Oliver Rath è un
fotografo tedesco in grado di trasformare la noia di qualcosa in passione.
L’entusiasmo costituisce il fondamento della sua esistenza come fotografo,
nessuna scuola gli poteva insegnare la follia creativa che è allo stesso tempo così reale e
tangibile. Le sue
sono immagini forti, “maniacali“, di rottura e in cui si può trovare un
certo umorismo. Si tratta di un linguaggio dell’immagine duro e
ruvido, un linguaggio senza allegati diplomatica o compromesso, ma
alimentato con temperamento non controllato ed elegante sottile senso per la
semantica. Oliver Rath è un maestro delle piccole cose che spingono una buona immagine a
diventare un’eccezionale immagine. Foto controverse che raccontano la
quotidianità nascosta di vite apparentemente normali.
Ever since some creative know-it-all came up with this
widespread witticism, saying “One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words”, the
necessity to say anything about Oliver Rath is basically obsolete. Year of
birth (78), Place of birth (Heidelberg) – who cares about it anyway? His
mover/shaker-mentality, his DJing-past, his talent to translate boredom of one
thing into a passion for another one – it is all nice things to say about him,
but you actually don’t need to know. His DIY-enthusiasm, that built up the
whole technical foundation of his existence as a photographer, his mindscape
that no school in this world could have teach him, his creative lunacy that’s
hidden beneath this Frankish and easy going surface – they are all pretty ornaments
for writings like these, but still: anything you could say about him doesn’t
come close to the impression of his pictures.
Those are pictures of a maniac. His imagery is
infiltrated by codes of urban hedonism, yet ruptured by sometimes prankish,
sometimes caustic humour. It is a hard and rough picture language, a language
without diplomatic attachments or compromise, but fuelled with unchecked temper
and elegant to subtle sense for semantics. He takes everything in that makes a
good picture: geometry, contrast, perspective, arrangement. But more than that,
he’s a master of those little things, that push a good picture to become an
outstanding one. He is the advocate of maximizing impacts. He’ll find the big
talk even in the smallest gestures. He might just slam you in the face with a
picture. But he might lick your wounds with the very next one. His sense for
the right sentiment is without comparison, be it on national or international
scale. Call him man of the moment. What do I say? Call him a depicting
chronicler of the Zeitgeist. Well, why do I say so much anyway? Just find one
of his pictures and call him your new favourite photographer.
All images © Oliver Rath
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento