.
I-Phone #1. neblig: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 7 January 2011
Friedrich Hölderlin: Der Winter
Wenn ungesehn und nun vorüber sind die Bilder
Der Jahreszeit, so kommt des winters Dauer,
Das Feld ist leer, die Ansicht scheinet milder,
Und Stürme wehn umher und Regenschauer.
Als wie ein Ruhetag, so ist des Jahres Ende,
Wie einer Frage Ton, das dieser sich vollende,
Alsdann erscheint des Frühlings neues Werden,
So glänzet die Natur mit ihrer Pracht auf Erden.
..............................
......................................Mit Untertänigkeit
......................................Mit Untertänigkeit
..............................
d. 24 April 1849
.
.
Winter
When
the season's images are unseen and now past, the winter's duration
comes; the field is empty, the view seems milder, and gales blow about,
and showers.
Like a day of rest is the end of the year, like a question's tone that seeks completion; then spring's new becoming appears. Thus nature with her splendour shines on earth.
..............................
..............................
24 April 1849
Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843): Der Winter (Winter), prose translation by Michael Hamburger in Hölderlin, 1961
Bessa III_75: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 8 December 2013
I-Phone #4. neblig 2. Mainufer Höchst: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 7 January 2011
I-Phone #4. Nebel Kommt... Feldberg, Taunus (Schmitten, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 10 November 2011
Rollei_250. Nebel Kommt... Feldberg, Taunus (Schmitten, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 11 November 2011
Rollei_249. Nebel Kommt... Feldberg, Taunus (Schmitten, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 11 November 2011
Bessa III_49. Novembernebel (Schwanheimer Wiesen): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 15 November 2013
Bessa III_50. Novembernebel (Schwanheimer Wiesen): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 15 November 2013
Bessa III_74. Eine Parkplatz in Russelseim (Russelsheim, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 11 December 2013
Nebel 2: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2011
Hochwasser 4... und Nebel (Main, Frankfurt). Schwanheimer Ufer, Frankfurt: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2011
Hochwasser 4... und Nebel (Main, Frankfurt). Schwanheimer Ufer, Frankfurt: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2011
Hochwasser 5/6. Schwanheimer Ufer, Frankfurt: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 19 January 2011
Nebel 3. Auf-und unter Brücke (Frankfurt)\: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 23 January 2011
Nebel 4. Auf-und unter Brücke (Frankfurt)\: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2011
Rollei_255. Nebelzeit um den Feldberg (Schmitten, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 11 November 2011
Bessa III_70. Targets... (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 6 December 2013
Bessa III_69. Mainufer bei Höchst (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 8 December 2013
Bessa III_1. Das alte Wehr an der Nidda (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 12 September 2013
Isolette_31. Niederdorfelden, Hesse: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 10 February 2013
Isolette_30. Weißer Hund und wilde Nidda (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 10 February 2013
Bessa III_62 (Schrebergarten, Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 25 November 2013
Bessa III_61. Neue Landebahn, Frankfurt II (Kelsterbach, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 25 November 2013
Bessa III_60. Neue Landebahn, Frankfurt II (Kelsterbach, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 25 November 2013
Die Nachbarschaft ist aktiv!: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 30 November 2009
Isolette _29. Sossenheim (Schrebergrten, Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 27 January 2013
Schrebergarten #6. Eine 'wilder' ohne Verein: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 7 February 2010
Schrebergarten #1 :photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 3 January 2010
Schrebergarten #2. KGV, Ffm Höchst: photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 24 January 2010
Bessa_6. Nach meer Schneebilder... (Eschborn, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 13 March 2013
Bessa_3. Dann eben nach mal Winterbilder... (Eschborn, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 13 March 2013
Belair _10. Wintergärten (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2013
Belair _11. Wintergärten (Frankfurt, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 17 January 2013
Belair_9. Käthe und der Traum vom Fliegen... (Kelsterbach, Hesse): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 10 February 2013
Bessa_2. Blick aus dem Fenster (Frankfurt): photo by Katharina K-S (KKS_51), 13 March 2013
This one has affected my mood in the most complex way possible. Just reading the poem and looking at the pictures, I don’t know whether to feel poised and optimistic about things around the corner or mired in gloom. Learning a bit about the poem’s background lifts me a little but leaves me anchored here in semi-sylvan solitary, but just down the road from the German corner store. I think I’ll try to take my cue from the bird (goose?) spreading its wings at top. I-phones can take remarkable photos, but it’s still all in the photographer’s eye and hand. Curtis
ReplyDeleteCurtis, this photographer's work tells more about the cold and dark of a northern winter, the feeling of reality of the place and season, than words alone could do. Still I couldn't escape the sense there is a great deal of cultural memory hid within these images.
ReplyDeleteThus the choice of text, lovely mad Hölderlin.
"like a question's tone that seeks completion"
ReplyDeleteThis came to mind.
Duncan, I've had the Winterreise in my head these past weeks while visiting the work of some excellent German and Austrian photographers of winter scenes. And it may be that not only you and I but more than one of these photographers have been hearing it.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have seen the second and third photos here.
Robert Peters, writing in 2000 of the first section of the cycle, and of the whole cycle, speaks of "a demonic quality... more and more the wanderer becomes a sheer medium for a lament, a pain which is bigger than the actual cause, bigger than life, which means more, much more than just the broken heart of one single person. The cycle (and the poem Gute Nacht, too) shows a human being who is totally given over to despair and loss, who is utterly helpless. The man's pain is not temporary, it is total, absolute. And the Romantik is about the absolute, the total. This is weird, this is fascinating, this is very frightening."
The theatrical presentation in the video might seem to support that sort of reading.
On the other hand, a pianist, Tatiana Rakovski, commenting on the Bostridge/Drake performance, suggests that the intensity of the lyric might call for a counter in terms of restraint in performance:
"I sing Schubert and know his music pretty well. So, let me say one thing. I don`t think that Schubert`s music can be characterized as gloomy. This is a very flat determination. Speaking of 'Winterreise', I can describe the main tone of music as coldness, winter emptiness, with some delicate shade of German melancholy. The piano accompaniment profoundly expresses this cold soul of winter, so there`s no use to double the effect by singing in a suffering and deserted manner. It`s too much."
In any case, that phrase "cold soul of winter" comes quite near to characterizing the feeling I take away from these remarkable photos.