║ Oskar Schmidt ║

© Oskar Schmidt, Self with Mirror, 2006

© Oskar Schmidt, Girl with Book, 2005

 

“A young girl in a short summer dress is kneeling on the bare floor, consumed in a book. Every fibre of the body appears tensed. The pose is somewhat artificial in distinct contrast to the otherwise relaxed pastime of reading. The large format work Mädchen mit Buch (girl with book) can be seen as exemplary of Oskar Schmidts creative method. With his meticulously arranged image worlds the photographer emancipates himself from the function of empirical demonstration that still adheres to the medium. The focus of interest is not on the reproduction of material reality but on the poetic transcending of the motif. The young girls pose is worked out in singular detail, lending the figure an enormous physicality within the image. Nevertheless, this conscious emphasising of the bodily presence in its near perfection in no way leads to a sexual provocation und still less to desire. Instead, in contemplating the pure, almost idealised forms, the observer is thrown back upon herself. The uptake of the image passes through the recognition of the pictured ephemeral state to become a self-reflective act. Behind the painful witnessing of an irretrievably lost sensation may lie a tentative notion of eternity, detached from material space and perceptible time.”