| | | Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer
The first exhibition "Bali-Kino" Berlin
(October 1974)
This exhibition includes the fifteen photographs shown at the first show by Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer that was held at "Bali-Kino" in West Berlin in October 1974. The following comments prepared by the photographers for this online exhibition provide the context.
For the first exhibition of our photographs 1974 in West-Berlin we wrote:
"We show festive events, moments where a person rises above his everyday life, such as to elevate himself by joining a well-meaning circle in the certainty about the indivisibility of the nation, or to bask in the radiance from a trophy for his dog; or even to make sure to be among the redeemed by taking part in the procession on Corpus Christi Day. Should anybody nevertheless feel signs of sadness in our pictures, the blame should not be laid on us. Perhaps it is the paltriness of our everyday life, the insufficient conditions of production and working, which even in these festive moments show discernibly through."
Today, rereading these lines, we are astonished at our self-assuredness then: The precisely formulated concept of "alienated leisure time" had been our guideline in finding and selecting motifs; however, dragged along by the passage of history we now find that our pictures may not be locked up within such boundaries.
Since then our endeavor has developed further, unpredictable and difficult to explain. Nevertheless, we believe strongly that we are still in pursuit of the same task. Now we are especially led by the magical space provided by the glance and posture of the photographed, by their aura: the tension between being repelled and attracted, which includes us as well as the viewer and which at the same time expels us and shows us our place.
Inevitably, political and social climate shows up in these pictures. We as anyone have our opinion about that. But we trust it’s better to leave the viewer on his own and let him enter unguided so that he may find his own self.
Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer (December 2006)
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