"In my photographic work I was always especially entranced, said Austerlitz, by the moment when the shadows of reality so to speak, emerge out of nothing on the exposed paper, as memories do in the middle of the night, darkening again if you try to cling to them, just like the photographic print left in the developing bath too long." -WG Sebald
I enjoy this quote because my favorite part of developing is seeing the image emerge from the paper. It really does take you back to the memory that was created.
WG Sebald, born in 1944 and died in 2001, was a famous German author. He wrote a lot about post-war Germany and the Holocaust. He was appointed to a chair of European literature at UEA and, in 1989, became the founding director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.
Sebald's works are largely concerned with the theme of memory, both personal and collective. They are in particular attempts to reconcile himself with, and deal in literary terms with, the trauma of the Second World War and its effect on the German people. In On the Natural History of Destruction he wrote a major essay on the wartime bombing of German cities, and the absence in German writing of any real response. His concern with the Holocaust is expressed in several books delicately tracing his own biographical connections with Jews.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment