Renowned German photographer and filmmaker Wim Wenders thinks that photography “is more dead than ever” and that smartphones are to blame for the art form’s demise. In this 1.5-minute video produced by BBC News, Wenders stops at an exhibition of his Polaroid photos to share some of his thoughts on the current landscape of photography.
Renowned German photographer and filmmaker Wim Wenders thinks that photography “is more dead than ever” and that smartphones are to blame for the art form’s demise. In this 1.5-minute video produced by BBC News, Wenders stops at an exhibition of his Polaroid photos to share some of his thoughts on the current landscape of photography.
“If you travel a lot,” writes Wim Wenders, “if you like roaming about in order to lose yourself, you can end up in the strangest places. I think it must be a kind of built-in radar, which often takes me to places that are either peculiarly quiet or peculiar in a quiet sort of way.”
If a war photographer is awarded a Peace Prize, furthermore in a city once devastated by a war, then he must be a very special person and a truly extraordinary photographer. And he must have…
James Nachtwey’s images give us an accurate idea of how he “goes about it”, in the true sense of the word: where others “just want to get out of here”, that’s where he goes. He travels, in principle, in the direction of places that other people are only desperately leaving from, or have already left in a hurry, or can’t leave anymore.
It is with that first movement that he’s already opposing war: With himself. With his safety, his life, his affection, his conviction. All of the above are captured in his images…
Wim Wenders started taking photographs aged seven and has pursued his love of stills ever since as well as directing films. Photography is a state of mind, he tells Steven Pill.
I confess to being a workaholic. And as movies always take up a year or two of your life, I’m happiest filling some of the time in between taking pictures.
