Pure butcher
Reiner Metzger (* 1957 in Simmerberg ) is a German photographer and musician. He lives and works in Oberstdorf .
Life
During his school days and in the course of his subsequent music studies, Metzger dealt intensively with the medium of photography. From the beginning, a major focus was on black and white photography . From 1997 onwards he worked exclusively with this artistic method.
job
One of the central elements in Metzger's photographic work are long-term daytime shots. The exhibition project "Breath of Time", which was completed in 2006 for the Kunsthalle Kempten and whose works are kept in the fund of the museums of the city of Kempten / Allgäu, testifies to this in particular .
On the occasion of the city's anniversary there, four Metzger pictures were purchased for their collection. These are "Platz vor dem Forum" (2008, collection number KA 2801), "Allgäuer Überlandwerk" (2008, collection number KA 2802), "Zentralhaus" (2008, collection number KA 2803) and "Alte Bleiche" (2006, collection number KA 2800 ). They are documented in "Catalogs and Writings of the Museums of the City of Kempten, Volume 23, Kempten, 2018.
In the same year, in the series "Catalogs and Writings of the Museums of the City of Kempten" with Volume 24 Metzger's last book "The Breath of Time" was published, which continues the motifs of the exhibition mentioned. Their works, most of which were created in 2001/2002 (with the exception of the portraits), are technically and conceptually also committed to the photographic method of extreme long-term exposure during the day. The "vision of a depopulated world" that stands before the viewer is reflected by the accuracy and closeness with which the camera is dedicated to portrayed passers-by. While such an imaginary state of a landscape is transformed into visible reality by the factor of time alone, the individual detached from this world is contrasted with it in maximum detail.
In a second conceptual dimension of the book, a pictorial-dramaturgical line leads from the backdrops of the largest urban space in the country (Berlin) via subjects from small towns and rural provinces up to the mountain regions of the Alps, while all the motifs expose the viewer to the impression of their disappearance without a trace .
One of Metzger's intentions here is to juxtapose landscapes and cities in a way that is naturally closed to the human eye. At the same time, portraits in various picture compositions are an element of the overall system of his books and exhibitions.
Reiner Metzger's first book was published in 1998 under the title “Only the sun is forever young”. In the same year his work was discussed for the first time in an article in the trade journal “ Hasselblad FORUM”. During the following years exhibitions, book publications and television reports followed.
Responses to Reiner Metzger's works appeared in specialist magazines (“Hasselblad FORUM” 2/1998 - 3/1999 - 2/2001 and “ Fine Art Printer ” 3/2013), daily newspapers and TV reports on Bavarian television. The following selection is made:
Quotes
“The aim of the inspired photographer is not just to depict reality, but to interpret it. As in painting, in photography it is not the motif but the way in which it is presented that determines the quality of the work. It is the art of Reiner Metzger to move the seemingly everyday into the timeless. Here the image becomes a symbol. "
"Cutouts of nature on which the structures of stones or pieces of wood are presented as elementary form events, landscapes that, with their diverse shades of gray and black, capture a meteorological-atmospheric moment on a book page in a highly suggestive way, close-ups of faces that give the viewer the feeling give that he can watch the portrayed aging, or glimpses into farmhouses that seem to curdle directly into still life ... photography as an analytical way of dealing with nature. "
“Above all, however, breaks and friction between the presentation of photographs and the reality of the museum are intended, (...) ... that the inner world of the houses is of course always an artificial one, perhaps even an idealized one. This is made particularly clear by the photographs that show people not only in large portraits, but also in their surroundings. The art form of black and white photography sometimes reveals much more reality there than the three-dimensional everyday objects in the workshops and courtyards of the museum. "
"The result is an impressive illustrated book that resists the usual temptations when looking at country life: either kitsching it up in Musikantenstadl-style or reducing it to an intellectual negative film for urban enlightenment."
"Dream landscapes, abstract topographies - a photographic novelist works here."
"It was a pleasure to publish one of your images ... on my wall in the room where we edit the magazine I have got a small collection of FORUM photographers. I would very much like to add a signed print of your published picture "
Book publications
- Reiner Metzger (photography), Martin Hehl (text): Only the sun is forever young . AVA-Agrar Verlag Allgäu, Kempten 1998, ISBN 3-924809-43-7
- Reiner Metzger (photography), Karl Ruhrberg (text): The valid moment: Photographs 1991–1999 . Edition Braus, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-89466-234-4 (exhibition catalog Allgäu-Museum )
- Reiner Metzger (photography), Karlheinz Gradl (text): Konrädler: an Allgäu farming family at the beginning of the third millennium . AVA-Agrar Verlag Allgäu, Kempten 2001, ISBN 3-924809-71-2
- Time islands: photographs from Oberstdorf . Edition Braus, Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 3-89904-290-5 , (Volume 17 of the series "Catalogs and Writings of the Museums of the City of Kempten (Allgäu)")
- Faces of a City: Photographs from Kempten . AVA-Agrar Verlag Allgäu, Kempten 2009, ISBN 3-938992-94-8 (Volume 18 of the series "Catalogs and publications of the museums of the city of Kempten (Allgäu)")
- Reiner Metzger (photography), Otto Kettemann (text): 50 farms: rural life in the Allgäu, on Lake Constance and in Upper Swabia . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 2015, ISBN 3-943391-71-X
- Reiner Metzger (photography), Michael Frank Meier (text): The breath of time . Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2018, ISBN 978-3-95976-131-4 (Volume 24 of the series "Catalogs and Writings of the Museums of the City of Kempten (Allgäu)")
Individual evidence
- ↑ quoted from: Karl Ruhrberg: Interpretation and Reality - On the work of the photographer Reiner Metzger in: "The valid moment", Edition Braus, Heidelberg, 2000
- ↑ quoted from: Structures in the landscape in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 175/2000, p. 15.
- ↑ quoted from: Klaus Schmidt: The new, uncomfortable residents in: Allgäuer Anzeigeeblatt, No. 82, April 8, 2009, p. 19.
- ↑ quoted from: Popular in: "Literaturen", issue 11/2002, p. 65.
- ↑ quoted from: "Westfälische Rundschau", July 28, 2001
- ^ Letter from the editor of the "Hasselblad FORUM" magazine, Sören Gunnarsson, to the photographer Reiner Metzger, 1998
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Butcher, Reiner |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German photographer and musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Simmerberg |