To shoot pictures.
Taking pictures is an act in time,
in which something is snapped out of its own time
and transferred into a different kind of duration.
It is commonly assumed
that whatever is captured in this act
lies IN FRONT OF the camera.
But that is not true.
Taking pictures is an act in two directions:
forwards
and backwards.
Yes, taking pictures also "backfires."
This isn't even too lame a comparison.
Just as the hunter lifts his rifle,
aims at the deer in front of him,
pulls the trigger,
and, when the bullet departs from the muzzle,
is thrown backwards by the recoil,
the photographer, likewise, is thrown backwards,
onto himself,
when releasing the shutter.
A photograph is always a double image,
showing, at first glance, its subject,
but at a second glance - more or less visible,
"hidden behind it," so to speak,
the "reverse angle":
the picture of the photographer
in action.
Just as the hunter is not struck by the
bullet, though,
but only feels the recoil of the explosion,
this counter-image contained in every photograph
is not actually captured by the.. ..
lens, either.
(Yet it remains somehow inextricably in the picture,
as an invisible impression of the photographer,
that even gets developed within the darkroom chemistry...)
What then is the recoil of the photographer?
How do you feel its impact?
How does it affect the subject,
and which trace of it appears on the photograph?
In German, there is a most revealing word
for this phenomenon,
a word
known from a variety of contexts:
"EINSTELLUNG."
It means the attitude
in which someone approaches something,
psychologically or ethically,
i.e. the way of attuning yourself
and then "taking it in."
But "Einstellung"
is also a term from photography and film
signifying both the "take" (a particular shot and
its framing),
as well as how the camera is adjusted
in terms of the aperture and exposure
by which the cameraman "takes" the picture.
It is no coincidence
that (at least in German) the same word defines both
the attitude
and the picture thus produced.
Every picture indeed
reflects the attitude
of whoever took it.
So the rifleman's recoil
corresponds to the photographer's portrait
that is more or less visible "behind the picture,
only instead of capturing his (or her) features,
it defines the photographer's ATTITUDE
towards whatever was in front of him (or her).
The camera therefore is an eye
capable of looking forward and backward
at the same time.
Forwards, it does in fact "shoot a picture,
backwards, it records a vague shadow,
sort of an x-ray of the photographer's mind,
by looking straight through his (or her) eye
to the bottom of his (or her) soul.
Yes, forwards, a camera sees its subject,
backwards it sees the wish
to capture this particular subject in the first place,
thereby showing simultaneously THE 'I'HINGS
and THE DESIRE for them.
back
to June 2001 News Reel
