This isn't the first time you've heard me talk about (or read me write about) my show in Paris. And I can assure you, it won't be the last.
I'm excited beyond words. I'm completely focused on making this the best it possibly can be. So, if I seem aloof, slow to respond or appear to be dropped-out, you know what I'm doing and where my head is!
The Centre-Iris Gallery has started to publicize the events. There will be a few highlights; first, the exhibition (of course!). I will be showing both of my projects; work that I made in the United States and my current European project. I'll have about 50 images from the project, "Portraits from Madison Avenue". I will also have several pieces, I'm not exactly sure how many, of my new project, "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (loose translation: "struggling to come to terms with the past"). I'm still working on this project, but I hope to have quite a few pieces in this show.
The content and Collodion variants will span the gamut. There will be portraits, landscapes, still lifes, etc. There will be Black Glass Ambrotypes, Clear Glass Ambrotypes, Albumen prints, Salt Prints, Alumitypes, and Ferrotypes (Tintypes). I'm going to offer sell the work, too. This is a big deal for me and it's very important that I do this right!
Quinn making Pierre's portraits in Paris - June 2009
Secondly, I will be doing a public demonstration (performative lecture) the afternoon of the opening (March 9). I'll also be teaching two workshops during the week. If you're in, or near Paris, drop Centre-Iris Gallery an email and have them hold a spot for you!
And last, but not least, the gallery has asked me to do a "Portrait Day". This will be on March 10. People can come by the gallery and I will make a portrait for them (for a fee, of course). It was a hit in Paris last June. I would expect the same here, maybe even more people Oy! We'll see.
This is a gigantic logistical challenge. I'm going to rent a Volkswagon Van. I need to pack all of my artwork (huge space and very delicate items), Collodion equipment (dark-box, camera, lenses), chemistry and substrate, and luggage. And then we have to fit in it, too! I'm hoping this works! It's a four and a half hour drive to Paris. Have you ever driven in the city of Paris? Oy!
There will be more to follow... I promise.
Viernheim Synagogue Memorial & Some Project Thoughts
I can only imagine what goes through the minds of the people watching as I make photographs in the small towns and villages here.
This morning I went out to re-photograph the Synagogue memorial in the village I live in, Viernheim. They moved the memorial (I call them gravestones - they always seem to be weeping) a couple of months ago. They also included a little sitting area and bench. It's actually a lot better.
As I setup and made preparations to make a plate, several people walked by and stared - I mean stared! One old German man, maybe 70 years-old, or more, almost tripped, as he was walking by staring. He wasn't watching where he was going. I said, "Achtung, Baby!" - I wonder if he got the reference to the U2 album, probably not.
I don't mind people watching. I'm a voyeur by profession and passion. The thing that I don't is like not knowing if they're just interested, or if they're thinking, "I would prefer that this guy go away." It feels like the latter, but I'm hopeful that it's the former.
The photograph I made this morning is gone. It made me sick, but I wiped it from the plate. This is the only "evidence" that remains of the Ambrotype. What if I made this whole project like that? What if there were no plates in the entire project, only non-tangible (digital) representations? It would be a lot like the subject matter, no?
A friend/colleague emailed me the other day asked me about my thoughts on impermanence, or ephemeral art. He's working on his M.F.A. and doing some really interesting things with chalk-screen transfers. His images are only there for a short time on a chalkboard - this theme has been explored by a lot of artists, but it keeps coming back to me, time and time again. It feels like I'm not listening.
Just as the Synagogues and people were "wiped away", I think that this method may serve the project well. I first thought about breaking the glass, destroying the images, or having Germans do that in a performance. After some thought, I decided no, that's too much. However, wiping these images from the plates, and maybe even keeping the Collodion I wipe off as residue may be the answer I've been looking for.
You have to remember, these images are extremely beautiful when you're holding them in your hand. They're a "precious artifact" in a lot of ways. They're also a lot of work to make - a big investment in many ways - time, money, effort, etc. So destroying them and only keeping (digital) representations creates a sense of loss for me - a lot like how I feel when I see (memorials) representations of these beautiful Synagogues (and people) that were destroyed.
I'm going to seriously explore this some more. Right now, in this moment, I feel very strongly about it.
"Destroyed Synagogue Memorial With Apartments and Playground" 8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype - 29 March 2009 - 0923, Viernheim, Germany (I flipped this positive so you can read the text)
Notes: The memorials seem to be "weeping" every time I photograph them. The background (apartment buildings, trees, playground, etc.) appear as a painting or drawing, unreal, if you will. The gravestone seems to be emerging from a black earth - terrible and foreboding.
Shoah
I've watched a lot of films and read a lot of books about the Holocaust, or Shoah, over the years. However, I hadn't seen, "Shoah" by Claude Lanzmann. I want to travel to some of these places, especially Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chełmno, Sorbibor and Treblinka, and do some work for my project.
If you haven't seen it, you should - here's an overview:
Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since though only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive in well in many people that still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere.
"Shoah" by Claude Lanzmann
A good perspective on the camps, locations and where I live (red box).
The Holocaust Did Not Begin in the Gas Chambers...
Cyanide pellets - for the gas chambers.Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers - it began with words.
Jan. 26, 2009
IRWIN COTLER , THE JERUSALEM POST
On this United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, words may ease the pain, but
they may also dwarf the tragedy. For the Holocaust is uniquely evil in its genocidal singularity,
where biology was inescapably destiny, a war against the Jews in which, as Nobel Peace Laureate
Elie Wiesel put it, "not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims."
Let there be no mistake about it: indifference in the face of evil is acquiescence with evil itself - it is complicity with evil.
Nazism succeeded, not only because of the "bureaucratization of genocide," as Robert Lifton put it, but because of the trahison des clercs - the complicity of the elites: physicians, church leaders,
judges, lawyers, engineers, architects, educators and the like. As Elie Wiesel put it: "Cold-blooded murder and culture did not exclude each other. If the Holocaust proved anything, it is that a person can both love poems and kill children."
Can You Believe It? German Press About My Project!
I don't really believe in coincidences, and every once-in-a-great-while something comes along to remind me why I don't believe in coincidences.
Seligenstat Newspaper article about me working in the Jewish cemetery. Last November 9 (2008), which was the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, I was in Seligenstadt, Germany making glass plate photographs in a Jewish cemetery that was destroyed during that pogrom. My friend, Jan from Berlin, was there and a journalist named Armin Wronski, from the Offenbach Post was there, too. Jan's mother and step-father live in Seligenstadt. Jan and his family arranged for the paper to be there. As I made plates, Armin shot digital photographs of me and Jan told him all about my Kristallnacht project, auf Deustch, of course. I thought this would be a great piece and a huge accomplishment for me if they actually published it. To be honest with you, I didn't think they would. (You can click on the image to enlarge and read)
You have to think about this; I'm an American, with Jewish heritage, in Germany making photographs of one of the most terrible events in human history perpetrated by this country and its people. This is a very difficult and serious topic. It's hard to talk about, it's hard to think about, and a lot of Germans feel ashamed and powerless over the situation. Would you want to publicize this? Of course the angle is soft in this article, it's the technique, the Wet Plate Collodion process, that's intriguing for people. Also, if you know about Germany and the Germans, you'll know how out of place I look/seem in my dark box next to a cemetery, pouring strange chemicals on glass plates. This is not what I would call, "ordnung" - and Germans need things proper and in order. However, the people of Seligenstadt were very kind and gracious to me. They were interested in what I was doing - and that's a wonderful thing for me. I think the fact that the newspaper ran this piece is a testament to their willingness to talk about this, that's the key.
Anyway, back to coincidences; I didn't hear a word about it for two months. Just last week, it entered my mind, "What did they do with that story? Did they ever publish it?" On Monday, January 5, 2009, I wrote Jan and Armin an email asking what became of the story. Jan immediately wrote back and said, "It's in today's paper!" Are you kidding me? I was beside myself and tripping out. I hadn't really even thought about it until that weekend and the day I send the email, it's published!?! Wow! Like I said, no coincidences. What does that mean? Am I psychic? No, I'm not, but I am connected to this in a bigger way than I even think I know about and it's these kinds of things that prove that to me.
If you ever find yourself in a rut and are bored with life, move to Germany and start an art project about the Holocaust. If you have any German friends, ask them to raise interest in the local media about you and your project. And finally, to really get things going, tell them that you have Jewish heritage. Try it sometime, you'll find that it's both rewarding and challenging. Life will NOT be boring anymore.
Follow up - January 12, 2009: After running this by my German friend for a complete translation, I've got to say that I'm not impressed. There's not one mention of Kristallnacht, or the fact that my entire project deals with that. I'm sure he was censored, or censored himself. I had my hopes up. It's a "fluff" piece, and in the big picture, it means, nothing.
The Transports
The photo on the left is one I snapped at Dachau one year ago (December 2007). I remember thinking, "These are the rails that carried all of those people to their death". It was profoundly sad and visually striking to me.
This is a very insightful and interesting idea on many levels. It resonates with me simply for the fact of how much we us railroad metaphors and how they take on a whole new meaning here in Germany. For example, "derailed"or "derailing", "track wreck", "just the ticket", "off track", "one track mind", "railroaded", "fast track", "express", "letting off steam", "blowing your stack", "tunnel vision", "bells and whistles" and "end of the line". I see trains here in that kind of context.
The transports were usually cattle cars. At times, the floor of the car had a layer of quick lime which burned the feet of the human cargo. There was no water. There was no food. There was no toilet, no ventilation. Some boxcars had up to 150 people stuffed into them. It did not matter if it was summer, winter, boiling hot or freezing cold. And an average transport took about four and a half days. Sometimes the Germans did not have enough cars to make it worth their while to do a major shipment of Jews to the camps, so the victims were stuck in a switching yard - "standing room only" - for two and a half days. The longest transport, from Corfu, took 18 days. When the train got to the camps and the doors were opened, and everyone was dead.
German Lawmakers & Anti-Semitism
I ran across this piece today. These are the kinds of questions and the issues I wonder about. I would answer the question asked at the end by saying, come and live here for a while, you'll know.
"Two weeks ago was the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. German society, now expert at such commemorations, gestured in all the appropriate ways. Angela Merkel visited the newly renovated Rykestrasse synagogue. Mozart’s Requiem was performed at the Gendarmenmarkt. All the newspapers featured reviews of a new exhibit about the burning and pillaging that augured worse to come. The public centerpiece of all this memorializing was to be a standard resolution, a statement of concern, really—unanimously supported by all the members of the Bundestag—decrying anti-Semitism and calling for renewed vigilance. It almost didn’t happen. When a vote finally took place on November 5, it was only after the ruling coalition of Christian and Social Democrats and the extreme left party had engaged in a brutal round of accusatory historical regurgitation. Der Spiegel said everyone concerned in the episode “should be red in the face with shame.” In the end, to avoid what would have been a full-blown fiasco, two separate statements for the dueling factions were produced and passed.
Why did this no-brainer of a resolution create such problems for German lawmakers?"
Jewish Cemetery Vandalised With Pig's Head & Blood
Gotha, Germany Jewish Cemetery
Pictures of a shocking Nazi hate attack on a Jewish cemetery in the town of Gotha have horrified Germany.
A bloody pig’s head was found stuck to the middle of a Star of David on the graveyard gate at 5.30am yesterday. A sheet next to it, smeared with blood, held a chilling message: "6 million lies".
Nazism and hatred toward Jews (and people that are "different") is alive and well here in Germany. For those that think otherwise, you are completely misinformed. As this Bild article says, there were over 17,000 of these kinds of crimes committed last year here, 18 involving cemeteries. To desecrate cemeteries and disrespect the dead like this, speaks volumes to me. In a way, I feel sorry for these uneducated, misinformed souls. I would relish the opportunity to teach them about the history of the Jewish people - that would be wonderful.
These kinds of things motivate me to "turn up the volume" on my project. I want to read about people that are trying show the truth and create discourse to help people learn the truth. The other side doesn't seem to get fair play on this topic. We'll see if we can change that.
This is a link to the Bild article (in English). Thank you Caron.
Credit: By OLIVER LÖHR and JAN MEYER
It just never stops....
Former E. German Synagogue Defaced
November 19, 2008
BERLIN (JTA) -- A newly renovated synagogue in the former East Germany was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, police reported.
It was the third act of vandalism against a Jewish site reported in the former East Germany in the last two days.
According to reports, perpetrators painted anti-Semitic statements and illegal symbols in yellow on the front door of a synagogue in Goerlitz covering more than a square yard. The vandalism was discovered Monday.
Reached in Vienna, Alex Jacobowitz, the chairman of Goerlitz’s small Jewish community, said he would comment after seeing the police report.
The synagogue in Goerlitz, originally dedicated in 1909, was the only synagogue in the state of Saxony to survive the Kristallnacht pogrom of 70 years ago. It was reopened to the public following extensive renovations on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nov. 9.
Also Monday, two Jewish cemeteries in the former East German state of Thuringia were found defaced with red paint. In one case, the bloody head of a pig was hung on the cemetery’s iron gates. Police reportedly were able to retrieve evidence at the cemeteries in Gotha and Erfurt.
Wet Collodion Negatives Printed On Centennial POP
Here are a couple of prints I made today. I still have some "experimenting" to do before I fully commit to a "style" and "methodology" for printing wet plate Collodion negatives for my project. Today, I used Centennial POP and gold toned the prints. The "Broken Headstone" negative was intensified, "The Stairs" negative wasn't (but will be).
Cenntenial POP
This is the negative from yesterday (70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht) in the Seligenstadt cemetery printed on Centennial Printing Out Paper (POP) and toned with gold toner. It has amazing detail and is very beautiful when it's in your hand - this is a reasonable facsimile, I guess.
Cenntenial POP Detail
This is a detail of the broken headstone. This print looks really good. I may have wanted to tone it to a little cooler color, but I'm okay with it.
Cenntenial POP
You can see that the lack of contrast is a little bit annoying (although it does look like a painting and the color is quite nice). This negative has not been intensified, once I do that ,and then print it, it will have contrast. I can color the color, to some extent, with the toner. The shorter the time, the warmer the color, the longer the toning time, the cooler the color.
P.S.
Centennial POP is no longer made - sad, but true.
The 70th Anniversary of "Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass"
Today is a very important day for me, and for a lot of other people, too. It's the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Quinn making the exposure for a negative in the Seligenstadt Jewish Cemetery.
The Story
Over the last 2 1/2 years, I've spent a lot of time researching, reading, talking to people and making photographs about this event. Specifically, I've been making portraits and photographs of sites where something sacred was destroyed or people were murdered. Over the next 2 years, I'm going to continue to do the same thing. My goal is to have a body of work (when I leave here) that will communicate the feelings, knowledge and information that I've acquired in my time here as it relates to "otherness", specifically being Jewish in Germany in the middle of the 20th century.
In a perfect world, I would have wanted to have a show hanging in a gallery today somewhere in Germany about Kristallnacht. I didn't know that was almost an impossible thing to do. Maybe next year, I'm not even sure about that though. I wondered what I could do beyond burning a candle and saying a prayer (nothing wrong with that).
Quinn photographing the two headstones that weren't destroyed on Kristallnacht.I was in Seligenstadt (it means "blessed city") last week and wanted to photograph the Friedhof (cemetery) but didn't have access. You need a key, and in order to get a key, you need to write a letter to people in Frankfurt explaining why you want access. Why all of the bureaucracy? Because this cemetery, along with the synagogue in Seligenstadt was destroyed on Kristallnacht. And, believe it or not, there are still people today that want to do bad things to these places and to these people. There's still a lot of bad feelings and hatred toward Jews here. I don't blame them for wanting to know who wants in and why. The short story is, that I wrote the letter and got access.
Friedhof - Seligenstadt, GermanySo, today, on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, I was in Seligenstadt making photographs inside the cemetery. I was trying to honor both the place and the people that suffered and died there. The cemetery was destroyed on 10 November. The stones were either destroyed or taken away and used in other construction projects. Some were stored in a basement just a few houses from the cemetery. The cemetery was then turned over to the horses and cows as a grazing pasture. Can you imagine? It upsets me just writing this.
As I was making images today, there was an old German man that approached me and started telling me about his experience. He was 11 years-old during Kristallnacht. He told me that "today is the 70th anniversary". I told him that's why I was there. He also told me that the perpetrators that destroyed both the cemetery and the synagogue "got away with it, they were never held accountable and they spent their lives in Seligenstadt and no one ever said anything else about it." He went on to say, "they were in church (Catholic) every Sunday just like everyone else." He was (or at least acted) upset. He said that the Germans that attacked the Jews of Seligenstadt and carried out Göbbles wishes that night/morning are all dead now. However, none of them, not one, was ever held accountable for their actions as the old German man said. They weren't SA or Nazis either (at least not in uniform). They were the (average) Germans citizens from Seligenstadt. This was the rule, not the exception, for Kristallnacht. It's simple math, there weren't enough of Hitler's (official) thugs to do all of this. To make it happen, on the scale that it did, the (average) Germans got involved. People today, tend to think that Hitler and all of his thugs marched into every little village and murdered, beat, raped, and deported all of the Jews and destroyed all of their property. The truth is much more frightening than that, a lot of times, it was their neighbors.
"Hebrew Headstone" 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype There was a tour guide taking a group of Germans around Seligenstadt showing them the Jewish history in the city. Until the 1930s, Jews had been in that village since the 13th century, and sometimes, in significant numbers. The Germans today in Seligenstadt are very kind and they are very open to discuss their history and the Germans role in it. They are the farthest thing from Nazis.
I got a lift when the tour guide requested that all of the men in the group have a head covering. She explained (in German and as much as I could understand) that it was to show respect for the dead and God. It was the strangest thing in the world to see a German man putting on a kippa/yarmulke. Wow! it blew my mind, I just stood there grinning.
The Photographs
The images I made today, especially the broken headstone, sum up the emotions and feelings I have about this event and this place. It's broken, that's easy enough to see. Shall we talk about it being broken? Shall we act like things are okay now? It's mysterious and complicated too. Like these images, it is a bit out of place and out of time. It's disturbing and nagging. I feel like it begs to be examined, talked about, and revealed for what it is. This is what I feel these images do for me. They act as a catalyst, a place to start discourse - something to talk about. That's all I can hope my work does. And if it does that, I've succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Quinn holding the wet Collodion Negative of the Hebrew Headstone. I apologize for the less than perfect reproductions here, but you can get the idea of what I did. I made three 8x10 plates today. It was raining, cold and I didn't feel 100% either. I had to do this though and I'm glad I did. I made two Black Glass Ambrotypes and one negative. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm mostly concerned with making prints. Hopefully, Tuesday, I will make prints of both of the Seligenstadt negatives. I'll post them if I do.
One more thing, there was a journalist from the Offenbach Post doing a story on me. He shot a lot of photos of me and Jan (thank you!) gave him a lot of important information about me, the project and the process. He seemed to really, really dig it. It was a lot of fun, in that context. He had me posing and holding images, my camera, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the article. I hope to get a little more attention and maybe a show here next year - we'll see, it's a different world here.
Thank you, Jan and Summer. I couldn't have done this without your help and belief in this project. It will pay off, trust me.
Quinn processing a plate in the darkbox, Summer reading a magazine on contemporary German photography and Jan snaps this photo.
Armin Wronski (newspaper) waiting as I make an exposure.
Armin having me "pose" for a "proper" newspaper photo. No plate/plateholder, all fake!