Wim Wenders Early Photographs 1960s-1980s
METRO Kinokulturhaus 2019
Photography, painting, film and narration: this was the axis around which the artistic work of Wim Wenders revolved in the 1960s until the 1980s. The Filmarchiv Austria presents 70 photographs by Wim Wenders, taken during extensive journeys around the world in black-and-white 35mm format, as well as colour and panorama shots. From the beginning of the 1970s and for the next ten years, however, his preferred photographic medium was the Polaroid camera. It became a complementary tool, a visual notebook and an everyday companion.
Regardless of the medium or the place where his photographs were taken, Wenders’ gaze displays a clearly documentary “attitude”, his precise aesthetics permeate and accentuate given situations. Viewed in detail, the images open up an emotional, narrative dimension— each one seems to be the first “shot” of an incipient cinematic narrative.
The multi-layered narrative aspects in Wim Wenders’ photographs take viewers by the hand during their journey into the pictures and allow them to participate immediately and authentically in his pictorial cosmos.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wim Wenders Foundation and Blain|Southern, and curated by Anna Duque y González. It is part of FOTO WIEN Festival that is hosted in Vienna from 20 March to 20 April 2019.
Photo: Wim Wenders, Glück, Oberhausen, 1963
Severin Dostal, Installation views of Wim Wenders Early Photographs 1960s-1980s, Metro Kinokulturhaus, Vienna, 2019