Land of the Pharaos” where thousands of extras reenacted the building of a pyramid. Excluding the film crew’s equipment in his photos, the pictures look like coming straight out of a time capsule. They are interesting, but have this staged impression. Well, somehow they are, because it’s a film set, but then it is a reportage of this staging.
• Marc Riboud: Pictures from behind the iron curtain, shot in Split and Dubrovnik. He mostly took street portraits of the average people (and a cat) and includes some landscape. The funniest picture is the last: a photo of a circa 2×3 meter painted portrait of Tito that is carried into a house.
• Jean Marquis: Published this series of photos from Hungary in the “New York Times Magazine”. Several of them were done in buildings, resulting in a shallow depth of field and some blur. But this intensifies the photos. In contrast to today’s clear, sharp, colorful pictures that at first have to be technically perfect.

What I liked a lot about the presentation in this exhibition was the following: The works were originally presented on thin (hard wood fibre) boards that were painted in different colors. Each photographer hat his own color. The prints were fixed directly on the boards, I assume that the latter were cut after the exhibitions ended and then stored in above mentioned boxes for half a century. The new exhibition again uses those colors to color-code the walls, by painting them not in the usual gallery-white, but in the colors found on the photos boards. This makes a much more human atmosphere and marks the different photographers. You always know which pictures belong together. Even the catalog presents the photos on colored pages!

Talking about the catalog (published by Hatje Cantz), I can absolutely encourage you to buy it. If you get it directly at the reception/janitor, it costs only 36 Euros (some less than ordering it). The other benefit is: you have it immediately. It contains all photos from the exhibition, an preface, an extensive text about the rediscovered exhibition by Christoph Schaden (who, as I read in his “about text”, has studied here in Bonn, too). And furthermore short biographies of all eight photographers (that way I learned that Robert Capa was an artist’s name, his real name was Endre Friedmann). All texts are in English, German and French. Even a scan of the original exhibitions sign in Austria is presented, from which you can see that it once was of importance to note that the exhibition hall was heated! (Compare that with today’s museum’s standards, controlling temperature, light, humidity and who knows what else. Today, everything is done for the comfort of the works. They became too valuable if you ask me.). All in all very interesting and I love to have something that remembers me of a good exhibition.  It is hard to carry the heavy book around for the rest of the day, though.

“MAGNUM’S first - Face of Time 1955 - 1956″, curated by Isabel Siben in the Art’s Foyer of the Versicherungskammer Bayern, Maximilianstraße 53, 80530 Munich. (Near the Isar, you could take a walk along the river in the English Garden to contemplate the exhibition). It is still opened until Mai 10, every day (I’ve been there on Sunday! But closed on holidays) from 9.00 - 19.00. And best: the exhibition is for free. Doesn’t cost a cent.

There will be one more guided tour Friday (Mai 8), at 13.30 and 18.00.

Tags: Erich Lessing, Ernst Haas, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Inge Morath, Jean Marquis, MAGNUM Photo, Marc Riboud, Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, Austria, black and white, Catalog, Exhibition, Germany, Munich, Photo Exhibition, Photographers, Photography

As said before, I was in Cologne, passively enjoying photography art. What follows is a description where I went and what I liked and dislikes. But note: I’m no ordinary photo critic (and I’m very happy about that), just an ordinary photography lover.

Visual Gallery (Hall 1 of the Cologne Fair)

The way to the exhibition is strange, at least. The Visual Gallery is situated in Hall 1 of the fair and is said to be for free. Of cause it can be accessed from the fair itself, but that means one has to pay admission (about 28 Euro). We did not want to go to Photokina, so after arriving at the train station of Köln Deutz, we looked for a direct way to Hall 1. If you are attentive you can find a sign some way off (left) the main route to entrance south. Following it, we arrived at the car park for exhibitors. A friendly security guard told us that we are on the right track, so we followed some more signs scattered over the parking lot. Our zigg-zagg course between cars and bushes finally led us to an exit from the parking lot on the other side (this is definitely not easy terrain if you have a baby buggy with you, as the cars stand tight.). We catched a glimpse of another sign, leading us to a red carped. This we interpreted as a good sign, until we saw a small sign reading: Exhibitor Entrance. There was no other possible entry despite of the meter high and wide doors in front of us, in the surrounding. The place was virtually empty. We asked a lone women who was delivering some stuff for the fair for a nearby visitors entrance. She didn’t kow of any, but told us that we might want to try the freight elevator, but that we should not mention it was her idea. We did so and rang the bell near the elevator. It was opened by a man, we entered. There was enough room to put a car into. We were lifted to the exhibition hall without problems, but I felt insecure for some time. It was like sneaking into the fair, but I assume this is the intended entry for non Photokina visitor to the Visual Gallery. Very bizarre if you ask me, but I suppose they might want to make it hard to enter without paying for the whole Photokina.

When you dare to enter the Visual Gallery, you find yourself in a huge hall with bad light (so windows) and first see the Academy meets Photokina area, where art colleges show works by their students. I suppose they wanted to present themselves, too, but there wasn’t that much information available. Some booklets for each would have been nice.

While strolling be prepared to be shoot. Shoot a lot. Almost everybody there has a camera ready and about the half of them loves to stick them in your face and fire. The worst situation I came to was when I looked at a booth of some art colleges. They all had the same square shape with three walls. I was inside when suddenly a women with a huge SLR showed up behind me, blocking my only escape route, lifting her camera and taking a shot of the room. I tried to squeeze past her but I didn’t manage. So avoid these Subject Traps. (On the other hand they would be handy for inexperienced street photographers. Build three walls in a public space, wait for people to go inside and take pictures of them when they can not flee.)

How is the quality of the photographs? I will not mention everything, for an overview visit the Visual Gallery Website.
The pictures were extremely mixed. There are several more consistent exhibitions which I liked a lot. As there is a retrospective of Thomas Hoepker’s work. 50 years of photography by the artist are shown in many, many pictures. This shows transitions in his work, from early black and white photos in Germany after the war, the DDR and even street photography in the US to more recent color photographs. Possibly the most famous of his recent pictures is presented including media reactions: The smoke of the twin towers of the world trade center in the background and five young people in front, sitting in the sunshine, talking and not watching the scenery behind them.
For the more historically oriented, the part „The mirror with a memory“ shows old photos from the American Civil War. It is amazing to see the quality of those, even though they were restored, at least partially. The pictures are very detailed (they used large photography plates those days) and in some pictures one can find hints at the long exposure times needed. A baby’s head is blurred as it moved while all other grown up people stood still for the camera.
Some consistent parts weren’t that extraordinary. Portraits of artists done by Dennis Hopper in the 1960th are nice, but not that special. Maybe here the name was of major interest.

But then, many parts are extremely diverse, like the „Canon Profifoto Förderpreis“ or the already mentioned booths of the art academies. They show too many different artists with too few pictures each.
I absolutely disliked the „Schöne Neue Welt / Brave New World“ exhibition. The pictures were very diverse, but shared common aspects so over-rated in modern photo art: Large, huge prints with large format, strong, brilliant and glowing colors. Most pictures try to be awe-inspiring and extreme, but seeing dozens of those made me wonder: in what way are they supposed to be special when every picture try to be special? An the worst aspect of modern photography was abound of cause: digital manipulation and even full digital creation of pictures. The exhibition is said to call on the visitor to intensively think about the relation between the Real and the Hyperreal. What shall hyperreal be? The pictures were mostly hyper-unreal, so what’s the matter? Maybe I miss some important aspect, but as I see it, modern photo art is a colorful, dazzling bubble. One generated in a computer to make sure it does not burst too early.

All in all, there are to many pictures. Do not try to see them all, focus on what you like. Especially with all those flashy in-your-face large format prints your eyes become tires fast and the pictures blur to a uniform madness. At least take a break in between and close your eyes. Or look at more black and white prints. A final word on the Visual Gallery visitors: I’ve never seen so many people showing off with little Leica cameras in one place.
We left Hall 1 the same way we came: With the freight elevator.

You can visit the Visual Gallery at photokina 2008 at the Cologne Fair until Sunday, September the 28th. Do I recommend it? Yes. There might be several exhibitions I disliked, but there are so many different, virtually everybody should find something he or she likes. And it is for free, you can ride a freight elevator and enjoy photography!

Bilderschauen Spichern-Höfe

While I was not disappointed by the Visual Gallery, I also was not fully convinced by it. I did not expect something better when visiting the „Bilderschauen Spichern-Höfe“ afterwards, as there were only four exhibiting artists yesterday* in contrast to dozens at the photokina. But I was amazed when I saw what is presented there.
The four exhibitions there all focus on ordinary peoples lives, but all are different. What combines them is the fact that they are not like the previously mentioned large format pictures, they are not studio-arrangements and do not compete for attention and effect.
My personal top three are:

• Chris Keulen: Hot Splinters of Glass – Le Tour d’Afrique

The Dutch photographer, after shooting the typical subjects of violence, poverty and diseases in Africa, went on to follow a cycle race through Burkina Faso. The pictures he made over the course of several years of the „Tour du Faso“, both b/w and color, show a seldom seen Africa, combining landscape-, sport- and people-photography in a unique way.

• Andre Lützen: Before Elvis there was nothing

A trip through the United States of America. The Catalog alludes to Robert Franks’ „The Americans“, but the color photographs also remind me of William Eggleston. The pictures document a lonely mood, found in details, moony people and nightly scene lit by neon lights.

• Juan Manuel Diaz Burgos: La Habana-vision interior

My absolute favourite. The Spanish photographer shot black and white pictures in Cuba, giving insights in half-private areas in Havana with expressive black and white film photography. He masters the interplay of light and shadows, a balance between outside and inside, both of the buildings and rooms he shoots people in, but also a balance between the private view of an accepted guest and the more distant visitor, but never a voyeur. The pictures combine several planes of action, foreground and background and hit the proverbial „Moment“. In this aspect it’s a kind of street photography off the street, in the backyards, staircases and apartments of Havanna.
Owing to the light conditions, I suppose has used fast films, resulting in a nice and pronounced grain structure in the pictures. This shows that one can still show grainy pictures in exhibition. There is still hope :-).

To conclude, the Exhibitions in the Bilderschauen Spichern-Höfe are absolutely recommendable. They are for free, too. I enjoyed them a lot more than the Visual Gallery, which was somewhat crammed with pictures and people. And in the Bilderschauen there is natural light, the premises are more art-compatible and offer confined spaces for the different exhibitions. If I had to decide between the Bilderschauen and the Visual Gallery, I would prefer the former. But if you can, visit both.

The Bilderschauen Spichern-Höfe are also opened until Sunday, September the 28th. Each day from 12:00 to 22:00.

As I read the Catalog to the 19. Internationale Photoszene Köln I stumble across this piece of information: The Entry to the Visual Gallery at Cologne Fair is at the northern Side of the Building. Strange that it was not visible from the inside…

* Today was another Vernissage, from tomorrow on there will be another exhibition by Albrecht Fuchs and Johannes Wohnseifer. They were busily installing their exhibition when we were there yesterday.

Tags: Artists, Art, black and white, Cologne, Cuba, Exhibition, Photography, photokina, Street Photography, USA