Journey to the Beginning of Time
by Win Labuda
To a greater or lesser extent, almost all of the photographic works presented
over the past decades refer to previously known content presented in a different
way or from a new perspective. This is also a legitimate means of preserving and
continuing the culture which has been handed down to us. I wanted to look for
new ways to rework what is already known and to create something new from
this promising material. Through my pictures I first comment on the work of
well-known photographers. These pictorial comments are divided into two
categories – those offering an alternative approach and those representing a
further development. “Journey to the Beginning of Time“ is primarily meant to
be an interpretation of the photographic works of Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 -
2004), Brassaï (1899 - 1984), Paul Caponigro (*1932) and Hiroshi Sugimoto
(*1948).
1 -
Departure into Time,
FH 023
2 -
Evening Sound 1,
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The series “People Today” comments on the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson in
that it frees the photographed individual from the “decisive moment“ – basically
the focus of a photojournalist – and instead focuses on the essential nature or
“decisive stance” of the photographed individual.
1
The series “Pictures and Signs“ relates to the part of Brassaï’s work in which he
turned to photographing graffiti and scratchings on walls. Like others, I also
sought to continue Brassaï’s work in his sense over the past decades.
2
The series “Home of the Gods“ is inspired by the work of the American photo-
grapher Paul Caponigro, who travelled around Ireland in the 1960s to photo-
graph the megalith architectures there. While Caponigro pursued an object-ori-
ented approach in his photography, I tried to achieve a greater reference to
space and a transcendental connection by including the sky and certain cloud
formations in my photographs, in accordance with the supposed religious
nature of people of the Stone Age.
3
The series “At the Beginning of Time“ comments on Hiroshi Sugimoto’s
“Seascapes“, yet it also represents a break with these works as far as content is
concerned. Not without reason did I change the middle horizon of Sugimoto,
this metaphor for the subordination of nature under a single, geometrically
determined and also unfamiliar plane of vision. I usually composed the hori-
zons of my “Counter-Seascapes“ to appear off-centre, and solely for this series, I
chose colour photography as medium. Moreover, like in “Home of the Gods“, I
placed stronger emphasis on the sky and space.
4
1
