On October 3, 1990, I watched the news of the unification of East and West Germany in San Diego, California. When I saw the images of the joy of so many people on the screen, I knew in my heart that I had no choice but to go to that place.
I borrowed money from a friend to use my camera as collateral, flew to Berlin on that day's plane, and walked along the Berlin Wall to the museum. The big celebrations I had seen on the news the day before had died down. But there were still smells and heat in the air, and I felt like I had come to a special place.
This exhibition is a re-examination of the origins of my photography over the past 30 years. The four works shown in Berlin are included in this exhibition. However, they are not identical works, but rather the present with the addition of the past 30 years. Negatives to creating the prints, like a score, can be interpreted differently by different performers/producers and can change.
In the late 1980s, I was an admirer of German Expressionist painters. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Müller, Erich Haeckel and others. For me, German Expressionist painting was a beauty that exposed my inner self; the released energy comes from the inside to the outside. (This is only my impression).
In a sense, a painting begins with an empty white canvas filled with the energy from within. In contrast, the photographic canvas is filled with the real world, which is chaotic and tangible. It is then cut out and organized into a rectangular or square frame image created through the photographic process. In my inexperienced state as a photographer, cutting out the real world and searching for inner beauty or art was unthinkable.
In the late 1980s, I studied photography at a college in San Diego, California. The West Coast is famous for fine art print photographers like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. I remember going on a school trip to the homes of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston's son, Cole Weston, and seeing their fine art prints in person.
Speaking of being blessed, the Museum of Photography/MOPA (San Diego) is about an hour's drive away, where they have exhibits of famous photographers from all over the world, and sometimes I was even able to meet world-class photographers in person.
However, I could not find my photographs in this environment. During this time, I came across a photography magazine published in Germany in a photography museum. It showed how European artists were using photography as a medium to express themselves and create works of art.
It was the moment when I felt my direction as a photographer/artist. A year after this encounter, in1990, I participated in an exhibition in Berlinische Galerie organized by this magazine that changed my life. As mentioned at the beginning of this writing, this trip was my first step toward becoming a photographer. |
