Mulholland

For reasons I’m not really sure of, Mulholland triggers feelings of longing in me. I guess it’s to do with the Raymond Chandler mysteries that I read in my youth and that I associate with this winding stretch of road that follows the ridgeline of the Hollywood Hills.

“I fell in love with Mulholland Drive in 1988 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Not with the actual Mulholland, of course, but with a picture of it. There was David Hockney’s exuberant, twenty-foot-long painting, Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio (1980).” With these wonderfully captivating lines photographer Karen Halverson introduces her preface before then elaborating on her move to Los Angeles and her encounter with the real Mulholland Drive.

“For more than a decade before moving to Los Angeles, I made annual trips from New York to photograph the American West … I meandered around a dozen western states, from the mountains of Montana to the deserts of Arizona.” But then she happened upon Mulholland Drive. “No more random wandering, no more long-distance driving in search of je ne sais quoi. Now I had a clear route to follow and follow it I did, in one direction or the other, countless times over the course of two years.” 

For the full review, go here

The Media & Fake Media

The media, and that includes fake media, reflect the world. Up to a point, that is, for most of what is taking place on planet earth is of no concern or interest to media makers. It might be fair, therefore, to say that the media reflect the obsessions of the media makers and, since we live in times in which profit trumps all other motivations, of media owners. These obsessions, it must be stressed, are very much in tune with what the general public does obsess about  — gossip, that is.

Everything in today's media world is personalised. The preferred formats are the story and the essay; and, these work best with heroes and villains, who in the real word that is far too complex to conform to the wishes of individuals, however do not exist. In this sense all media are fake. In fact, we are only free to choose what invented reality we prefer.

Needless to say, there is a difference between, say, the BBC and Fox News. In my younger years, I felt obliged to listen to what both of them had to say, for at that time I thought, to be informed requires to consider a variety of news sources and that includes the ones whose ideology I do not share.

These days are long gone. Nowadays ...

For the full text, see here

Benni & Others

Benni & Others was a Zurich-based rock group (I happened to be the singer) that recorded a long play called "Carezzas" in 1978.  I do not recall the photo session that led to the first picture, yet I do vividly remember the concert at Allmend Brunau shown on picture number two. Most of my memories from that time are however linked to picture number three that shows the back cover of "Carezzas". This long play was recorded at Etienne Conod's Sunrise Studio in Kilchberg. It was a wonderfully intense experience that, among quite some other things, made me listen to recordings much more attentively.

Photography - and what it means to me

 At the age of 16, I wanted to become a photographer. In my twenties, I acquired Preisen will ich die grossen Männer (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) by Walker Evans and James Agee, a rather expensive book for my student budget. In my mid-forties, I wrote a master thesis on documentary photography in which Evans' and Agee's work figured prominently. Encouraged by my personal tutor and my thesis supervisor, I began to regularly write on (mainly documentary) photography. After twenty years of thinking about photography, I got increasingly tired of it and turned to taking pictures. Because of that I learned that my interest is less in the stories behind a picture but in aesthetics. I do not need explanations any more, it is enough to frame what pleases my eyes.

Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil, 4 December 2021

Surcasti, Switzerland, 9 November 2021

Debrecen, Hungary, 24 October 2021

I'm not sure why photography attracts me but I guess that part of it is that I've always felt that what I truly liked couldn't really be said but had to be shown.

For more pics, see https://hansdurrer.tumblr.com/