Andreas Feininger

Recently, Hatje Cantz published "Andreas Feininger. A Photographer's Life, 1906-1999", a bilingual edition in English and German, with texts by Thomas Buchsteiner who introduces his work with these words:

"Andreas Feiniger lived for photography. He was interested in his echo, not in his ego. And thus, while we are acquainted with the many pictures that have gained worldwide acclaim as classics of photographic history, we know very little about his life behind and away from the camera", the foreword states.

"Biography", Janet Malcolm penned in The Silent Woman, "is the medium through which the remaining secrets of the famous dead are taken from them and dumped out in full view of the world." Thomas Buchsteiner's biography of Andreas Feininger, however, is not of that sort, it is simply an informative book, a solid piece of facts gathering - an exciting read it is not. That does not mean that there is no interesting and at times fascinating information to be found in this tome - there is, there is! To illustrate this, let me quote from the book:

It was also important to him to make the cycle of life comprehensible through his nature photographs, to illustrate relationships of interdependence, and to show how we are also involved in those relationships as living beings. At some point during the nineteen-sixties, he was fond of explaining this with reference to the example of the spider he had once observed from his desk - for the insect's lifetime and several days beyond - in the corner of a window in the workroom of his house in New Milford. The tiny organism, no larger than a pinhead, grew over the course of the summer into a stately spider. The spider does not hunt for food: it depends on chance prey, on flies and other insects that are caught in its web by accident. The spider simply waits patiently. Its web is an incarnation of geometry, clarity, and symmetric design, supremely economical and constructed instinctively with a minimum of material, an architectural masterpiece spun with a degree of tensile strength that, pound for pound and inch for inch, surpasses even that of steel. The spider also depends on other living things and could not survive alone. With the exception of certain bacteria, no living organism can exist in complete independence, every organism plays a part in the sympphony of life as Andreas Feininger wrote repeatedly in his many books about the 'language of nature'.

Andreas Feiniger's explorer's approach to nature, his photographic view and mode of interpretation are essentially neo-naturalistic. He focused on and emphasized the alliance of art and nature in a world that has come to be dominated by technology. With the aid of an architectural ordering system, he visualized processes of creative design in life, be they man-made or natural. He realized and revealed the implicit and explicit structures and forms of these objects, regardless whether they are organic or mechanical. The exploration of forms of nature through a search for geometric structure and artistic parallels had also become a popular pursuit among other photographers, especially in Germany since the nineteen-twenties. Karl Blossfeld's blades of grass resembled knife blades. Visually speaking, Albert Renger-Patzsch's blossoms optically appear as inorganic objects. Paul Strand photographed plants as machines. Of course, Andreas Feininger could hardly deny his biographical background and certainly not the Bauhaus and his training as an architect and engineer. The New Obectivity enobled both natural and artificial objects, memorialized their forms and functions, and celebrated their beauty through their apotheosis.

Andreas Feininger
Ein Fotografenleben
A Photographer's Life
1906-1999
(texts in German & English)
Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2010

Leadership & Leitkultur

To the present day, the idea of the leitkultur depends on the misconception that the liberal state should demand more of its immigrants than learning the language of the country and accepting the principles of the Constitution. We had, and apparently still have, to overcome the view that immigrants are supposed to assimilate the “values” of the majority culture and to adopt its “customs.”

That we are experiencing a relapse into this ethnic understanding of our liberal constitution is bad enough. It doesn’t make things any better that today leitkultur is defined not by “German culture” but by religion. With an arrogant appropriation of Judaism — and an incredible disregard for the fate the Jews suffered in Germany — the apologists of the leitkultur now appeal to the “Judeo-Christian tradition,” which distinguishes “us” from the foreigners.

Jürgen Habermas: Leadership and Leitkultur
The New York Times, 28 October 2010

Drei Mahlzeiten und dazwischen ist Leben

Rosel Bäkers "Drei Mahlzeiten und dazwischen ist Leben" erzählt einerseits davon wie das Bad Herrenalber Modell ("Wir waren die erste Klinik mit einem Therapieangebot für Menschen mit Lebensschwierigkeiten, die eine Anbindung an verschiedene Selbsthilfegruppen herstellte und pflegte.") begann (sie war Gründungsmitglied und Pflegedienstleiterin) und beschreibt andererseits die Arbeit mit Essstörungen nach Rosels eigenem Konzept.

Das Bad Herrenalber Modell gründet in der Vorstellung (wie die senegalesischen Wolof sagen) des Nit nit ay garabam - dass der Mensch des Menschen Arzenei sei, wie Walther Lechler in seinem Geleitwort ausführt: "Und Paracelsus betont: 'Und der Arzeneien höchste ist die Liebe.' Wer würde, wenn er in diese Erfahrung in sich inkarnieren durfte noch zögern, sich schlussendlich das Leben mit vollen Händen zu nehmen, das uns in Hülle und Fülle in jedem Augenblick zusteht."

Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Walther Lechler und seinen Nachfolgern, durch viele kollegiale Gespräche und durch die Arbeit an sich selber, habe sie einen Reifegrad erreichen können, der ihr "fundierte, klare und einfach zu verstehende Aussagen" ermögliche, schreibt Rosel. Und: "Ich kann jetzt von mir behaupten, dass ich etwas zu sagen habe." Stimmt. Und es lohnt sich, ihr zuzuhören. Unter anderem wegen Sätzen wie diesen:

"Ich hatte eine wichtige Lektion gelernt: nämlich, meine eigene Vorstellung nicht auf einen anderen Menschen zu übertragen. Ich hatte begriffen, wie wichtig zuhören ist.

... es war für uns von dem Gedanken getragen, dass wir alle gemeinsam einen neuen Weg beschreiten wollten, in dem der Mensch die Person sein konnte, die er wirklich war. Keine Rollenmaske, kein Versager, sondern ein Mensch wie du und ich.

... auch die Frage, wer Schwierigkeiten bekommt, wenn sich der Essgestörte verändert, ist für den therapeutischen Prozess mitunter sehr wichtig. Ich arbeitete mit therapeutischen Elementen, aber auch mit alltagstauglichen Empfehlungen.

Bei allen Essstörungen geht es darum zu lernen, sich etwas zu nehmen, es zu spüren und die Nahrungsaufnahme auszuhalten. Bei allen Essstörungen geht es darum, dass die Betroffenen Essen benutzen, um besser mit dem Leben klar zu kommen. Der Nahrung wird also eine andere Aufgabe zugewiesen, als nur die der Ernährung. Die Nahrung hat ursprünglich die Aufgabe den Menschen zu ernähren. Aber auch Genuss, um Sinnlichkeit zu leben."

Die letzten Sätze stammen aus einem Gespräch mit Jürgen Bosbach, der zusammen mit Rosel Bäker dieses Buch schrieb und nachhakte: "Rosel, kannst Du bitte noch einmal auf deinen Satz eingehen: 'Wenn man Nahrung aufgenommen hat, muss man dies auch aushalten können!"

Und, neugierig auf Rosels Antwort? Sie findet sich auf den Seiten 51 bis 54 dieses anregenden und aufschlussreichen Buches, in dem sich eine Mischung verschiedener Arten von Text plus einige schwarz/weiss Fotos versammeln: Da steht der Brief neben dem Interview, wird ein erläuternder Text unterbrochen von eingerahmten Merksätzen (etwa: 'Mein Essverhalten spiegelt meine Lebenssituation wieder!') und man findet auch diesen Einschub von Jürgen Bosbach, der mir ganz besonders gut gefällt, weil er Rosel Bäker (wie auch die Arbeit an diesem Buch) sehr schön charakterisiert:

"Wie unterbrechen die, wie wir später feststellten, insgesamt zwölfstündige Interviewarbeit und gönnen uns ein Essen. Ich bin von der Persönlichkeit Rosels überrascht. Tausend Gedanken und Fragen huschen durch meinen Kopf. Ihre Leben könnte ebenso gut der Stoff für einen Film sein.
Schade nur, denke ich, dass der Leser ihre Erzählweise nicht wahrnehmen kann.
Diese Lebendigkeit, mit der Rosel aus ihrem Leben und von ihrer umfassenden Berufserfahrung berichtet, kann schriftlich nur begrenzt wiedergegeben werden. Rosel erzählt so spannend, dass keine Minute mit ihr langweilig wird. Bereits nach den ersten Stunden mit ihr wurden mir einige grundlegende Dinge klar: Rosel ist eine exzellente Fachfrau, die wirklich den Titel einer Zeitzeugin für sich beanspruchen darf und sie ist eine Persönlichkeit, die Wege aus der inneren seelischen Not eines Menschen begleiten kann. Somit freue ich mich, schon während des Essens, auf den Nachmittag."

Bleibt nur noch hinzuzufügen, dass die Verschriftlichung von Rosels Erzählungen sehr gut geglückt ist.

Rosel Bäker mit Jürgen Bosbach
Drei Mahlzeiten und dazwischen ist Leben
Rosels Tisch in der psychosomatischen Klinik Bad Herrenalb
Santiago Verlag, Goch 2010

Rio Pardo, Brazil

Copyright@ Ricardo Schütz

Once a semester, the Schütz & Kanomata crew in Brazil's Santa Cruz do Sul goes to have fish on the boat-restaurant in Rio Pardo, a picturesque town situated about 135 kilometers to the West of Porto Alegre.

Photographs are considered evidence of things being observed. While I have no doubt about that, it is what they trigger that makes them so special to me. Take the nicely framed pic above, for instance: the fact that it confirms that the boat had been there at a specific time is one thing, the other thing is that it triggers so many other pictures. "Photographs are associative images - they are Rorschachs," says San Francisco-based photographer Emelle Sonh.

So what images did this boat-picture by Ricardo Schütz trigger in my case? Many, of course, and mostly unrelated to the boat-restaurant - yet prominently among the Rio Pardo-related ones were several images of the superb cakes and coffee in the cafeteria of the Centro Regional de Cultura Rio Pardo ...

By the way, the pic above does not show the boat-restaurant (which is of course much bigger) but was probably taken from there.

Nürnberg - New York

What an idea, to juxtapose images of Nürnberg and images of New York City! Can that work? Yes, it can! Provided the photographer understands his craft as superbly as Horst Schäfer does.

I felt fascinated, and amazed, at how surprisingly similar, for instance, the demonstration of Spanish tradition at the Mögeldorf parish fair looked compared to the demonstration of German tradition at the Steuben Parade on New York's Fifth Avenue. Or, that opposing views at peace rallies on Union Square and in front of Lorenzkirche looked so very much alike.

New York is known as a unique city - and it is. Horst Schäfer shows us that Nürnberg is equally unique - and that they both aren't for, as these photos convincingly demonstrate, one can choose to see that the two cities also have quite some views in common. Sounds like a contradiction? Well, contradictions only exist in our minds, in real life they sit comfortably next to each other - provided we let them, of course.

"Horst Schäfer's images are never mere reproductions or 'views', but always moments of vision, brief yet decisive seconds in which something is 'seen'", Reinhard Knodt writes felicitously in his toughtful essay "Photographing the City - On Horst Schäfer" that accompanies the photos in this tome. This is how he comments on Schäfers' shot of the Brooklyn Bridge: "At the moment the shutter is released, the faces of the people crossing the bridge become visible in the spaces between the suspension cables. To calculate this moment, a mere tenth of a second, is simply impossible. It must be seen and arrested at its point of genesis."

What Reinhard Knodt penned about the shot of the Brooklyn Bridge is equally true of the other shots in this book - for examples, go here. Rarely has it been more apparent to me that Cartier Bresson's "decisive moment" is much more than a mere stroke of luck - to capture it depends also on patience, talent, the right attitude as well as "the good eye". There is no question that Horst Schäfer has all of that.

Horst Schäfer
Nürnberg - New York
(texts in German & English)
Erich Weiss Verlag, Bamberg 2008

New York City

"New York, Portrait of a City" by Reuel Golden, directed and produced by Benedikt Taschen, is impressive in every respect - Hardcover, 25 x 34 cm (9.8 x 13.4 in.), 560 pages, 3,686 kilos net. Moreover, it is a multilingual edition: English, French, German.

500 historic and contemporary images - by, among many others, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Arnold Newman, and Helen Levitt - give testimony of what made and makes this city tick. Once again I was amazed how many of the shots that touched me had been taken by anonymous photographers.

"The one constant throughout New York City's history has been its ability to change, adapt, and reinvent itself." This is how Reuel Golden, formerly the editor of the British Journal of Photography and executive director at Photo District News, begins his text about this famously unique city, full of "restless energy". No wonder then did E.B. White ("Here is New York", 1949) state: "By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience - if they did they would live elsewhere."

Reuel Golden divided his illustrated history - for this is what this tome essentially is - into five chapters:
1850 - 1913: City of Reinvention
1914 - 1945: Reach for the Sky
1946 - 1965: The World's Capital
1966 - 1987: Mean Streets
1988 - Today: Tragedy to Triumph

There are also biographies of the photographers to be found as well as pages on recommended viewing, recommended listening, and recommended reading (I was pleased to discover that Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn and Oscar Hijuelos' The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love were included). In short: here you get all the information you need for preparing a trip to New York - or for staying home and enjoying this extraordinary city from a distance.

Whoever has been to New York City will find food for memory abound in this tome. In my case (I've been there once, thirty years ago, for a few weeks), the photographs that mostly triggered associations were the street scenes, and the architecture - and they made me want to revisit this city.

As intriguing it is to let oneself be guided by photo documents, we are well advised to always remember that what we see in pictures is what we bring to them, and thus read into them. Let me elaborate:
On 11 September (or September 11, as North American logic goes) 2001, Thomas Hoepker of Magnum Photos took a photo of casually dressed people at the Brooklyn waterfront that he kept unpublished for four years out of fear, he said, "it would stir the wrong emotions." On 10 September 2006, Frank Rich of the New York Times, commented on the photo:
"It shows five young friends on the waterfront in Brooklyn, taking what seems to be a lunch or bike-riding break, enjoying the radiant late-summer sun and chatting away as cascades of smoke engulf Lower Manhattan in the background."
Needless to say this is a plausible way of looking at this photo, especially in light of what Thomas Hoepker, the photographer, had to say about it: "They were totally relaxed like any normal afternoon. It's possible they lost people and cared, but they were not stirred by it."
The reality of the people portrayed was however a totally different one. Here's what Walter Sipser, a Brooklyn artist, who is the man on the far right of the photo emailed to Slate: "Had Hoepker walked fifty feet over to introduce himself he would have discovered a bunch of New Yorkers in the middle of an animated discussion about what had just happened. He instead chose to publish the photograph that allowed him to draw the conclusions he wished to draw ...".

Reuel Golden
New York - Portrait of a City
Taschen, Cologne 2010

Stationery Design

"Stationery Design Now!", edited by (and with a foreword from) Julius Wiedemann, and a text by Jay Rutherford on the letterhead in English, German, and French, is fun to spend time with. Moreover, it is illustrative, and inspiring.

The letterhead, the envelope, and the business card are "the three most important parts of the stationery set", Wiedemann writes and while the business card is still widely used, the letterhead and the envelope "are going through a steady decline."

On the one hand, this is not at all surprising given the omnipresence of emails, mobile phones, and social networking sites; on the other hand, this is flabbergasting for the business world, we are told, expects the competitors to distinguish themselves - and well-crafted stationery would surely help doing exactly that.

Impressive and convincing examples of superbly-crafted stationery that are all tailored to attract is what this useful tome provides.

Stationery Design Now!
Ed. Julius Wiedemann
Taschen, Cologne 2010