with Luigi Vitali

»All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt. “The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world ‘picturesque.«

― Susan Sontag, On Photography

With whom [do] the adherents of historicism actually empathize[?] The answer is inevitable: with the victor. And all rulers are the heirs of those who conquered before them. Hence, empathy with the victor invariably benefits the rulers. Historical materialists know what that means. Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. According to traditional practice, the spoils are carried along in the procession. They are called cultural treasures, and a historical materialist views them with cautious detachment. For without exception the cultural treasures he surveys have an origin which he cannot contemplate without horror. They owe their existence not only to the efforts of the great minds and talents who have created them, but also to the anonymous toil of their contemporaries. There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.

— Walter Benjamin (‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, p. 258)

This is my last day. Normally I’d post the analog versions of the pictures, but they are still in the shop for developement. I hope I’ve interested you these days with my project »a portrait a day«. I truly hope you’ve all enjoyed it as I did. It was a great experience.

I would like to say, normally I would have portrayed Isabelle Pateer and Liv Vaisberg. By circumstances I didn’t have the time to do it. I would recommend checking out Isabelle Pateer, one of the most respected photographers of Belgium/Netherlands. She made a series on an abandoned village in Belgium. She has a very soft way of portraying people. I spent a day working with her. And really, the way she takes a picture, you can tell she is one of the most talented and dedicated photographers I know. I wish her all the best.

www.isabellepateer.com

And then we have Liv Vaisberg. Liv is the direcor of Ponyhof Gallery (because I do not ALWAYS want to talk about photography). Ponyhof gallery is a pop-up gallery with an online vitrine that works with painters. Liv has a very open way of looking at art, she always welcomes new artists and is always looking for new fresh talents. Some of the paintings really inspire me, so take a look at :

www.ponyhofgallery.com

And as if it wouldn’t be enough yet, Liv is also a photographer.

www.livvaisberg.com

I hope I can show you my analoge series. If so, it will appear here in about a week.
Hope you all enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to seeing the other bloggers. I wish them all the fun I had.

Thanks for reading/looking.

Love,

Joke.