“Wow…”, “Beautiful!”, “High capacity to catch movement”, “Full of humanity”, “Very good work!” and of course: “How do you know him??”. That’s what I hear when I show Laurent Ziegler’s photographs. Based in Vienna, Austria, Laurent collaborates with international artists as well as average people with an equal curiosity, respect and humility. Intense and genuine pictures are the result of his very unique and sensitive approach. Welcome to a highly graceful and human world!
Digsy Shambles: Politics, social and editorial work, contemporary dance… What a various background! How and why did you come to Photography?
Laurent Ziegler: Photography was not something I had planned in the first place. After having completed my studies in political science, I worked as an editor for the European Parliament in Brussels and later for an Austrian daily newspaper. However, I felt stuck in a very non-artistic environment. At some point I realized that my desire was somewhere else, and I started taking photos. In the late 1990s, I had the opportunity to shoot dance for the first time. I was deeply moved by the sincerity and grace that opened up in front of my eyes. It didn’t take long before I auditioned as a dancer for a modern dance school in Vienna and was admitted. While being a student for the second time, I focused on dance photography, as well as portrait work, and began traveling to art festivals. At that point my bank account looked grim, and it took a lot of perseverance to not give up. I stuck to my field of interest and my way of capturing the world around me – for me there was no going back.
DS: After a decade as a photographer, how would you define this job, its advantages and limits?
L. Z.: Photography is a powerful and versatile medium, so I never feel as though I learned or know enough. I am not done in knowing how to accomplish a certain task, and that keeps me spinning. Besides, I work as a freelance photographer and enjoy the freedom of it. The downside is that I need to be productive all the time. Especially with digital photography, the requirements to work as a photographer are on the rise and there is more competition than ever before. I am fortunate with the people I collaborate with, but I’m uncertain about the future of photography. New digital gadgets allow a way to record our environment that has been unthinkable only five years ago.
DS: What is your aim when you take a picture?
L. Z.: My aim is to communicate stories, touch people and surprise them for a short moment. I like to share with a spectator what is most precious for me – to discover something unexpected – a language that might be unknown and yet is fully understood from the inside.
DS: Artists, especially dancers, are omnipresent in your work. How do you explain this trend?
L. Z.: During my dance training, I had the opportunity to perform on stage and was taken aback by the experience. A performer is asked to constantly define and re-define his/her presence and personal boundaries. To become one with the piece and the audience requires one to be completely in the moment, a subtle gesture can transform an empty space into another universe. I never again felt so close to myself and I assume that is why I carried on with dance photography and portraits, to capture what feels close to my heart. I don’t perform anymore, but I am still sensitive to our individual physicality and awareness. My portraits are related to dance – we dance all the time, not as free and beautiful as children do, but still, we smile, shift from one leg to the other, express our emotions. Sometimes I ask a client to close his/her eyes, to breathe deeply and think of feeling embraced by someone close. When a person opens up, outer circumstances fade and an exchange of energy becomes possible. Stories evolve like that.
DS: You are quite involved in the social field. As an example, you took part in the last fundraising campaign of Caritas for asylum seekers in Vienna. In that particular case, what does it take to defend such an “unsexy” cause, and bring it to challenge minds? In general, how do you manage to work on social-related assignments without resorting to stigmatizing clichés?
L. Z.: Sometimes I photograph fashion in what I would certainly consider a ‘sexy’ or attractive environment to work in. I cherish such assignments but wouldn’t be happy if there wasn’t something else. I seek assignments and collaborations that hold a meaning, a bigger picture that I intuitively care for. I find assignments like the campaign for asylum seekers important because they not only challenge me as a photographer, but as a human being, as well — and they require me to take a stand. For instance, if I shoot for a charity campaign to support a home for asylum seekers, I only need to walk into the place and talk with people there to see what I cannot avoid looking at – that our society creates injustice on too many visible and less visible levels. We turn blind and ignorant so often because of fear, and I am certainly no different. I see my limits every day. I remember a letter I received recently from a friend who works in a UN refugee camp in Kenya. She was taken by the generosity and humbleness of the people there, waiting endlessly in line to satisfy their most basic needs, in spite of terrible humanitarian conditions. We all have our realities and barriers to overcome, yet so much beauty is harbored in the most unlikely places. If we don’t go there, we’ll never experience it.
DS: Please pick one of your favorite pictures and tell us its story.
L. Z.: One of my favorite photos was taken last year for the production of Vertical Road by Akram Khan. I began working with Akram in 2010, and had the opportunity to tour with him and the company. I don’t ask dancers to pose or repeat certain phrases, so this shot had been a one-time chance.
DS: You have traveled across four continents for assignments. Which country has given you the best impression?
L. Z.: This is difficult… maybe Japan. I spent a year in Tokyo, not long ago, working on a performance piece with local artists and collaborating with Butoh dancers. I remember it was tough to gain access to the Japanese culture, to find friends and an open door. I almost lost faith when it finally happened and I began feeling at home. I miss Japan today and just wait for a reason to return. I find it a paradise for every soul-searcher, with or without a camera.
DS: You started teaching photography to young adults in Sri Lanka two years ago, at a school founded by the ‘One World Foundation’. You will be back there in January 2012 for another two-month training session. How does this teaching experience inspire you when looking back… and ahead?
L. Z.: It has been, and still is, a precious experience. I teach at a free educational unit that has roughly 1,000 kids from pre-school age up, in an area that was badly hit by the tsunami in 2004. In my class, there are about 20 students that we work with everyday, focus on technical issues and photo history, carry out photo assignments and spend a lot of time talking about the images taken. I encourage them to visualize their dreams, to move on without doubts or second thoughts. My intention is not to make them become professional photographers but to train soft skills – or life skills – which will be so important in their later development. These can range from the ability to communicate and express ideas, to dealing with and providing feedback, working within a team and experiencing a goal-orientated process, or ultimately living a self-determined life. The Vienna-based association, Paint for Life, initiated this arts-in-education project and covers the costs through fundraising campaigns. I am very excited to return to Sri Lanka in 2012!
DS: What are the next inspiring photo projects that DigsyShambles readers will find on your website?
L. Z.: I began working on a black and white portrait series with eldery people in Vienna that have a migrant background who have for some reason settled in a city other than their place of origin. A friend of mine, Jelena Kopanja, will interview these people and inquire about their life paths. Our idea is to exhibit the portraits together with a text and audio collage. We like to tell stories about people that are easily forgotten in our modern time.
DS: To conclude this interview, please answer – bona fide of course – this Pablo Picasso question: “Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?”
L. Z.: Well, what does “correct” mean? Does it imply objectivity? And is there any interest in seeing an image correctly? To grasp and carry on the legacy of an image (if there is any) a viewer is needed and subjectivity becomes imminent. I remember a movie I once saw about a guy photographing life around him and never actually processing the rolls of film he collected over time. His images were never available for interpretation and he called it the only objective recording of reality. It makes me think of Roland Barthes, who was interested in photographs insofar as they depict something that was there at a particular time, and is now (presumably) gone. He dwelled over the question of why he was moved by some photographs and not by others, and described it as a meditation on the absence inherent in photography. I understand it as an imprint, invisible to the eyes, or a language fully understood from the inside.
Photo Credit: Laurent Ziegler
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octobre 8th, 2011
A huge thanks to Lauren Brassaw and Ritin Koria for their help (English)!
octobre 30th, 2011
Wonderful article. I’m going through a few these difficulties.
octobre 31st, 2011
Dear Laurent,
Thank you for the inspiration to keep going the way you believe in. it seems brave in a world of confusing values.
It must make you extremely happy to have found a medium how to make a moment last forever and to share it’s beauty with others.
Success is to touch one heart with what you do. You have touched many.
Dear editors,
Thank you for this beautiful article.
Michaela Gradinger, Dubai