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This retrospective is something like an interactive book about me, my life and my photographic career. Since I have been taking photographs for over 50 years, it has become a bit longer. I have therefore divided it into different chapters. To do this, I also had to divide it into different websites.
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Foreword
I have been involved with conceptual photography for almost 50 years, learned autodidactically, but also influenced by further training in workshops with great photographers. A lot has accumulated over the years, good things, sometimes a little less perfect. Many of my pictures and videos can be seen on my website and in my studio, but by no means all of them. I'm trying to give a little insight into my work here.
Here it is, the retrospective, my instruction manual. As an "instruction manual" it is not necessarily for you, not for you as a pure observer, pure observer of my works. Or maybe it is...? For you as inspiration for your new ideas that are awakened in you as a result. It is designed in the spirit of "open source". Take out what triggers something in you and develop your new ideas within yourself. But simply copying pictures and videos is not intended in that sense.
My instruction manual is first and foremost for me. It shows the steps I have "taken through" photographically in my life. It shows my path in the form of a retrospective look. I have become aware of many things that I had long forgotten. My new works can also be seen here, but towards the end due to the system.
Early pictures can also be seen on my website Continuum and Polaroid SX-70. These pages are not replaced by the "Instruction Manual". Nor do they compete with it, because they show much more my approach to my photographic work over time.
To view this "instruction manual" you need a computer and a browser. A tablet with a current browser will also work. Old browsers don't always work, however. Of course you can also use a mobile phone. But there are restrictions, because images that are two meters wide in the original can hardly be viewed properly on a mobile phone screen, even if it has a great name and is expensive.
Due to the system, I will proceed chronologically as far as possible in this "instruction manual", my retrospective, divided into books and chapters. However, you can view the chapters in any order.
In some places I refer to my other websites. These are shown in a new tab in the browser.
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Chapter 1 The challenge
In my visual development, not much has changed (from my point of view). Some things have. The basic idea, the composition of the image and, above all, the visual statement and its background have remained almost the same. However, it has been strengthened.
Creating accurate photos that correspond to reality was never my goal, never my passion. There are better photographers in this area, especially for documentaries or war photography. Journalism in that sense isn't my thing either.
I was much more interested in time as a dimension, always have been! Why can we only move through it in one direction? This is clearly a systemic issue. However, it works with the other dimensions, because they are bidirectional for us humans! Time is a little different in this respect.
Why should I only show a thousandth of a second from a person's life,
when it could be 10 seconds in one shot?
That's ten thousand times more!
Why should the reality of a photo always be real? There is another way! After all, my photos are never suitable as a "witness statement". The view and angle do not always have to meet in the "here and now". It is enough if it will be in the afterlife.
One picture can tell a story. Two can too. And sometimes three or more. It just depends. Creativity is something that makes something new out of nothing (or maybe not much more). Whether you "like" it is not important. Of course there are also shades of grey, as can be seen here.
Yes, of course! Digitally it's no problem anyway. With 8-bit it's 256, with 10-bit it's 1024, and you can hardly fit that much on a sheet of paper. Pictures are simple. With JPGs there are 256 shades per color. That gives you just over 16 million different colors. That should be enough. If not, more is always possible. (Just for your information: on paper, it stops at a million. On canvas, it's much earlier. And... nature, including our eyes, can do many millions more with colors. Or to put it another way: with our technology, we are simply nothing compared to nature. Just a little more arrogant and presumptuous.
I need my pictures, my photos. I also use them, use them as raw material, similar to other people. For example, a cook needs beets, oranges or tomatoes as raw material in order to create something different, much better, something new, wonderful, even though the ingredients taste great raw.
Well, I use pixels, usually thousands or millions at a time. Since digital cameras have been around, this has become easy. It used to be a bit more difficult. Of course, you could have cut up the negative films and put them back together... but the "fretwork" in the darkroom wasn't really my thing. I much prefer playing with time when taking photos. Because the dimension of "time" in the picture is one of the most fascinating things, even when it is not possible from a purely physical point of view.
So far everything is ready! Now, let's go! Where should I start? Actually, it's clear... at the beginning.
OK, but it starts now, here and right now. After all, many of my pictures are still somewhere in my photo archive. Some preliminary work has already been done. I called it "continuum". But not all of the old photos are included. I had kept to my archiving system in the black and white negatives. Things are a little different with the slides. Many are now in the "new" archive, the digital one. Great! And there really is a lot in there that looks quite useful.
But first… Rework the archive!
Pictures: restricted / free