HANS-JOACHIM ELLERBROCK. Truth, Lies & the Space In Between

Transcription

1 HANS-JOACHIM ELLERBROCK Truth, Lies & the Space In Between

2 HANS-JOACHIM ELLERBROCK Truth, Lies & the Space In Between

3 FLOWERS

4 About Flowers Flowers and blossoms are among the most versatile and expressive motifs in the visual arts, due not only to their appearance but also their symbolism. They are a symbol of crowning success, true essence, and in their cycle of growth, climax and decline are a metaphor for the cycle of life. They stand for beauty as well as for transiency, impermanence and death. In order to grow, flowers need light from the sun and water from rain, and thus are also regarded as symbols for devotion and humility. To add a further, individual voice to the rich canon of meanings and artistic expressions is certainly one of photography s biggest challenges. Sometimes I have the feeling, says Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock, that every photographer sooner or later ends up taking pictures of flowers. It is not, however, a natural step for a photographer who found his artistic niche in street photography, who is used to a single moment being decisive for a picture s success or failure. Street photographers seldom have a second chance to capture their motifs. The method of approach for photographing flowers is completely different. The flower is a pillar of calm, which allows you to circle it and observe it, says Ellerbrock. He is mainly interested in what happens during the process and the various motifs that come to life during the entire cycle. The flower as a metaphor for life - growing, in full bloom and wilting - holds a special allure for him as an artist. Although his pictures - through their colorfulness, the interplay between focused and blurry and their intimate detail - possess an unusual aesthetic quality, his goal is never to display only the beauty of a motif as art for art s sake. My flowers sometimes look almost plastic, says Ellerbrock. They are sometimes characterized by demanding severity and are often secretive, mysterious. In his series Flowers Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock presents two different methods of photography. On the one hand there are pure photographs, which have only been retouched using darkroom techniques, and on the other hand there are photomontages, which have been altered by adding elements that suggest the plentitude and homogeneity of the objects in a (non-)commercial sense. The intent behind the composition of the pictures is to give an impression of artificialness. The artistry of Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock s flower photographs is also due to the fact that the examination of the meaning and symbolism of the motifs always retains a playful sense of lightness. Even when the photographer approaches the beauty of a motif with skepticism, when the satiated fullness of life is deciphered and demolished, these flowers retain their mystery and allow room for the viewer to make their own associations and interpretations. Andreas Klement 8

5 14 Doppelmohn böse (Double Poppy Evil) x 75 cm, 2006

6 34 Calla Vase - 80 x 62 cm, 2006

7 FILM ICONS

8 About Film Icons I probably watched all the old movies at least three times, preferably on rainy Sundays. And I watched some of them even more often. They - and I - are old enough so that I could watch them with a good amount of time in between viewings. Anybody who has an affinity for old movies also has certain pictures and sentences that stick with them. Here s looking at you, kid immediately calls to mind pictures that are deeply connected to our emotions. Big Hollywood movies, Cinemascope. Although the rise of television reduced this size enormously, repeated airings over decades have ensured them an enduring presence. We have internalized the stars of the 50s and 60s and they have become our icons - in contrast to the stars of today, who through the introduction of B, C, D list celebrities have been watered down, become blurred. them down into single frames, PAL Format 720 x 576 pixels, ridiculous. I then blew them up with all the flaws this process brings to light, graininess, pixilation, color shifting - and yet - a perfect face like Hepburn s is indestructible. Quite the opposite: the recycled formats graininess with pixels stretched to the limit have their own charm, prove the unmistakableness of these figures. An ideal world, whose echoes are only slowly fading. A Happy Never End. Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock Real men with heart and intellect, like Cary Grant, but also ambivalent characters played by Humphrey Bogart or Jean Paul Belmondo. Men who didn t have their own brand of perfume - or whose names are not associated with a brand of underwear - pointed us in the right direction. Audrey Hepburn teamed with Coco Chanel refined our perception of femininity and introduced a new image of women: vulnerable, independent, confident. Although the Cinemascopes that were squeezed into TV formats chipped away at these icons a bit, did they really destroy them? Isn t a battle painting that has been reduced to a postcard format silly? I photographed scenes from the films again and again while watching them on television and broke 40

9 Belmondo raucht III (Belmondo is Smoking III) from Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, x 57 cm,

10 Marcello im Bett (Marcello in Bed) from City of Women by Federico Fellini, x 79 cm,

11 Sie trägt ein rotes Kostüm (She s Wearing a Red Suit) from Charade by Stanley Donen, x 77 cm,

12 PHOTO COLLAGES

13 About Photo Collages The series Photo Collages came to life over a period of around ten years, from the early 90s until The artworks were created during a phase of fundamental, technical transition in the world of photography, and also - at least at first glance - stand out from the rest of the work in Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock s portfolio. In his role as a street photographer, Ellerbrock is an absolute purist who would never accept a posed photograph. On the street, you re a hunter and gatherer, you take what you get, he says. When he visited the photographer Thomas Höpker at the beginning of the 90s in New York, he was introduced to the possibilities offered by digital photography and was fascinated by the new playground. As a passionate street photographer, he is driven by his own artistic vision and at the same time dependent upon the moment. During the occasionally tedious confrontation with a motif, the idea of the perfect picture springs to mind, but is always constrained by the limits of reality. And so sometimes a blank space occurs; although not discernible to the viewer, they are painful to a trained photographer s eye. Digital montage offered the possibility to remove the vacuum that occurs during street photography, says Ellerbrock. The artistic aspiration remains the same: To steal a moment out of time, freeze it and then solidify it so that it endures. That s the essence of street photography, otherwise the motif remains unheeded. To ensure this measure of authenticity, Ellerbrock only uses his own photographs for his collages, the first batch of which were intended to look like street photographs. Every layer he adds is the result of careful consideration - until finally the picture tells a story, or several stories, an individual story for each viewer. The prerequisites for this work are time, patience and continuous review of the steps throughout. In his later works, which are shrill and opulent in the liveliest sense of the words, the surreal elements increasingly and distinctly come to the foreground. A major factor in these works is credibility, which Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock s photo collages and street photographs both lay claim to in equal measures. In light of the sheer endless possibilities for manipulation and changing reality through digital editing, these works tie into the origins of the technique in Dadaism, when artists like John Heartfield and George Grosz used photo montages as a means of expressing their criticism of society and reality. The artistic and philosophical stance, which this method is based on, is that of irony. The ironic destruction of one level of reality by the subsequent level can be intention as well as the subtle casting of doubt on aesthetic illusions. If this leads to the artwork questioning its own method of production, connections to the art theory of the Romantic period and especially its central theme of irony arise. Friedrich Schlegel defined the method of Romantic irony as the constant change from self-creation to self-destruction, and viewed that as the prerequisite to artistic objectivity. Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock on the other hand describes work that satisfies his artistic intention as a moment of molded truth. Viewed in that light, the photo collages are in no way unique in relation to the other works in this artists portfolio; at second glance they are rather a consequent continuation of the artistic position of endeavoring to try out the other side of my own coin. Andreas Klement 68

14 Es hätte auch anderes kommen können (It Could Have Turned Out Differently) 160 x 108 cm,

15 Gefallener Engel (Fallen Angel) 180 x 100 cm,

16 VENICE

17 Alles hält dich fest. Abreisen geht nicht, Du bist Teil. Du wirst Turm und Säule, Platz und Kuppel, Du wirst Augenblick. Everything grips you. You cannot leave, you have become a part of it. You become tower and pillars, plaza and dome, you become this moment in time. 110

18 San Marco V - 62 x 40 cm,

19 Du wirst besetzt, wirst Untergrund und Landebahn, Fressnapf und Beutegut. Du bist kopflos, aber in bester Gesellschaft. You will be an occupied territory, will become the ground and a landing strip, feeding bowl and prey. You are headless, but in good company. 114

20 Kopflos in Venedig (Headless in Venice) - 62 x 40 cm,