HISTORY OF DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY PAPER FROM SLOVENIA

A LAMPPOST IN LJUBLJANA REFLECTING AUGUST SANDERS’ PARIS

The time that I have spent in Ljubljana has been one of seeing the mixture and fusion of both nature and Human architecture, a photogenic union that brings new life to the specific objects I see and this has been the key interest of my eyes for many years. These various images, combining a city’s history and its progress into the 21st century, are what I seek with my camera as I travel from country to country throughout Europe. August Sander during his career took many urban shots in prominent cities such as Paris and Cologne in his native Germany. Sander was known for his portrait photos that revealed what life was like in a time of transition for his country and how the people that surrounded him were affected by that life. I do not take many portrait shots and so I turned instead to the urban landscape photographer that was August Sander. Like Sander, when taking a landscape photo, I don’t like to reveal the true source and aim of the photo right away. Rather I allow the viewer to find the core and center of my focus by really using their eyes, search for the true union of human ingenuity and natural landscape and even when they think they have found it, allow themselves to question my eyes’ intention.

The photo that I believed best reflected Sander’s vision of landscape shots in an urban setting is one that I took while walking along the Ljubljanica River in my neighborhood of the old city. What immediately caught my eye was the top of the church in the background and how the branches on both trees in the foreground seemed to be impeding on that distant structure. Although the lamppost in the foreground is the most apparent structure in the photo and is where my eyes would seem to drift to, my focus was instead the cross on top of the church. The lamppost remains solidified in a shadowy style and by commanding the foreground it takes in a past elegance with how it naturally fuses together with the reaching branches on either side of it. Most urban shots that I take have an element of nature impeding on certain structures and using a tree or a branch to hide or shade a building from clear view is what I strive to do, in the end giving the shot that key fusion of nature and urban life. Sander was a master at seeing urban life, both in people and in landscape, and was able to mold his vision into a work of art that at the same time documented human development. Though my photo may not document human development in the same way as someone like Walker Evans would, it does show a scene of urban development and how a human hand was at work to craft those structures that were necessary to express my own take on urban life and in that I found a true connection with August Sander and his critical work.