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Themesicon: navigation pathPhoto/Byteicon: navigation pathTime in the Image
Rethinking Image Arrangements: Podium discussion between Jörg Sasse, Dieter Daniels and Susanne Holschbach (transcript)
Jörg Sasse
 
 
 
 
 

 

Time in the Image

Holschbach: In the realm of science, dealing with the immense reservoir of private photographic images is still a desiderate, something no one really dares to tackle; and, above all, the aspect of visual structures has hardly been dealt with so far. In reference to your collection of amateur photographs, you speak of ‹Zeitschichten› (time layers). Do you mean here that the type of image, type of photographing, or techniques differ? In this context an intermediate step in your work would interest me: Can you say what realizations you arrived at while working with amateur photographs? Can you define time layers?

Sasse: The question of realizations is good…When I began this work, it wasn’t clear to me that I would be occupied for such a long period. It wasn’t planned that way. For me, what came about was a perspective that led to further work, and to an incredible amount of fun! My mood might have been entirely different had I been in my younger years, devoted to a conceptual framework, and working my way through a theme

 

bound to be completed at some stage. It would have become boring for me; I would have felt compelled to concentrate on something new. Until, sooner or later, that was finished too. From the standpoint of the one producing, the most important question is: Why do I do this and can I grow old with it? Or: does it last only a couple days? For me, my work has so many perspectives, I can always discover new elements in it. So much for that peculiar term ‹realizations›. The question regarding time layers is harder to answer; as the amount of material increases, what stands out for me are differences between the 1960s and 1970s, for example regarding color. I never approached the matter like an analyst; instead, I simply registered the differences while working with the images. One feels tempted to formulate an idea like: «The color sense of this decade is probably unlike that of the other.» Then one quickly sees how this color sense also depends on the way it is stored and on the used materials, and that images of the same period can appear totally different from one another. Or material from a different cultural sphere: something impossible for me to classify on the basis of superficial criteria – the

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