How did you meet this couple, Gerti and Eugen?
We met Gerti after seeing some of the photographs from the archive. Gerti had at one point sold all negatives to a collector, whose assistant at the time was Karsten’s flatmate. We had a look at the photographs, and soon after contacted Gerti and visited her for the first time. The encounter with Eugen came quite a bit later in the process of making the film, through his writings. When we started working on the film, he had been dead for 15 years. However, apart from the photographs, he left a private autobiography as well as countless written holiday reports, which later became an integral part of the film.
How was it to convince Gerti to share such a personal material with you?
There was no need to convince Gerti to share the photographs with us. When she sold the negatives, this meant that the pictures would become public. Selling the negatives and agreeing to participating in a film both served the same purpose: Her husband was not to be forgotten. Then, however, the form and aesthetics of the film, and the selection of subjects and images we made, required both explanation and persuasion. It was clear that what we did would be different from what Gerti expected, and that it would at least in parts disappoint her.
What was the result of this introspection and what did you aim?
We hoped to find a person behind the lady in the picture, and to trigger a personal examination of the archive and the act of taking pictures and of one’s picture being taken. An examination that would eventually lead to a sort of emancipation of the subject, Gerti in the here-and-now, from Gerti as the photographer’s object – a dissolution of the person and her image. But then again, this distinction between object and subject, both in the photographs and among the three of us while making the film, was not as clear-cut. Just as we could never quite determine who in fact made the pictures (him by pushing the release, her by being in the frame, or both by negotiating poses etc.), we were also not sure whether the presence of our camera did not have a reverse effect, and reinforced the emphasis on surfaces as implied by the photographs.
Sessions/Sessões: May 6th/ 6 de Maio, 9.45 p.m./21:45, Culturgest, Small Auditorium/ Pequeno Auditório • May 11th/ 11 de Maio, 7.45 p.m./19:15, Culturgest, Small Auditorium/Pequeno Auditório
