Magic of Matthias Wähner

Goethe-Institut, Dhaka January, 2004

The photography exhibition titled  Man Without Qualities by  Matthias Wähner sure made the mind spin. With the help of the computer Wähner has placed his own portraits in scenes of historical, political and social importance. His is not just a quixotic trick involving camera and computer work but stems from a belief that one does not have to entirely believe every image and letter of the media. Wahner seems to be suggesting that media reports should be taken with a pinch of salt. His mocks the media and his work should be perhaps viewed just  as scathing cartoons are viewed. On their own, the black and white collection of famous people, taken from historical and socio-economic contexts, appear to have a lot in common with images usually seen by newspaper readers and viewers of TV and films.

The photographs are amusing, revealing and thought-provoking: Could the photograph of an apparently average person be included amidst shots of famous people sch as President JF Kennedy, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, or Clerk Gable and Grace Kelly? Was Wähner really present in the scenes of the Vietnam War or with the Japanese Emperor Hirohito in the royal garden? The idea is amusing but worth thanking about, and this is not just because Wähner has many awards to his credit for his photographic works, or has held many exhibitions in European capital cities.

The perspective adopted in the exhibition is, actually, satirical and original. This is undoubtedly photography with a purpose and one welcomes it after the usual displays that tend to delineate, at times, little else but surface beauty, even though such efforts are often pegged on to topics like ‘heritage’, ‘environment’ or ‘scenic beauty’.

Wähner often brings in different cultures under the same roof as in the photo of himself and Superman in New York, where Germany and USA apparently mix and mingle with ease. The photographs suggest that Wähner is well-educated and skeptical, and manages to keep viewers at arm’s length. Superman, in the image discussed above, is, at the same time, somewhat rude and austere. He is there to illustrate the success of the good, bad and the ugly, but he stands too for the Puritanical mindset of families from almost half a century years ago, for he was the first super-man icon of the ordinary American.

It is said that two centuries back the link between reality and the fake came under scrutiny with the invention of the camera. It now appears from Wähner’s show that events of historical importance maybe conveyed by simulated photographs. This process maybe traced back to the beginning of press photos and TV, according to European authorities of photography, since the early masters of photography retouched negatives and positives. Images were then left out of the frame or added at will by the montage technique. for sure, since the Paris Commune days of 1971, photos have been manipulated for political ends. Wähner’s work questions the easy assumptions of his viewers and  wakes them up from their complacency. The digital retouching he has done since the ’80s subvert the motifs and designs of commodities that flood the commercial and advertising world. In a London magazine, for instance, famous personalities like Lady Di, Muammar Gadaffi, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth and Elvis Presley. are seen enjoying themselves together at a digitally created dinner party.

Nevertheless, Wähner is somewhat romantic in bringing in unknown and far-flung situations that make you both laugh and cry. One admires Wähner for not only his imaginative feats but also for the vital message that he conveys what is obvious or apparent is not necessarily the whole truth!

— H Rashid

Goethe-Institut, Dhaka January, 2004 The photography exhibition titled  Man Without Qualities by  Matthias Wähner sure made the mind spin. With the help of the computer Wähner has placed his own portraits in scenes of historical, political and social importance. His is not just a quixotic trick involving camera and computer work but stems from a…