Patricia Willocq: White Ebony

When, over twenty years ago, I was working in Southern Africa, I occasionally happened to come across albinos and always had trouble to take my eyes off them. They not only looked different, they seemed to be different. I sort of knew that I was wrong but the sensations that I experienced were another story. I felt pity for them; surely, to so obviously stand out must make life terribly difficult.

While leafing through Patricia Willocq's White Ebony, I've however experienced very different sensations – I felt drawn to the ones portrayed, felt no pity at all but affection. And, not only for the whites but also for the blacks – they were often shown together. The fact that most of the photographs were cleary staged did not diminish the feeling of togetherness.

People with albinism (PWA), I learned, "are often cursed and accused of witchery. Some people spit on their chest when they meet them in the street to ward off bad luck. Others will wake them up in the middle of the night when leaving the room to avoid meeting their spirit in another room." Reading this, I once again wondered what strange beliefs people adhere to. I guess we all do and as long as we do not insist on imposing our views on others or make them suffer because of what we happen to believe, there doesn't really seem to be a problem.

However: "In some countries, superstition reaches such a peak that PWA become victims of atrocities. And so some women with albinism are raped because of the belief that sleeping with them cures AIDS. In other countries the run-up to elections is a dangerous time, when attacks against PWA, including children, increase. Indeed, magic potions made from PWA's limbs are supposed to bring wealth and power to those who consume them."

To fight harmful and destructive superstitions, education of the kind this book provides is needed, be it through visual illustration, be it through textual information. Albinism is a genetic condition, "characterized by a deficit in the production of melanin (responsible for the colour present in skin and hair), regardless of the normal presence of pigment cells, resulting in fair skin and white hair colour in PWA. This complete or partial absence of melanin makes them more likely to develop skin cancer."

There are also quite some portraits in this superb tome, and they come with texts that I've thoroughly enjoyed. The portrait of Coco Marie, for instance, the woman shown above, who is 95 and has about  eighty grandchildren and as many great-grandchildren. "... well, to be honest, I can't really remember how many great-grandchildren", she says. And, also: "I have always loved giving advice to people who needed it." Or, the one of Michel Mulaba Senga that Patricia Willocq begins like this: "Michel is one of my best friends. I met him one night at Kvilu, a trendy bar in Kinshasa, and we became good friends in less than one minute."

"This photo report", writes Patricia Willocq, a freelance photographer, born and raised in the Congo, "can be used to promote understanding and tolerance towards people with albinism, in the Congo and in the rest of Africa." Yes, indeed!

Patricia Willocq

White Ebony

Edition Lammerhuber

Baden, Austria 2016

http://edition.lammerhuber.at/buecher/white-ebony

Vom Himmel gefallen: David Bowie

David Bowie, das ist für mich zuallerst "Ground Control to Major Tom ..." und Ziggy Stardust, später dann Life on Mars, Changes, China Girl und und und ... einen guten Sänger fand ich ihn nie, bis ich dann vor Jahren einen Konzertmitschnitt auf Youtube sah, der Bowie mit Tina Turner im Duett zeigte und mich sprachlos liess: Der Mann konnte singen. Ich war hingerissen. Und die beiden zusammen, das war einfach genial.

Der androgyne Bowie wirkte auf mich nie wirklich real, ihn umgab immer eine Aura des Ausserirdischen und die Bilder, die Mick Rock 1972-1973 machte, bestätigen diesen Eindruck.

Michael Bracewell schreibt in seinem Essay "Der Schock des Neuen, Elektrisierten: Ziggy Stardust und David Bowie" dass diese "Mischung aus Sex, Glamour und ausgeprägt ästhetischer Extravaganz" so extrem sei, dass "sogar der Rock 'n' Roll, die Musik von Sex, Rebellion und coolem Aussenseitertum, plötzlich einen revolutionären Wandel erlebt" habe, verkörpert von einem "Star, der die musikalische und visuelle Sprache des Rock 'n' Roll weit über all ihre bekannten Inkarnationen hinausgetragen und dabei eine imaginäre neue Welt geschaffen hat ...".

Brian Eno, der im Studio mit David Bowie zusammengearbeitet, ist letzthin in einem BBC-Interview quasi dazu aufgefordert worden, Bowies Genialität zu bestätigen, führte jedoch stattdessen aus, dass in Menschen, die wir als aussergewöhnlich wahrnehmen, ganz vieles zusammenkomme und diese gleichsam mehr seien als nur einfach sie selber. Sie würden eigentlich stellvertretend für uns alle theatralisch abbilden, was dauernd an Neuem entstehen könne, sofern man sich diesem nicht entgegenstelle. Mit anderen Worten: an Bowie ist vor allem spannend, dass das, was er repräsentiert, weit über ihn hinausgeht.

Brian Enos Gedanken haben mich auch an eine BBC-Talkshow von vor Jahren erinnert, bei der die Nobelpreisträger der verschiedenen Disziplinen um einen Tisch sassen und, angeleitet von der Moderatorin, Ideen austauschten. Besonders beeindruckt war ich von einem schwergewichtigen Japaner, der mich an einen Sumo-Ringer gemahnte. Mit einem Kollegen zusammen hatte er den Physik-Nobelpreis gewonnen, meinte jedoch, sein persönlicher Verdienst sei nicht wirklich gross. Was sie/er entdeckt hätten, sei dagewesen, um entdeckt zu werden. Von ihm und seinem Kollegen oder eben auch von jemand anderem.

Die Bowie-Fotos von Mick Rock mit diesen Gedanken im Hinterkopf zu betrachten, macht sie für mich nur noch spezieller und weit faszinierender, als es die Hommage an einen Star sein könnte.

Wie er eigentlich zur Fotografie gekommen sei?, will Barney Hoskyns in einem Gespräch mit Mick Rock (das ist kein Künstlername, der Mann heisst wirklich so) wissen. "Die Vorstellung, Fotograf zu sein, reizte mich auch nicht annähernd so sehr wie der Gedanke, mich als abgefahrener symbolistischer Dichter durchzuschlagen. Hätte ich nicht Syd Barrett fotografiert und wäre von diesen Bildern nicht so begeistert gewesen, hätte ich wohl einen ganz anderen Weg eingeschlagen." Um die Technik hat er sich nicht gross gekümmert, nie einen Belichtungsmesser benutzt, immer nur geraten. Jungen Fotografen empfiehlt er: "Folge deinen Obsessionen. Versuche eine Sammlung aufzubauen, die als Gesamtheit mehr Wert ist als die einzelne Session." Sein Bowie-Buch zeigt, dass er selber sich daran gehalten hat.

Mick Rock

The Rise of David Bowie

Englisch - Deutsch - Französisch

Taschen Verlag, Köln 2016

Düsseldorfer Impressionen

Aufgenommen am 21. April 2016 mit einer Olympus 24xWIDE

On Taking Photographs

I've never really understood why some photographers are seen as stars. I mean, even drones can take fabulous photos. And, there’s the Hubble Space Telescope that has been sending back gorgeous pictures from the cosmos. So why does it take a photographer …?

And, needless to say, the more pictures you take the better your chances are that some good ones will result from your endeavours. Moreover, I've over time come to realise that photography is not so much about the result but about experiencing life as it unfolds. To me, that is.

Recently, during a month-long stay in the Brazilian town of Santa Cruz do Sul, I regularly passed through the same side street where I felt irresistibly drawn to the colourful boundary fence of a geriatric clinic. Years ago, I had passed many times through this street yet I had no recollection of these colours that now seemed to hold me in their grip. Maybe they were new and hadn't been there before? Or had I simply overlooked them?

I wanted pictures of these colours and so I decided to take my camera along. My walks through town did change for now I had a focus. And, it now mattered what time of the day I passed by the clinic for the morning light allowed other pictures than the midday sun. We all know this, of course, yet what I had not anticipated was the curiosity I felt each day: Would it be sunny or overcast? What colours and shapes would await me? Needless to say, the boundary fence colours did not change from one day to the next but the light that would fall on them was every time different, the mood I was in was never the same, and where I would point my camera to wasn't defined either.

I felt reminded of my time in Cardiff, Wales, where I got infected with the photography virus. Then, I was fascinated by photographs yet had no ambition to be a photographer myself. My interest was in reading pictures.

This is what I wrote then: "Viewing photographs means that we are looking at the world through the eyes of the photographer. This does not, however, imply that we see the same world. It only means that we focus on what the photographer wanted us to look at. It is, however, in narrowing the scope that we broaden the horizon."

A photograph is often referred to as a moment in time. In other words, it is an illusion — for time, another illusion, does not exist. Illusions, of course, are fine inventions to believe in for they help us navigate through this thing called life.

Mostly, I go through life on autopilot, moments of awareness are extremely rare. For me, taking photographs means to focus and to slow down. By doing so I'm giving myself the chance to contemplate things as they are. And, to experience life as it is.

"You are not supposed to do big things. Eating, taking a bath, swimming, walking, talking, listening, cooking your food, washing your clothes — de-automotize the process. Remember the word de-automatization; that is the whole secret of becoming aware", Osho wrote in The Book of Wisdom.

De-automatization, this is precisely what taking photographs is doing to me.

Why Switzerland?

I've always thought it much more interesting what smart foreigners say about the country where I was born and of which I happen to be a citizen ("my" country sounds decidedly wrong in my ears for it seems to suggest something like ownership, a notion that I do find not only absurd but grotesque) than my fellow Swiss for the simple fact that "the right way of seeing" requires distance and emotional detachment.

Why Switzerland? is the "revised and completely updated edition of Jonathan Steinberg's classic account of Switzerland's unique political and economic system." Professor Steinberg is a distinguished academic who writes in the preface that the present third edition "makes more modest claims than its predecessors and will offer a much less comprehensive explanation of what is going on in Switzerland today. Its basic objective is to bring the data, where possible, up to date and see how much of the Swiss model, which I observed in the 1970s and 1990s still holds. If I can do that with some accuracy, I shall be more than satisfied."

I do not really feel qualified to judge the accuracy of most of Steinberg's claims but quite some accuracy is lacking in the preface. It is not Lucas but Lukas Bärfuss, it is not Professor Gerhard but Georg Kohler, and Roger Köppel, editor of "Die Weltwoche", is not a Dr. but lic.phil.I (according to www.parlament.ch).

I must admit that I haven't read many books about Switzerland, and even less by university professors, who I generally do not associate with wit. And, most definitely not with Professor Steinberg's wonderful kind of wit.

"If the book is odd, so is its subject. There is no place like Switzerland and hence any attempt to catch its meaning must be pretty odd too. The sheer variety of Swiss life, what I think of as its 'cellular' character, makes it hard to make a coherent account of the place."

Having spent considerable time abroad has helped me to see Switzerland with an outside view. At times, that is, for one can't really shake off what has become part of oneself. I knew, for instance, that Switzerland is a very exotic country yet I wasn't aware of how exotic it really is. Neither have I ever fully grasped the incredible complexity of the Swiss system.

"For the frontier watcher. Switzerland is a paradise", Steinberg states and elaborates: "Cross the language border in Canton Fribourg (this is one not even marked by an outward sign) on the road from Bern to the city of Fribourg, and the streets look different. It is Francophone territory. How can one make sense of the invisible barriers which seem to divide otherwise identical settlements? The answers to such questions are extremely difficult to devise; it is not always clear what the question is." Right. Moreover, for the natives there simply is no question, it is just the way things here are.

In regards to Swiss identity I did especially warm to Professor Altermatt's observation that "Swissness, which is strong in New York, evaporates in the train from Zürich to Solothurn." Inside the country nobody feels Swiss but cantonal or local. For instance, I'm a citizen of Zurich and Kerns/OW. This however is (if at all) only relevant in regards to other Swiss, in regards to foreigners my identiy is not local or cantonal but national.

Swiss identity, so Steinberg, is in crisis for various reasons. One is the many foreigners now living in the country, then there's the decline of the traditional parties and the criminal behaviour of the elites, global consumerism and so on. In sum: "Catholic cantons are less catholic, rural life less rural, trade unions less solid and so on. The Swiss behave more like their neighbours because they have become in some ways less idiosyncratically Swiss but not in all ways."

Whether a system of government will survive depends ultimately on the mind-set of its supporters. Why Switzerland? has taught me that "the determination to survive and preserve 'Swissness' has not depended on will, as so often suggested by observers, but on a way of being, a set of values and habits so deeply ingrained that most Swiss are unaware of how powerful these values are." Indeed!

Why Switzerland? is a highly informative, cleverly argued, and most enjoyable read.

Jonathan Steinberg
Why Switzerland?
Third Edition
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2015

Elaine Ling: Talking Stones

„Since my very beginnings as a photographer“, writes Elaine Ling, „ I have been captivated by ancient stones and the messages the send us from the ages. This book brings together my decades of obsessive travel and photography dedicated to recording remarkable stones, both natural and man-made.“

I also learn that most stones „were created to be messengers for what are now long-vanished cultures. The lone man of stone staring at a Gobi Desert horizon, the beheaded nobles v¨bearing gifts to a Chinese empress, a Buddha's face almost swallowed by a tree, were all conceived to preserve and disseminate tales of great journeys, battles won and lost, death or survival, anmcient myths and powerful gods.“

I must admit that before reading this I had somewhat indifferently glanced through the pages of this tome, not really knowing what to make of these pics. Sure, from time to time I paused and wondered what I was shown yet it was without real curiosity that I looked at these stones. For ancient cultures aren't really my thing.

How come then that I've decided to review this book? Not because ...

For the full review, see here

Kuba. Magie des Augenblicks

 

Die Cover-Aufnahme dieses Bandes gemahnt mich an eine alte Postkarte, so grün habe ich Havanna noch nie gesehen. Und so alt und verfallen auch nicht, obwohl ich doch oft den Malecón entlang gegangen bin. Nur eben: Lorne Resnicks Kuba. Magie des Augenblicks ist kein Photo-Journalismus, bei dem es darum geht, möglichst die Alltagswirklichkeit abzubilden, sondern der Versuch, die Bilder in seinem Kopf zu fotografieren. So jedenfalls wirken seine Fotos auf mich. Nein, nicht alle. Und, um keine Zweifel aufkommen zu lassen: es sind wunderbar gelungene Aufnahmen. So gelungen wie Werbe-Aufnahmen (an die mich nicht wenige erinnerten) häufig sind und auch sein sollen.

Pico Iyer, dessen 1996 erschienener Roman Cuba and the Night mich inspiriert hat, Kuba zu besuchen und zu mögen, hat ein schönes Vorwort beigesteuert. "Als ich vor über achtundzwanzig Jahren auf Kuba ankam, erkannte ich, dass dies der schönste, bunteste, berauschendste Ort war, den ich je gesehen hatte; so berauschend, dass ich nicht wusste, was ich von ihm halten sollte – ausser dass es weder das sozialistische Paradies war, von dem manchen Freunde raunten, die nie dort gewesen waren, noch das totalitäre Abstraktum, als das es andere aus der Ferne beschrieben."

Natürlich hat sich seither einiges verändert, doch, wie Iyer nach einem Besuch achtzehn Jahre später feststellte: "Der kubanische Elan lebte nicht nur unvermindert fort, sondern wurde auf magische Weise freigesetzt, unberechenbar wie immer."

Gemäss Gerry Badgers Einführung, "wollte Resnick das Lebensgefühl der Insel einfangen, nicht durch kühle Dokumentation, sondern mit Fotos, die emotionale und poetische Resonanz erzeugen." Das trifft grösstenteils zu, obwohl es sich mir nicht erschlossen hat, weshalb nur Alt und Jung zu sehen sind und Menschen mittleren Alters nicht vorkommen.

Es gibt auch eindrückliche schwarz/weiss Aufnahmen in diesem sehr schönen Band, doch die meisten sind farbig. Den Schwerpunkt bilden Porträts und das mich am meisten faszinierende Bild, eine Strassenszene von oben fotografiert, ist die Tafel 77. Nein, nicht die unten abgebildete, sondern eine mich an René Burris Aufnahmen aus São Paulo erinnernde.

Ganz besonders hat es mir Lorne Resnicks Nachwort angetan. Weil es da so viel gibt, mit dem ich mich identifizieren kann. Etwa die Schilderung seines Besuchs im "Palacio de la Salsa im Hotel Riviera am Malecón, in dem ein 15-köpfiges kubanisches Orchester aus Weltklassemusikern, vor einer dichtgedrängten Menge aus den besten Tänzern der Welt spielte", die mich augenblicklich wieder vor Ort wähnen liess.

Höchst aufschlussreich fand ich auch seine Ausführungen zur Entstehung des Umschlagfotos, das ihm in dieser Form bereits vorschwebte, "ehe ich überhaupt nach Kuba reiste."

Lorne Resnick

KUBA

Magie des Augenblicks

Prestel Verlag

München * London * New York 2016