ANDREAS J. HIRSCH
MOSTLY ABOUT NOW
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MOSTLY ABOUT NOW Pages of Photography No. 1
SO WHAT IS THIS?
Said and his sisters, Morocco, 1993
You may well read it as an – certainly ever failing – attempt to overview my photographic work from approximately a year back. But there are contradictions you might stumble upon. Among a lot of quite up-to-date material, there are certain photographs that date back further. Maybe I could not let them go. And then the question: Why is this "mostly about now"? Well, it is mostly about the moment, the ongoing instant of the present, about being here now, while searching for intensity, for matters of life – and death, there is. Maybe something is going on. ENJOY.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2004
It was only days, if not hours before my father passed away that I spoke to him about his love for photography, the materials, the process and the images, that he had passed on to me. Only some time later I embarked on a photographic search for the paths he had taken in his time, for the inner image that he might have registered. Then juxtaposing my photographs with some of his books on accounting, on herbs and on astronomy and his own photography - the whole set titled: NOCTURNES
IN BROAD DAYLIGHT From: Nocturnes in Broad Daylight, Vienna, 2013 (4 images)
BEFORE ART If we see looking at art as a process of insight, a culturally valid mode of understanding something about life, then observing humans "before art" tells us a lot about this process. In fact people start to interact with pieces of art in manyfold ways and such scenes never fail to intrigue me.
Oliviero Toscani and Elaine W. Ng, Linz, 2004 / Ingrid, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, 2009
next pages: Erich Lessing at the Swiss Embassy, Vienna, 2010 / Elke with a print from the studio Lehnert & Landrock, Cairo, 2004 / Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, 2012 / Ulrich Mack, Hamburg, 2011 / Alfi, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2001 / Eberhard Schrempf, Graz, 2012
What happens to us when we close our eyes in public space? What happens to the image others have of us, when we do so? In striving to explore such questions photographically I portrayed a number of people, many of them connected with photography. Austrian photographers Erich Lessing, Andreas H. Bitesnich and Christian Jungwirth were among
From: Play of Emotions
them, as well as Sarah Blumenfeld, the great-granddaughter of Erich Blumenfeld, or Okky Offerhaus, muse of Elliott Erwitt in the 1960ies. Rudolf Gelbard, resistance fighter and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps was another figure of history in this series, which was first exhibited during the Month of Photography 2012 in Vienna: THE PLAY OF
EMOTIONS
Untitled (Sabine), 2012 / Untitled (Erich Lessing), 2012 / Untitled (Okyy Offerhaus), 2012
Untitled (Rudolf Gelbard), 2012 / Untitled (Sean), 2012
My favorite book from Elliott Erwitt is his "Hand Book" – a book full of photographs, where hands play the lead role. Although it may be considered a commonplace that hands tell us often more than the face, I always liked the way Elliott perceives the world around him, muses about the human condition photographically. Moderating a photographer's talk with him and roaming the streets of Vienna with him contained many lessons about his ever wakeful mix of humor and insight. A little (hand)book resulted from this: ELLIOTT ERWITT IN VIENNA Elliott Erwitt, Vienna, 2012 (2 images) / Andreas Kaufmann, President of LEICA, taking a picture of Elliott, Vienna, 2012
When Clément Chéroux shared with me his passion for the photobooth, I dived into the magic of this very analog machine. The process of bringing the exhibition “Behind the Curtain – The Art of the Photobooth" from the Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne to Vienna turned into a celebration for the art of the automatic image, but also for analog photography as such. It resulted in an event at KUNST HAUS WIEN about #analogrenaissace as well as two personal books about the people around this exhibition: NOT STRICTLY BEHIND
THE CURTAIN & L'ÉNIGME DU PHOTOMATON
Selfportrait from Photobooth, Lausanne, 2011
Clément Chéroux, Vienna, 2012
Selfportrait from Photobooth, Vienna, 2012 / Dounia, Vienna, 2012
Clément Chéroux, Lausanne, 2011 / Sam Stourdzé, Vienna, 2012
There are certain jobs, certain vocations that simply cannot be fulfilled without reaching a state of utmost intensity and concentrated energy. At the very moment I arrived to see a leading vascular surgeon who desired a portrait, he was called to an emergency and I ran with him to the operating room. Within a mere 20 very bloody minutes during which he fought for the life of a patient with a rupture of the main artery I took a series of photographs, forming the first chapter of what was to become a larger project about people like him: INTENSITIES. The patient survived. Thomas Hรถlzenbein, Salzburg, 2013 (6 images)
René Burri has the rare gift of being able to capture the essence of vitality in his photographs, even if they are not exactly about this topic. One could say his entire photographic oeuvre is a celebration of life and the force behind it. Bringing his retrospective to Vienna sparked a series of encounters in different places that lead to a number of portraits, which strive to reflect this photographer's artistic power: VISIONS OF RENÉ
René Burri, Vienna, 2010 / René Burri, Arles, 2012 / René Burri, Zurich, 2013
One afternoon in May 2013 I descended into the darkness of the rehearsals of Giuseppe Verdi's IL TROVATORE at the legendary Theater an der Wien. Until the moments after the curtain fell at the end of the first night I followed director Philipp Stรถlzl on his every step in his quest for a highly intense staging of this opera. It became a roller-coaster-ride of breathtaking emotions,
dynamic scenes and moving gestures floating on the power of Verdi's music. A storm of the heart recorded in photographs: Philipp Stรถlzl with Carmen Giannattasio and Mara Kurotschka, Vienna, 2013 / next pages: Philipp Stรถlzl directing Il Trovatore, Vienna, 2013 (9 images)
LA TEMPESTA DEL MIO COR
HR GIGER STUDIO & GARDEN The swiss
HR Giger – Studio and Garden, Zurich, 2013
artist HR Giger has like only few others in the history of art been able to create images that ultimately convey our collective fears and abysses, among them the creature "Alien", which he had designed for Ridley Scott. In the summer of 2013, while as curator preparing the exhibition "HR Giger – The Art of Biomechanics" for Ars Electronica Festival and the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, I paid several visits to HR Giger in Zurich. While the artist rested one afternoon in July I was given lease to photograph in his studio and garden. The resulting series of black&white photographs was first shown at the Lentos Art Museum.
HR Giger – Studio and Garden, Zurich, 2013
STUDIO STUDIES Sharing
a studio is a complex web of interactions and irritations, a multi-directional process of observations and feedback loops. Making this situation productive with the means of photography led to a series about the work that Alexandra Uccusic put into painting a set of 13 "strange animals" for what became her first calendar for 2014. Pondering the possible degrees of abstraction led to rendering the observations into meditations about light and shadow and the dynamics of the creative process. Exhibited at WEST46 in Vienna in November 2013.
studio studies, Vienna, 2013
Me, Hamburg, 2011
AD PERSONAM Born in 1961 in Vienna, Austria, Andreas J. Hirsch lives and works there as an independent art curator, writer and photographer. Since 2009 Andreas J. Hirsch works as curator for KUNST HAUS WIEN, responsible for several exhibitions of photography including Tina Modotti, René Burri, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt and Linda McCartney. His writings include books on Pablo Picasso, Tina Modotti and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He served on numerous juries including Prix Ars Electronica. His personal photographic work since 1979 circles around aspects of life and intensity, humans and their expressions and traces in the world. www.andreas-hirsch.net
IMPRINT PUBLISHER: EDITION ANDREAS J. HIRSCH Dr. Andreas Hirsch, 1140 Wien, Bierhäuselberggasse 33 – www.andreas-hirsch.net GRAPHIC DESIGN: Judith Nicolussi/ juni – www.juniverse.net/illustration PRINTED BY: druck.at Druck- und Handels GmbH. 2544 Leobersdorf, Aredtstraße 7 – druck.at – Printed in Austria. All photographs and texts in this book are, unless state otherwise, by Andreas J. Hirsch © Andreas J. Hirsch, 2013. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-3-9503702-1-8
Front Cover: Untitled (Agnes Achola), Vienna, 2012 Inside Front: Self Portrait, Venice, 2004 Inside Back: Eli Reed, Magnum 65 Soirée, Hotel Nord Pinus, Arles, 2012 Back Cover: Elliott Erwitt and Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu, Arles, 2012