重歸復古攝影A take on vintage photography
我熱愛家庭相簿。無論這些照片是在哪拍攝的、如何拍攝的或者由誰拍攝的並不重要，無論這些照片是不是專業的也不重要，唯一重要的是這個人在這一天的行為的意義。為什麼呢？例如，像學術專家和家庭主婦這樣完全不同的人，他們會在照片裏把頭擺在相同的位置，比劃著相同的手勢嗎？當知道老照片的實質時，我們當代人才會停止對“老古董”一樣的老式攝影的嘲諷。I love family photograph albums. It‘s not important where, how or by whom the photographs were taken. It‘s not important whether they are sharp or not. The only important thing is the meaning of the person‘s action on that day. Why, for example, do absolutely different people, academics and housewives, put their heads into exactly the same hole in a picture with palms? Show the fundamental meaning in an old photograph, and our contemporaries will stop sneering at old ladies‘ photographs.
在生活當中有很多偽裝，但是我們可以從這些虛偽中看到隱藏在背後的真實。而一張在裝在框子裏的老照片與與之一樣有著同樣的偽裝。你必須從精神上突破這個框架，並觀察照片，去發現它的現實本身。仔細觀察它，如果照片太小，就把貼近你的眼睛，放大它。如果鏡頭含有明顯的慣例拍攝的痕跡，你需要打破慣例，不要在意照片中人的姿勢而是要看他的姿勢是否違背了他的意願。一些微小的背景細節就可能指向事實的本質。最重要的事情就是打破慣性的、欺騙性的障礙，並在活細胞中尋找真實，這樣才能縱覽全局。There is plenty of pretence in life, but we can see the truth hidden behind this pretence. An old photograph is the very same life, contained within a frame. You have to mentaly „break“ this frame, and look at the picture as it was reality itself. Just take a closer look. If it is too small, bring it nearer to eyes, magnify it. If the shot contains clear traces of the generic ritual of having your picture taken, you need to break the ritual, and focus not on the pose of the person being photographed, but on what the pose reveals against his will. Some tiny background detail may point to the essence. The most important thing is to break the generic, deceitful connections, and look for the truth in living cells, which actually constitute the general view.
完全沉浸在復古攝影中，我看到了從攝影存在開始就沒有變化過的人類。在這些照片中，我總是看到自己，我的朋友，同樣的激情，同樣的愛與恨。復古照片讓我想起了孤兒院的孩子：很多人可憐他們，但卻很少有人敢接他們回家。在我開始籌備本次展覽時， 我感到非常滿足。這個展覽對我來説比我做攝影作品還要更重要。在我看來，經過時間沉澱的老照片比我的攝影作品更加真實。Fully immersed in vintage photography, I see the same human being, almost unchanged during the time of photography‘s existence. In these photographs, I always saw myself, my friends, the same passion the same love and hatred. Vintage photographs remind me of orphanage kids: many pity them, but few dare to take them home. While I was working on the layout of „A take on vintage photography“, I felt deep satisfaction. This work seemed to me to be of greater significance than working on my own photographs. It appeared to me that old, time-tested photographs were truer than mine.
通過復古攝影，我想要從不同的角度來展示生命的層次，試著不再回避那些劃破我們命運的利刃，而且，可能，這將持續很長一段時間。舊檔案向我展現了人類的歷史就像一個永遠混亂的人際關係。Through vintage photography, I wanted to show life from various angles, trying to not shy away from the sharp edges that break our destinies, and, it seems, this will go on for a very long time. Old archives revealed to me the history of humanity as a never-ending tumult of human relationships.
不再遵循姓名和事件的等級制度和評估標準，在本書中，我拒絕了有關特定照片的所有資訊。我沒有忘記我以前很在意照片的拍攝時間，地點和人物，我知道很多讀者認為這些細節很重要。然而，我謹慎的設法將這些照片所創造的印象合併成一個無縫的幻象；我希望讀者以和我同樣的方式來回應他們。Having ceased to follow the standards of evaluation and the standing hierarchy of names and events, in this book I have rejected all information about a particular photograph. I haven‘t forgotten that some time ago it was important to me when, where, and by whom the photograph had been taken, and I know that many readers see these details as significant. Yet I deliberately sought to incorporate the impression produces by these photographs into a seamless vision; I wanted the reader to respond to them in the same way I did.
起初，我試圖根據社會現象和風格來分類相簿中的照片，強調生命與死亡的主題。但是之後我突然覺得我像一些立陶宛雕刻師的木雕神像，當我安排好桌子上的一切的時候，我覺得自己好像是上帝自己：一個印度人，一個美洲原住民，一個非洲人，一個白人，一個穆斯林，一個佛教徒，一個基督徒，沙皇的軍隊，波蘭士兵，皇帝，戰爭，葬禮，婚姻在我眼前相映成趣。我把一切都混成了一堆 —成千上萬的圖像—然後看到了一些依然存在的秩序。終究這一切都是生命，我們所有人無不透露出自己是這裡的人 - 不管他/她是一個拳擊手，沙皇，乞丐，還是赤裸上身的女人。我意識到，攝影的歸檔是一個無底洞的鏡子，等待著被觀察與看穿。At first I tried to classify the photographs in the album according to social phenomena and styles, emphasizing the theme of life and death, and then I suddenly felt that I was like some Lithuanian carver of wooden statues of God, but when I arranged everything on the table, I felt as though I was God himself: an Indian, a Native American, an African, a white, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Christian, The Tsar‘s army, Polish soldiers, the Kaiser, war, funerals, marriages lay side by side before my eyes. I mixed everything into one pile – thousands of images – and saw that some order still persisted. After all, all of this is life, we all reveal ourselves as people here – no matter if one is a boxer, Tsar, beggar, or a topless woman. I realized that archive photography was the mirror of a bottomless well, waiting to be looked at and fathomed.