
j.p. - about my photography
about my photography my photographs are portrayals of a moment in time - nothing more and nothing less. they are not snapshots. this already suggests too much violence: snap (like a dog) - shoot (like a soldier). that's not contained at all in the real situation in which things are created. there is no arranging or embellishing. perhaps there is a kind of tacit contract between the people, animals, landscapes etc. and myself... .
there is hopefully still enough respect (and perhaps a coy serenity) that make it impossible for me to hubristically intervene. i cannot elevate every triviality into an event, for instance. after all, openness, spontaneity, fun, lapidary speed do not constitute opposites to that, because precisely in such situations concentration and accuracy is the most important thing for me. this can happen anywhere.
i don't need a photo studio. what continues to interest me are stills from a (my) film runs and runs. single frames from a story that i am and ("carefully") direct, and which i can also take apart and put back together again... .
the photos must remain free of the lyrical, the symbolic etc.! i much prefer what's called the trivial.
i can work with that. showing a quality that's generally overlooked. for me it's still about beauty (in all its guises) and about absorbing something that hardly anyone else sees, touches, takes away. this is not an explanation, which would only obfuscate; rather, they are parallel thoughts (mental leaps), which probably spring from similar roots.
conversation with walter stuller, publisher n.y.
josef pausch, wien 1995