Abstract Photography and Free Graphite Painting – Lyrical Abstraction and Trancydelic Fiction – Actuality, Perception, Reality and Imagination

Actuality, Perception and Reality

Lyrical Abstraction by means of Unchained Photography

Preface

I am using the term “Lyrical Abstraction”, because it allows for a useful and approximate classification under an existing art movement of the abstract the description of which corresponds quite well – though certainly not exhaustively – with my abstract photography on a more general level.

Irrespective of this I would have otherwise invented terms like lyrical or poetical abstraction for my works as well as “Direct Abstraction” on a technical level or more generally “Intuitive Abstraction” in the sense of straight and instantaneous or “Pure Abstraction” in the sense of unaffected, or “Transforming Abstraction”; being well aware that these terms are already in some use too.

The same is true for the term “Unchained Photography”.
However, in the context specified by me it seems not to be in use yet.

But what are terms anyway.

Why am I doing all this?
It is my way to express perception, feelings and thoughts – regarding the images it’s actually expressed with a print(out) – to assimilate actuality and reality.
The representational, realistic ... static depiction ... for me it looks ... too loud ...
In motion, in the dynamic, the abstraction my perception is ... clearer.
Why publically?
That is an inherent part of the process.

Thus the text following is not a concept for my abstract photography, but the effort to develop an awareness of it and a description of the process from inspiration to shooting to the finished picture.

The perception of actuality and the existence of reality are independent of visual ability.

I’m using the term actuality in this text for all that is around as, all that has an impact on us.
I’m using the term reality in this text for actuality and all that is in our imagination.

Lyric and poetry of abstraction

The situations fascinating me visually are characterized by an intensive effect of light surprisingly awaking a feeling of remembrance and recognition.

A familiar moment by which magic consciously I like to get captured having the potential for a working unchained photograph.
My entire attention is aimed at this moment and scenery.
The creative kick.

I do not arrange, construct or modify these situations.
They appeal to me the way they are, recognized by others mostly as common and – seemingly – unimpressive.

By way of photography I try to capture the fascination and magic of this moment and to transform my perception of the concrete fragments of external actuality enhanced by light into a distinct sensual, poetically emphasized reality of my own – a lyrical abstraction of these fragments.

The original situation is the trigger, the gateway to this increased perception of actuality – the scenery of reality.
The fragments lose their original representational character, functionality and meaning in the process and become the visual medium for a still abstract reality of objects and feelings to be perceived anew.

This new reality will not reveal itself by a mere cursory and lurid glance, as little as another person will be revealed by just a cursory contact.

Photography and abstraction

My photographs do not originate from long exposure to the light of moving objects or from multiple exposures even if some photos may seem so at first glance.

I do not move lamps in front of the camera to record trails of light.
Also it is not my intention to picture in my photographs objects fuzzy or blurred thereby gradually abstracted but still recognizable as these objects.

As well I’m not interested in depicting existing light scenarios or details and sections appearing abstract being detached from their reference system or of situations involving lighting effects like distortion, twinkle and reflection seen in or through water – or like fire or formation of clouds – , because photographs of these situations wouldn’t be abstraction due to the active process of photographing but reproduction of situations appearing abstract by themselves; a passive abstraction.

Also I do not abstract by subsequent editing and manipulating the photo – neither digitally nor analogous – and I do not create an abstraction of the representational itself – the term already being an abstraction – by free combination of properties abstracted from the representational, e.g. using software tools only to create images.
I already create the images with my camera.

I’m aiming for the complete transformation of the visual perception of the situation through abstraction by means of direct and active photography.
The transformation of abstract fragments already enhanced by meaning and relation, commonly known as the familiar concrete objects of actuality, into abstract fragments of yet unknown meaning and relation.

I do not abstract – eliminate – to get a visual generalization of the situation but to facilitate the perception of something completely new.

Abstract Photography - Technique

The actual exposure time is mostly far below one second while the camera – a small format DSLR – is moved well-directed and not aimed fixedly at the motif.

In this unchained photography – freed from the virtual chain “eye-ocular-mirror-lens-motif”, or more generally defined the “eye-camera-motif” chain – the photo is created by the special movement and handling of the camera, the per shot adjusted parameters and the selective use of the technical features and peculiarities of the camera.

The movement is precise in its projection and as far as possible controlled ... similar to throwing a dart and its flight that can never be controlled completely.
This requires concentration and body control¬ – again like throwing a dart.
And no, I don’t throw the camera – it never gets out of (my) hand.

In a process of iteration, feedback and change it takes some shots until an appropriate photograph is wrapped up or at least seems to be.
I won’t hint again at the dart throwing analogy here.
Often I have to abort taking further photos because I do not succeed in capturing the situation with the result desired – or anyway I have that impression right then.

A final judgment of the photograph is possible only in the developing process that follows, though.
In doing so a photograph thought good may prove unusable or – the other way round – I may discover an outstanding photograph in an aborted session.

Lyric and poetry of abstraction II

The whole process – taking the photo and the subsequent developing – is primarily guided by memory, feeling and emotion; less by logical reasoning apart from the technically required.
Thus some photos are taken very spontaneous, such that I’ m not able to pinpoint how, where and what it is I’ve been shooting originally.

Chance and necessity are part of the concept, though.
The knowledge about the situation originally shot isn’t relevant but even disadvantageous.
The successful transformation is essential.
The transformation of the visualization of the actual, tangible, perceivable into the vision of the intangible, abstract of a no less real feeling.
One as the other rooted in the reality of things.

Abstract Photography - Method and a little excurse

Principally you could achieve the abstractions created by this photography by means of indirect manual picturing methods too, e.g. by painting.

But it would neither be a purposeful abstraction of the representational nor a free compositional abstraction by use of non naturalistic stylistic devices nor an abstraction created by visualizing equal optical impressions in your mind.

If you wanted to emulate this abstraction created by photography and the inducing process with manual methods you had to create an equal visual impression by moving your eyes and head or your whole body whilst picturing it momentarily.

Because you couldn’t immediately implement this visual impression whilst moving but only in retrospection, a full analogy couldn’t be achieved though.

In-between recollection and indirect manual reproduction there is always intellectual or emotional, conscious or unconscious interpretation.
Eyes, head, hands.

So I would describe this kind of abstraction created by the camera and its handling – the instantaneous abstraction of actuality by this photography – as direct, intuitive or pure abstraction.

However, choosing the situation, compositionally assessing it and the handling of the camera, as well as selecting the photo are similarly subject to the eyes, head and hands.
In this respect any photograph is always subjective, abstracting and interpretative too.

Hence ...
Photography does picture actuality actually just as little as manually created reproductions do.

Photography is merely able to emulate the visual impression delivered by our eyes – our visual reception – more exactly than this is possible by means of manual reproduction because the camera is based on the optical principles of the eye and the line from what is to be pictured to the picture is more direct than with manual picturing.
That’s all.
Seemingly a mere quantitative difference.

Regarding smell and feel of a photograph and for example an oil painting naturally there is a qualitative difference which in turn precisely adds to the actuality of the picture itself.

Every viewing of a reproduction differs fundamentally from the direct perception of the pictured situation with the eyes already because a picture is two dimensional.

Current so called 3D technique indeed tries to create the illusion of spatial reception.
Due to the special handling of the camera some of my photographs create a minimal holographic effect too, when looking at the finished prints from an adequate angel and distance.

But viewing a reproduction nevertheless takes place in a new situation affecting itself the process of viewing.
The picture and the reproduction itself have their own reality and actuality independent form what is reproduced; just as a plastic, for which it seems easier to view as an independent object detached from what it is representing.

And who would like to listen to music trying to reproduce the all-day sounds surrounding us.
Music seems to be almost completely detached from actuality outside itself.
But obviously we love visual reproductions of our surroundings – as close as possible to what we perceive with our own eyes or even closer.

Even the visual perception with our eyes is nothing more than the interpretation of a virtual picture projected through a single lens onto the retina of the eye; principally the same picture a photographic lens is projecting onto film or a chip.
A picture which by image processing in the brain is rotated 180 degrees, aspect adjusted, essentially straightened, color, brightness and contrast corrected and complemented to a spatial impression by the picture projected through the second eye.

Processing which originally was meant and optimized solely for better interaction with the surroundings.

It’s interesting that what you perceive with your eyes always appears as a projection in front you, whereas this image of actuality is formed in your head definitely.

A fact you will be especially aware of when looking at something for some time and then closing your eyes and enjoying the after image, which is located inside and not outside your head anymore.

Same as with dreaming – so that perception in a dream can be distinguished from perception when awake.

In this respect by its directness photography principally renders a rather objective view of the visually perceptible world compared to what our brain makes of the projections by our eyes if not for the process of development and editing, analogous as well as digitally.

Reproducing manually what you see is therefore reproducing two-dimensional projections of one or two or rather the two-dimensional manual reproduction of a spatial impression created in the head.
And reproducing a photograph that way is reproducing two-dimensional projections of two from a two-dimensional projection of one ... without the spatial component.

Neither photography nor manual reproduction create copies of the actuality – nor is visual perception itself – and their level of truth can’t be determined just by looking at them.
Rather they are themselves part of the actuality and as in the case of photography can produce a very good equivalent to our visual perception at most.

But what do we relate to when we talk about “natural” visual reproduction, an exact visual reproduction based on nature?
Perhaps we should rather talk about reproduction true to perception when we relate to visual reproduction of actuality by other means than our own eyes.
Visual perception only is possible with these anyway.

However, an exact two-dimensional projection of a spatial perception is possible just as little as projecting the surface of a globe on paper.

So, either we reproduce distorted that way not being recognizable anymore as a correct reproduction because a spatial impression is not possible via one two-dimensional projection but only by looking at two reproductions of an object seen from different angles or we reproduce it the same way the one eyed or the camera sees it.

This makes you realize that every photographical reproduction, every manual reproduction and even visual perception itself is a gradual abstraction of actuality.

The extensive conclusions resulting from all this and especially from the conscious or unconscious processing of the projections by the individual nervous system can be pictured well.
And exactly this processing and interpretive picturing is declared objective in many areas rather than an objective reproduction of the visual perceptible ... which isn’t possible anyway as described above.

With my abstract photography I’m taking a different tack of imaging, neither photographically reproducing “true to nature” nor manually processing in the usual sense, but photographically abstracting and transforming directly.

An interesting aspect of the advent of digital recording methods in this context is that e.g. a digitally recording camera is now processing the projection too after the light reaching the sensitive material, contrary to the direct “recording” of the image in the chemically reacting film emulsion.
A processing controlled by a processor.
And processors exist because there are nervous systems.

This may be one reason why it is so interesting to manipulate a photograph analogously or digitally subsequently whereat methods of digital manipulation allow for a much greater range of manipulation for a much bigger audience.
This also harbors the danger of a much greater arbitrariness.
Principally though manipulation and arbitrary use of creative means has been and still is also possible analogously and is not a phenomenon inherent to digital technique.

In any case the pure “objective” photography seems to be missing what the subjective visual perception and manual reproduction methods provide for satisfaction.

Processing I

Looking over the photographs is done on a large-size hardware calibrated and profiled graphic monitor.
In a first pass I select photographs for further developing based on the camera selected default display of the RAW – the digital negative.
The camera has been configured for minimum processing of the recorded data for preview.
The RAW data itself has no interpretation; in this respect it corresponds most to the film negative compared to other image formats.

In an iterative process applying approximate developing more selections are made.
The photograph conforming best to my requirements and being effective most intensely will be developed to the final version.
Thus, the photo seems to be created a second time by reflection, selection and developing.

Developing in this context means the application of darkroom techniques translated into the digital realm – working out the characteristics of the photograph optimally.

Neither do I apply selective local corrections nor do I change the photograph in any structural way such as by cropping, assembling, removing or adding.
Also I do not edit and change the photo to accomplish a specific statement.

Lyric and poetry of abstraction III

No additional artistic or artificial elaboration is taking place.
The abstract photography originates whilst photographing as described above.
Though, the selection of one photograph among many is defined by the same criteria underlying every deliberate composition, too.
The fulfillment of these criteria hence will never reach perfection in the usual sense. And that’s actually good.
This approach is my decision.
It is my freely chosen restriction not to intervene beyond taking the photo itself – letting-be.

And in this context exactly lies another level of viewing that fascinates me.
Apart from all – seemingly – abstraction and resulting transformation achieved by this kind of photography these photographs factually and purely picture actual representational situations, independent from me recognizing these or perceiving something new In the transformation – directly visual or indirectly emotional.

Ultimately this is true for all visual perception.
Ultimately every visual perception seems abstract at first, and it remains that way until we associate something with it that is beyond visual perception.

Again ...
Every visual reproduction is a gradual abstraction of the reproduced, even reproduction by our own eyes.

Lyric and poetry of interpretation

I invent the title for a photo while I’m occupied with it by intensive viewing and subsequent drift of feelings and thoughts.

The title is not meant as a general interpretation but rather to be understood as a name merely hinting at my feelings and view regarding the photo or breaking these and the visual impression the photo makes on me.
Similar to the name of a person the title allows only limited conclusions regarding the named.
It pictures an abstract context just as the photo does.

Did the photo thus develop backwards? Cause and effect switched?
Is the idea for the photo the result of transforming the original moment?
Or were the original intuitionally grasped moment and its transformation the cause of the idea for the photo.

Did I remember what was bound to happen?

Everyone may get a picture of it by themselves – and will do so anyway.

The numbering in the title serves purely practical purposes.

Cites

The cites assigned under “Read” to every photo and under “Intro” to every theme do not have any relation to the photos.
Nevertheless, because of their simple existence beside the photos everybody reading them will try to establish a relation.
That is as futile as is speculating about what was photographed originally.

These pseudo cites and their authors are faked, imaginary, funny, witty, dull, senseless ...
All of what cites are commonly characterized by. Not necessarily all at once.

Processing II

I craft the photograph as technically high quality unique edition giclee on Hahnemühle Photo Rag^® Baryta – a prized DFA paper made of 100% cotton – using a professional LFP piezo printer, original pigment ink of high light fastness and a profile especially generated for this paper under defined standard illumination conditions.
You will find further information on equipment and materials used under the menu item “Tech”.

To get a print that matches exactly the version developed on the monitor further fine tuning in regard to the characteristics of the printer, paper and pigment ink used is necessary.
This is checked by doing clipped and full size test prints.

The techniques and materials used and the quality of processing guarantee a large color space as well as high color fastness and longevity of the prints if framed behind glass and hung under common indoor light conditions.

This permits certification as a Digigraphie^® by Epson, identified by signature, date, embossing and certificate.


Bernd H. Wolfsegger

The view of my photography

Usage of the term photography in reference to the photos displayed here is meant just in the same context as the usage of the term graphite painting for my drawings; to be understood as an indication of the tool and the technique used.

The camera. The graphite pencil.

Drawing with light and shadow.

I'm using the camera and its technical characteristics as a tool to create photographs like I use the graphite pencil to fashion my drawings.

The photograph is not an image of something, but rather that something discovered and found around us constitutes the stuff the picture emerges from.

Composed from seemingly inconspicuous moments in time and space.
Fragments abstracted and transformed by light and movement woven structure.
A lyrically poetic abstraction, conveying a concreteness familiar as well as alien.

A picture of a distinct world, a distinct sensual actuality.

Chance and necessity

There is neither chaos nor chance, only relative cognition, awareness and predictability.
Hence nothing we do is by chance, though often it may seem so.
Nor is it done by its antipode, as we mostly like to imagine.

It's both.

In this respect my photography relates to the dart purposefully thrown and hitting the bull's eye – or hitting off target depending on one's view.
As opposed to carrying the dart to the target and tucking it into or aside from the bull's eye.

Every shot an event unreproducible.


The photography originates whilst photographing.
Its title pictures an abstract context just as itself does.

Deadpan technical facts

The tool I use to create the photograph is a digital reflex camera.

The scenery selected for the shot is the scenery found without further manipulation.

I take a picture of the motive dynamically with a freely moving hand.

From the digital negative – the RAW format – I develop a digital positive.

The positive is neither assembled, cropped, designed nor otherwise altered in form or content subsequently.

From this positive I craft a unical Digigraphie^®.

Further information on making, materials, format and presentation under the menu items "Insight" and "Tech".


The freely, "randomly" and playfully imagined little cites and its authors are exactly this: my inventions – and they are not related directly to the images.


Bernd H. Wolfsegger

Itake my photos with a Nikon D200 and a Sigma 50mm F2,8 DG Makro EX / Sigma 24-70mm F2,8 DG EX.

Of the original photograph shown here reduced in size and resolution I create a registered unique edition in form of a Digigraphie^® on Hahnemühle Photo Rag^® Baryta in format 73 x 109 / 109 x 73 cm - hand signed, dated and certificated.

This Digigraphie^® is showcased in a frameless mount of format A0, made up of an Alu-Dibond back, Hahnemühle cardboard, a museum-quality passé partout and MIROGARD^® glass.

The digital base – the RAW format containing all image data – will be archived and is available solely as backup, analogously to the negative in film based photography.

More technical information

Photo processing on a calibrated and regularly profiled Eizo ColorEdge CG303W with Adobe^® Photoshop^® Lightroom^®.

Printing and profiling via Adobe^® Photoshop^® and din.a.x Mirage ME Pro with a calibrated Epson Stylus Pro 9900 Spectoproofer piezo printer and 10 highly lightfast Epson UltraChrome^™ HDR Pigment Inks, utilizing a profile specifically generated for the paper used.

Maximum color gamut and resolution – finest tonal shades.

Processing and printing under defined standard illumination conditions using JUST D50 standard illuminant lamps.

Monitored climate in the workroom.

Paper handling using only work gloves designed for this purpose and according to specifications by the manufacturer.

Usage of PAT and ISO 9706/16245 certified materials for storage and transport.


Bernd H. Wolfsegger

And where there is chaos there is also harmony or the other way round depending on gravity.
Well even without chaos and harmony it still would, albeit not as hilarious.

Karl Kobold von Freiheim "The Chaos Phrases", lhc. 2168

Your Love
is Like
a Tender Sweet
Cut
into the very
Fabric of my
Soul

Xabu Iborian, lhc. 2012

You can die anytime, any time you want.
So no need to rush things.

Xabu Iborian, lhc. 2012

And in the end there is just the beginning!

Hathu Rftu about the difficulty of causality, lhc. 2500

When all is sad, just think of something more to say!

Jeff Goodlug, lhc. 2433

Listening through the darkest woods of my imagination I can find the path, the path to the blue blue oh so damn blue lightning sky full of tears shed by giant oceans of love.

Han Cravitzka Jr., lhc. 4001

The endless flow of life mirrored by the stars emitting light in time; coming home.

Roxan Quatron, lhc. 3419

Step, jump, dance; all you can do is dance - dance around yourself, earth, humankind and beyond.

Rugar Svextruvwla, lhc. 2889

We're like, you know, searching for the key without having the slightest clue about the lock.

Rogar van Kullbridge, lhc. 2077

No one is superior.
We all live on this earth, we all die on this earth.
One way or the other.

Sergejev Rulanow, lhc. 2199

When I wake up in the morning it's only you on my mind only you only you it's only you my shiny little sweet smart aiShunt.

Bob Topple, lhc. 2045

Sunny side up, sunny side up, sunny side up, I can tell you, marmalade on her toes.

Joker Luck, lhc. 2601

Love without a base is condemned to founder.

Charleine Craft, lhc. 2155

As we walk along the road we shouldn't forget to tie our shoes from time to time.

Jack Jack, lhc. 2099

Lost in doubts about truth and untruth where is their hope left?

Caspar Zoom, lhc. 2566

Culture?
Culture?
What is culture?

Reed zum Hang, lhc. 2222

Swinging in the rain
Dancing in the snow
Hopping in the heat
That all and so much more

Bob Calm "From Hope to Freedom", lhc. 2078

If I could fly to Moon and beyond fast as Light silently twinkling through empty Space in Eternity …

Ramona Gordana, lhc. 2255

Is the universe big enough to fit inside you?
And if so
Can you resolve it
Can you carry it to term?

Hector of the Planets, lhc. 3066

Lost in doubts about truth and untruth where is their hope left?

Caspar Zoom, lhc. 2566

To be, and not to be, that is not a question, that is a fact of quantum physics.

Schrödinger's Shakespeare, lhc. 2066

"Civilization is like bad holidays."
"Well, no holidays without civilization in the first place, isn't it? So what's the point?"
"That's the point, exactly!"

Fred and Jack, lhc. 2088

The fun thing with democrazy is that the masses get manipulated by themselves.
With the instrumentation available it's easier than ever.

Jack Snag, lhc. 2099

You can't solve a problem form the Inside; you always have to go to the Outside.

One more Quadrupel, lhc. 3211

The theme is the chronology of the whole.
The subthemes are ordered by year.
Every subtheme shows images originated within a year.

And they didn't know what to do,
trying to create more order.

Karl Kobold von Freiheim "The Chaos Phrases", lhc. 2168

We're like, you know, searching for the key without having the slightest clue about the lock.

Rogar van Kullbridge, lhc. 2077

Is the universe big enough to fit inside you?
And if so
Can you resolve it
Can you carry it to term?

Hector of the Planets, lhc. 3066

No one is superior.
We all live on this earth, we all die on this earth.
One way or the other.

Sergejev Rulanow, lhc. 2199

What is the beauty of life to them who are suffering?

Cassandra Love "Love", lhc. 2301

Step, jump, dance; all you can do is dance - dance around yourself, earth, humankind and beyond.

Rugar Svextruvwla, lhc. 2889

In the end there is nothing, really.
Makes no difference to most of us anyway.

Hartwig Heather "Solutions", lhc. 3001

Sunny side up, sunny side up, sunny side up, I can tell you, marmalade on her toes.

Joker Luck, lhc. 2601

Water falls deep sun kills sheep when I'm alone I gnaw at bone.

Doc Doge, lhc. 2403

There are a lot of people I would like to have to undergo a Voight-Kampff Empathy Test.

Xantram Cal, lhc. 2077

My life is glistening in the rain with lightning all around me, stunned.

Jubu Lawrance, lhc. 2093

When all is sad, just think of something more to say!

Jeff Goodlug, lhc. 2433

Love without a base is condemned to founder.

Charleine Craft, lhc. 2155

As we walk along the road we shouldn't forget to tie our shoes from time to time.

Jack Jack, lhc. 2099

All you need is a suitcase to stuff your life in and then hit the road.

Toms Tom "Today's Adventures", lhc. 2233

Listening through the darkest woods of my imagination I can find the path, the path to the blue blue oh so damn blue lightning sky full of tears shed by giant oceans of love.

Han Cravitzka Jr., lhc. 4001

Kontrokpa ksntrim rud sun rud sa wakst - riff ftu#prln stkop of?

Krektrauzaln-wangt, lhc. 4560

If I would fight I would loose
If I could win I wouldn't fight

Nuke Zenlam, lhc. 3500

Existing in a dream of innocence drifting through reality living a fools life

Jane Booktag, lhc. 2078

When the sun is high in the sky it's time to have lunch and a snuggled doss after.

Haley Salmon the Big, lhc. 2021

Memoirs of eternity collapsing in a single minded mood for cessation.

What's up?, lhc. 2233

If I could choose, I would choose a blue sky and red bricks.

The Elder, lhc. 2609

Swinging in the rain
Dancing in the snow
Hopping in the heat
That all and so much more

Bob Calm "From Hope to Freedom", lhc. 2078

If you don't know where to go just keep going.
If you like to sit down take a seat.

True Hints, lhc. 2112

If I could fly to Moon and beyond fast as Light silently twinkling through empty Space in Eternity …

Ramona Gordana, lhc. 2255

The endless flow of life mirrored by the stars emitting light in time; coming home.

Roxan Quatron, lhc. 3419

However, no sovereign without folkower following him.
The king is dead. Long live the king.

Karl Kobold von Freiheim "The Chaos Phrases", lhc. 2168

We will entertain us all to certain brain death.
And there will be no one to reanimate us.

Falcon Hyme, lhc. 2057

Invisible minds hovering all around me trying to break free.
But I just can't let them be.

Jason Saltac, lhc. 2540

I'm crying, crying, crying, crying for all the reasons in the world and for none at all
I'm happy, happy, as happy as I can be, happy for all the reasons in the world and for none at all
I am.

Xabu Iborian, reading the exceptionally gifted book "Room" and listening to the most wonderful music "Here comes the warm jets", lhc. 2011

This is by no means the time and place for hesitancy.

Johnathan Major II, lhc. 2620

You can't solve a problem form the Inside; you always have to go to the Outside.

One more Quadrupel, lhc. 3211

When you're in doubt about now, think about the future.
When you're in doubt about the future, think about the past.
When you're in doubt about the past, think about now.

Dangers of circular logic, lhc. 2103

The fun thing with democrazy is that the masses get manipulated by themselves.
With the instrumentation available it's easier than ever.

Jack Snag, lhc. 2099

All I could say to you was why, why did it happen, why did it end.

Xabu Iborian, in a train from there to here, lhc. 2011

Lost in doubts about truth and untruth where is their hope left?

Caspar Zoom, lhc. 2566

When I wake up in the morning it's only you on my mind only you only you it's only you my shiny little sweet smart aiShunt.

Bob Topple, lhc. 2045

To be, and not to be, that is not a question, that is a fact of quantum physics.

Schrödinger's Shakespeare, lhc. 2066

It depends.
The question is on what does it depend. And that's most often not an easy one.

Jack Joe, lhc. 2099

If you think of something, think right.
Moreover always tell what you're thinking about which naturally includes thinking before saying anything at all in the first place.

Conference Of Mind, lhc. 2098

Modern public education still is a major disaster.
It does not only cultivate just a minimum of the kids potential but also destroys most of it.

Free The Mind Movement, lhc. 2100

Let there be light!

Accredited to God. Not verified. Anno 0

Yet what about chaos without order?
Even more chaos?
A signification ad infinitum.

Karl Kobold von Freiheim "The Chaos Phrases", lhc. 2168

Culture?
Culture?
What is culture?

Reed zum Hang, lhc. 2222

"Civilization is like bad holidays."
"Well, no holidays without civilization in the first place, isn't it? So what's the point?"
"That's the point, exactly!"

Fred and Jack, lhc. 2088

If your mind is a blank, just relax and have a good laugh.

Funny Boy, lhc. 3040

Abra kamit sra flata zok ritud farsg glemen ham!

Trogtu Kralkxem, lhc. 5162

If what you see through the window looks dull, you should first try to clean your specs before smashing it.
Also take into consideration that you might be short sighted to begin with and perhaps wearing wrong glasses too.

Frank Floyyde, lhc. 2102

You're not allowed to make others suffer, directly or indirectly.
Everything else is allowed.

Book Of Rule, lhc.10503

"Iwon't tell you my name. You have to guess!"

The Book of Questions, lhc. 3211

This planet has a lot of shit for sure. I love it!

His Majesty Calliphora III, lhc. 8807

You can't explain what you can't explain
and nothing is at it seams, really.

Tara Flame, lhc. 2077

And in the end there is just the beginning!

Hathu Rftu about the difficulty of causality, lhc. 2500

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It invades me
as sound and vision, vision by sound
dream and reality flowing unhampered through my fingers
moving graphite leaving weird traces

of myself
and the world
as I know it
on almost white paper

Or am I just imagining?

Seen matter-of-factly

My drawings originate whilst drawing
My photographs originate whilst photographing

Technicalities to follow ...

And not only in us, actually by us through us above us below us in front of us behind us around us, you get my meaning ...
In harmony all is possible.
Harmony is everything.
Harmony is.
Harmony ... Creation ... and even Chaos ...

Only very few did understand that ever.
We Delfins are a fine example.

Delfin the 3rd, lhc. 4301

I will probably place the first series of drawings in spring 2012.
There is only this dummy drawing right now.

I will probably place the first series of drawings in spring 2012.
As I said, there is only this dummy drawing right now.

I will probably place the first series of drawings in spring 2012.
Unfortunately :-| there is only this dummy drawing right now.

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Bernd H. Wolfsegger
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Vita – An angled, fragmentary abstract

Childhood I

A descendant of a princess and some stable worker, I was born on a hot, sunny summer day.
(... hearsay ... „The Princess Bride“ ... an insane book ...)
My parents were producing sweet albuminous French kisses.

Direct ancestors in Pomerania and Austria.
Raised among parents, brother, cousins, uncles and aunts, grandma and granddad, and the children in the neighborhood.

Taken by the cousin (... the younger older female one; vide infra ...) in a stroller.
(... in-joke ...)

First encounter with painting through the sorceress up one stairway with overgrown garden and her two daughters studying art.
The fascination of their subtle and light water colors picturing or inventing floral motifs.
The fascination of drawing with colors on my own.
The touching pastels of my older female cousin.

LEGO ! For hours ...
Assembling busses and trucks out of cardboard folding sheets from a garage.
First moon landing – in a tiny mobile TV in the heat of the summer at the Baltic ... and ... “The Invaders”.

Self-written demonic al ultra short story for the children’s section of a newspaper ... miraculous payment per postman ...

Visiting my younger cousin at weekends.
(... older than me but younger than the old one ...)
Boat trips on the Wannsee ...
Playing with Mainzelmännchen puppets across several floors ...

Horsing around cheerfully watching advertisements ... and ... these terrific, fantastic, formative Les Shadoks ... Les Shadoks ... Les Shadoks ... C'est tout pour aujourd'hui ...
Everything on an unbelievably gaudy color TV ... Thunderbirds (... the original ...) and Kalle Wirsch ...
Absorbed in wax crayon paintings and dinosaurs in the basement boiler room lost forever ...

Childhood II and Schooldays I

Dancing to the swinging and captivating instrumentals "Moonlight Serenade" and "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller (... still moving ... )
Pippi Longstocking treasure hunting in late evening darkness in the mysteries of abandoned buildings awaiting demolition.

Apartment construction site next door. The pleasant smell of damp mortar.
Building a mini both in winter together with my friends Mike and Lothar ... sand-lime brick on sand-lime brick ... while the regular works were pausing ... cozy warmth by an open fireplace ...
Raising spacious igloos in snowy iciness.
Occupying and arranging old cars into summer residences ...

Weird nights of warning lights suddenly flashing.
A staged murder ... lying on a bed ... a knife in the belly ... blood soaked blouse ...
Mud battles in a Bavarian peat bog.
To much foam the two of us in an overflowing bathtub ... breathless because of too much laughing ...

Bass guitar, a collection of discarded slot machines and wonderful stereo music in my brother’s party cellar ... “Switched On Bach” by Walter Carlos and “Venus And Mars” by Wings ... dreams beneath headphones ...

Holding a big mirror below my chin floating around the ceiling ...

Traveling a lot by car from the west through the east to the west and back ...
controlled dismantling of the back seat ... what a thrilling, cosy chaos ... back then ... rainy weather ... cobbled roads and decay ...

Spring roll at Eljie’s birthday party (... I hope I remember that name correctly ...) ... unaccustomed ...
Spares with a sub in the art and crafts cellar in elementary school ... watching movies ... „Mon Oncle" by Jacques Tati ... and the cartoon film "Les aventures de Tintin" ...

The corner shop three streets away from home ... first book discovered and purchased by myself – eight years after the first cry – “Spaceship Monitor” ... and then ... the impressing trilogy “The Tripods” ... passion sparked ...

Printed papers delightful smell ... captivating covers, layout and graphic I couldn’t take my eyes off ... the magic of the written word ...
Later on: “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit” and “The other way round” ... and more and more ...

School youth hostel; interminable, exhausting walking tours while inventing absurd poems on the way together with three girls under the influence of sinking blood sugar level and upcoming delusion ...
Sand in bellybutton.

First naturalistic portrait drawings by pencil ... based on photographs ...
Piano lessons ... no end of trouble ... wrong teacher ... wrong method ...

Joking and laughing during classes ... teachers going mad ...
Listening spellbound to “The last man alive” ... read in German classes by the English teacher ... in German language back then ...
A way-out and fascinating story ... containing wonderfully cool illustrations ...
(... I definitely have to read it again in the original ... )

Doing radio dramas with assigned parts based on a kind of scripted paperbacks, recorded with simple tape recorders and mixers (... with what was available back then ... no computers at all ...).

Alice Coopers “Dead Babies” used as background music for composing a scary novel about an evil puppet awoken to life or something along these lines ... well ... completely not understanding the lyrics back than ... just acknowledging the subtle horror of the music.

“Monthy Python” ... “The Adams Family” ...
And something with Polly as part of the title: a grotesque TV show or movie on an early seventies winter evening ...
(... Google delivers to many meaningless hits ... )
Anyway, my female cousin and fits of laughter without end ... bellyache.

Boyhood, Schooldays II and Adolescence

Holiday trips to Yugoslavia ... the scent of acacia ... sweaty heat ... stone beaches ... the Adriatic sea clear as glass ... family boat trips ... Krka waterfalls ... floating in-between sweet water and salt water ... in the evenings by the harbor the scent of suckling-pigs and the sea (... well ... from my today’s point of view I think it’s completely perverse using the word “scent” relating to the smell of half charred animals ...) ... bargaining wood carvings ... in love with Branca ... a whiff of paradise ... back then ...

Playing mini golf in the evening together with my male cousin ... the chirr of crickets and around 50 strikes to get a ball into the hole ... pissing ourselves laughing in a goofy mood ... puddle on the track ...
(... I’m sticking my neck out here ...)

Picture stories about the adventures of action team puppets shot with a little Ritsch-Ratsch Agfamatic camera.

Feeling Maker like developing first computer programs in secondary school ... capturing graphics and animations on a screen simply by input of words and numbers.
Apparent life arising out of pure abstraction.

First paintings with oil ... a portrait of my baby nephew ...
“La Création” ... (... what a kitsch ...) ...
I love the smell of oil paint ...(... but I can manage graphite pencil and pastel better ... it is ... more direct ... for me anyway ...)

Filming and photographing ... capturing what’s around me ... engrossed in the movement of the landscape caused by my movement through this landscape seen through the ocular ...

Time and again attempting to write ... not enough discipline ...

Creation of painted t-shirts ... “Aladdin Sane” album cover and strange geometries ...

My first single lens reflex camera. (... there’s a slight accumulation of the word “first” ...)

The fascination of developing b/w shots (... around the middle of the seventieth until the end of the eighties ...) ... almost a religious procedure ... developing negative film in a pitch dark room ... red light, enlarger, processing basins ... developers, fixers and baryt smells ... the feel ... handling things directly ... pictures becoming visible as if by magic on beforehand white paper ... pictures which first seem something completely different from what will then slowly develop ...

Photographs, montages, and experimental Super-8 movies of exploding Styrofoam packaging and space adventures in a moon landscape build on a board with plaster and old newspapers.
Filming and editing the absurd stereotype eco breakfast Super-8 short “Muesli Knights” produced in the Movie AG of the school ... Eisenstein production ...

Monotonous but meditative holiday jobs in the hot mugginess of the meringue factory ... grab ... pack ... grab ... pack ... grab ... pack ... grab ... pack ... meditating ideas ...

Several little free compositions on the piano ... “Dancing Knives and Forks” ...
Tent and bicycle summer tour with the clique to Denmark ... stopover at the “Kinderfarm Ponyhof” in Norddeich ...

Shock in a winter morning ... radio news ... dazed ... John Lennon murdered ... ungespielt ...

Travelogue diary: Éire camping holiday together with four school friend ... spaghettis in the rain ... stormy night ... attaining full age in a dripping wet summer tent ...visiting a school buddy and his family ... heat and midges in Killarney national park ...
Reading, reading, reading ... Grass, Lenz, Böll, Rinser, Genet, Richter ... countless SF paperbacks and pulp magazines ...

Surreal large-size pastel paintings and pencil drawings being enhanced and driven by the haunting music of Sparks, Kate Bush, Bowie, Wings, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Eno, Television, Dire Straits, Violent Femmes, Unknown Gender, Peter Hammill, Walter Carlos (Bach) (... by now Wendy Carlos ...), Tomita (Mussorgski) ...

Emotional worlds ... somehow ... again and again ...

And then there was ... Zardoz ... for ever connected to Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, Op. 92: mov. 2 ...
spanning dimensions ... affecting mind and soul ... beyond words ...

And writing again ... a kind of individualistic anarchistic diary ... in the stinking winter smog of Berlin ... secret flight to Éire, Dún Chaoin, Dingle Peninsula ... a ferry in a stormy night ... more below than above water ...
Three month without power and hot running water ... instead porridge and Guinness (... no, at that time I didn’t drink any alcohol ... and I drank coffee only from 2004 to 2009 excessively ...).

1000 kilometers enchanting summer bicycle tour to Paris via Holland and Belgium together with a school friend.
Hitchhiking to Italy ... a rainy night in an orange grove ... a sad ride on a train through the alps ...

Modification, finishings and renovation of a flat ... tiling bathrooms and the lavatories of grandmas pub in the Wedding of Berlin ... tiling the flour of the French kisses factory ... tiles by tiles by tiles ... hands-on training for what follows.

University I

Architectural studies at the TU Berlin ... sketching, drawing, building models ... stolen colored large-size perspective drawings from a semester project ... (... who might own these now ... )
Multiple semester courses in drawing and painting by Matthias Köppel, descriptive geometry and sculptural art.
France again ... Paris ... on photography safari in La Défense ...

AutoCad ... CAD on a computer (... where else ...) ...
The elegance of the programming language C ...

A Russian nuclear power plant explodes ... leaving shoes outside ... rain scares ... unease ... reality ...

Tutor with teaching tasks at the Institute for Science of Structural Design ...
1:50 model of a boat hall in wooden construction ...
(... why do I mention this here? Because now I’m able to write that there have been many more models and that focused planning and creating activity on these models have been ... exhilarating ... as well as teaching ... very teaching ...)

Design and building application for a small semi-detached single-family house to be build in Berlin-Reinickendorf.
(... no, not for myself ... I have no use for immobile properties ...)

University II, Occupation and beyond

Employment in an architect’s office in the Wielandstraße 13 ... “Pechtold, Ruprecht, Schlicht, Schulze-Rohr” ... hard drawing work and a whole lot of fun ... introducing IT and CAD into the office.

In midstream Russia breaks in on us ... a regime falls, the wall falls ... plop ... walking through the “Brandenburger Tor” just like that ... unreal ... a new age ... conquering the hinterland.

Vacating and stripping of the architectural faculty polluted by asbestos ... protective coverall ... air lock room ... relocation ...
A tragic death by elk ... this one dead as well ... (... well, naturally it wasn’t well ...)

Diploma thesis about “The Rummelsburger Bucht, urban development concept and buildings” including details of exemplary buildings, together with Jörg Schmiedekind.
Three intensive months in a halfway equipped attic in Berlin Kreuzberg at Monumentenstraße.
Material output in addition to many drawings the building of a virtual 3D wireframe/surface model of the whole area with AutoCad on a 486 and a town model (... yep, another model ...) approximately 3m2 big at a scale of 1:1000 made of expanded polystyrene.

Ongoing employment at PRSSR ... two years later change and employment at “Nalbach Architects” ... CAD and construction detail.

Shortly afterwards follows the next step into self-employment.
Architects Schmiedekind Wolfsegger GbR ... CAD service ... Macs and first ink jet plotters ... HP DesignJet 650c and HP DesignJet 600 ... and ... an Olympus Camedia C-1400 XL ... simplifying a lot the use of graphical material on the computer ...
Architecture competitions ... competitions ... competitions ...
1995 realizing websites for the first time – for our office and for myself.

Commissioned work for WISTA Berlin Adlershof.
Designed collage made in Photoshop showing digitally edited and arranged photographs of current research buildings on the WISTA area.
Presumably the first print on deckle edged paper made with a DesignJet ... the colors maybe faded by now (... because they were neither designed for maximum color fastness nor meant for producing “Fine Art” prints, in contrast to the technique available today ...) ... more large-sized prints of photographs manipulated at the computer ... (... what a lot of fun it was, this thrilling newness of transforming by complexly combining filters and effects, overlaying, subtraction, addition ... until the picture had a satisfying atmosphere...) ...

Developing and programming a project management tool for the office.
Composing lyrical associations.
Implementing the dynamically generated interactive multimedia fun website “Eiersalat und Olivenoel” together with a likeminded buddy (... hi Oliver ...).
Music, texts, pictures, poems, animations ... a chronological blog including a comment function at a time when the first emerging blogs were not called blogs yet (... hi Carola ...) ... a small social network the decentralized kind of which could be found back than ...
Oliver translates “Les Shadoks” ...
I’m translating “Jagged Little Pill” ...

Again trying to write ... a fantastic novel ... getting deadlocked again ...
(... still missing the certainty of what how where why here ...)

Qualification as a multimedia producer.
Development of a website for the “Hackesche Höfe Filmtheater" in Berlin featuring a program preview, selection and ticket booking.

... Changes again...

Employment as a programmer and administrator in the Berlin based multimedia office “interactive tools”.
Deeply absorbed in another kind of creativity ... program design and coding.

... 9/11 ... madness ad infinitum ...

Free IT consultant to date.

Just for fun one-man shooting of the subjective documentary short collage “A Bite Into C – A monitored Life” at the CeBit 2003 ... shot with a digital film camera ... cut and edited on a PC ... accompanied with music invented, arranged and recorded by me on a Korg.
Telecasted in the Open Channel Berlin.

A fascinating, idiosyncratic and remarkable year and More in Kenya ... Nairobi ... Rosslyn ... Runda ... which I will not forget nor will I forget you.

IT projects in Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Nuremberg.

Taken a lot of photos with my Nikon D200 and showcased them on the FC website ... beautiful, funny, meaningful ... yet not satisfying ... why so ... as with my paintings in the past ...

Reading, reading, reading ... original Anglo-American literature and English translations ... Murakami, John Crowley, Tad Williams, Minette Walters, Crichton, Gregory David Roberts, Bolano, Hanif, Ishiguro, Boyle, Swarup, Irving, Cory Doctorow, McEwan, Niven, Franzen ...

Overcoming my restraint to draw by realizing conceptions of drawing and painting I have long since sleeping in myself.
Beginning of a 7 sheet series developing in parallel and showing free and intuitive poetical graphite drawings or better graphite paintings ... let it flow ... twenty years after my last surreal (... ? ...) pastel drawing ... Movement 23 ... in the background old and new sounds by Sparks, Bush, Bowie, Eno, Muse, Radiohead, Wings, Waits, Sigur Ros, ...

Twenty years whilst my children grew up, people changed, relationships broke ... a town mutated ...

Abdication of meat (... no vegetarian, though ...)

Creation of the conceptual website “BerHWolf – Photography and Drawing” ... to exhibit my creative work online ... this website ...
Showing representational photography from the years before at first ... deferring the exhibition of my not yet finished drawings again and again ... more time necessary ...

Flash of realization (... what, how, where ... what the f...?! ... Fish Plate? Telephone? Stagecoach? ...) ... or liberation bolt ... or ... and subsequent ultimately resulting in a certainty about what and how I want to photograph ... similar to the experience regarding my drawings ...

Abstract Photography ... Transforming Photography ... Unchained Photography ...
(... more about this under “Insight” ...)

What‘s next ...
(... living, photographing, exhibiting, finishing the drawings ...)


Bernd H. Wolfsegger

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