Black as pitchOlaf Rößler
For
the
first
time
in
history
half
of
the
worlds
population
lived
in
urban
areas.
Let´s
take
Upper
Lusatia
in
Germany
as
an
example
how
the
global
challenge
is
being
managed.
This
means
the
emigration
from
rural
to
urban
regions.
Several
studies
show
that
in
just
twenty
years
from
now
the
first
small
towns
will
have
irrecoverably
disappeared.
This
trend
is
also
shown
in
the
fact
that
men
are
leaving
and
the
wolf
has
it´s
come
back.
Although
this
is
a
region
that
was
wealthy
for
centuries.
This
you
can
see
in
the
old
architecture
and
diverse
in
culture.
There
even
were
a
lot
of
structural
changes
several
times:
How
mankind
has
left
it`s
footprint
from
the
early
medieval
times,
the
feudalism,
through
the
industrialisation,
the
communist
era
to
this
present
day.
I’ve
decided
not
to
show
the
outcome
of
my
thesis
in
a
traditional
documentary
way.
I
took
the
challenge
to
create
a
new
contemporary
image
of
these
landscapes
which
have
been
struck
by
huge
big
socially
upheavals,
especially
during
the
last
twenty
years.
Since
the
reunion
of
Germany
this
region
is
bleeding
to
death.
My photos are infuenced by the work of the German romantic painters Carl-‐Gustav Carus, Karl Eduard Blechen und Caspar David Friedrich. These painters have also worked in this region, the south east of Germany, a part of the former German Democratic Republic close to the border of Poland and the Czech Republic. But they did their work just 200 years before me. Their paintings often show landscapes in a romantic light setting, like sunrise, dawn or the blue hour. My photos are not taken at daytime with unsettled light. My pictures were taken at night, without any visible light. The nights in this area are really dark black, there are no big cities and the streetlights in the villages are turned off at midnight. Which means that there is no light pollution in the sky, it is actually as black as pitch. The landscapes in the photos are only visible through the photographic process. The outcome is a special kind of contrast and subtly chromaticity that rises from the dark black, a picturesque landscape which is usually hidden in the dark for the human eye. The title of each picture refers to the place of origin: Kottmar, Schlegel, Olbersdorf, Tauchritz, Oberoderwitz. The pictures are contemporary landscapes, with contemporary issues: The incomplete bridge in the forest and the wind generator on the hill are a an example. The first for new infrastucture and the second for new technology. The lake with the playground which is a former coal daylight mine, the green house as a symbol for the permanent industrial outcome. Each issue is supposed to be a promise for a better future, for jobs, for higher living standards. But is this true? The last photo shows houses, a part of a town in a romantic environment. I am asking for the relationship between men and nature. It looks so picturesque romantic and on the other hand so oppressive like a dark vision. It leave you with a ambivalent feeling. The mystical atmospheric impression of „black as pitch“ refers to Lars von Triers cinematic picture language. The images are telling their own stories and might inspire you to a night-‐time road trip on memory lane. In the end they leave us with questions like: What remains if men are gone? „Black as pitch“ was originated in the summer of 2012 for my photography diploma degree at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld. I’ve worked on the photos for three months every night under every weather condition. I´ve visited about one hundred places several times to find the right exposure by try and error, as I couldn´t see anything. „Black as pitch“ is a photographic work about my motherland that I left fifteen years ago. © Olaf Rößler www.olafroessler.de
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