Wolfgang Hastert : Being a "photographic carnivore"

Wolfgang Hastert's love of the image has led him to experiment with photography and video, whether through his documentaries or more experimental works. The German artist and director talks to us about his special relationship with the image - still or moving, his discovery of James Bidgood and how he recognized himself in his works, as well as the subtle art of making films about artists who themselves experiment with the image. 

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• Could you tell us more about you ? You work with both film and photography ?

"You are a “photographic carnivore”, one of my former professors told me – characterizing my philosophy of combining still and moving imagery, using chemical film and digital image making, all together in a mix of multi-media. He was a purist who was primarily interested in the still and framed photograph hanging on the wall. I always felt that that was a limited approach to art making with lens-based media.

My image-making trajectory began with a small Nikon 35 mm still camera, which naturally led to working with a Super 8 movie camera. In my case, photography led to moving images. I have used every film and digital film format ever since. Each way of framing and recording images brings a unique result that opens up a unique way of telling a story. One can work in layers of materials. It allows for a complex vocabulary.

Photography was also the first stepping stone in my career. I transitioned from studies in photo design to becoming a film camera assistant at German TV station ZDF. This led to several years as a traveling camera assistant working on many documentaries for ZDF. I then transitioned into a producer role for commercials and then returned to the documentary world by pitching my first documentary.

I was very fortunate to be commissioned to make a film on the American painter Edward Hopper. In this film I recreated Hopper’s paintings with actors and interviewed several fine art photographers who were inspired by the paintings of Hopper. Among these were Arnold Newman and Joel Meyerowitz. We filmed sequences in New York and on Cape Cod, where Edward Hopper had lived. This film started my documentary filmmaking about visual artists with a focus on photographers.

After making documentary films, mainly for Arte, I began teaching film production at UC San Diego and my practice shifted from documentary work to experimental photography and short films.

Over the last years I have worked with pinhole cameras and made experimental movies with hand- processed 35mm moving film.

Lens based art is my passion. I allow myself to experiment with different media and specifically I am interested in the “ongoing moment” an area that lies between the still image and the moving image that I record at 24 frames per second. Recording time and perceptions of time are at the center of my art production. Still photography evokes “a moment that has been”. It is a document of the past and has a melancholic undertone. Whereas the moving 24 frames per second of film are happening in front of us during the projection. We participate in the moment. Film is not tied to the past. Film lives in the NOW.

• How did you discover the work of James Bidgood ?

My commissioning editor at Arte, Olaf Grunert, asked me to collaborate on a “sensual midsummer night programming” for the TV station. First, he wanted me to research Tom of Finland imagery and “beefcake” pin-up photography as a genre. Images of scantily clad men are not my natural interest. As a matter of luck, I came across a book that Taschen publishers had just released. It was the story of the “anonymous” filmmaker named James Bidgood. What intrigued me was Bidgood’s life story, his commitment to working with photography and super 8 film. I was thrilled as I had found  a peer who loved to hand-make films and experiment with models in his studio settings. I also was intrigued by his warm-hearted and funny personality. The story of the “Anonymous Director” role that  he had played in the cult film Pink Narcissus made it even more fascinating as a project.

• Tell us about this documentary project, how did it come about ?

After finding the Taschen coffee table book and convincing Olaf Grunert about the project it was fairly easy to contact James Bidgood. After all he was not anonymous anymore. I met with the book’s author Bruce Benderson in New York, he connected me with James and we started to make the film soon after. Luckily, I had many contacts in New York through previous documentary productions. Ken Kobland signed on as cinematographer. We made his house and studio on the Bowery the hub for the production and created the film together. Manhattan can be very easy as a place to shoot as all the collaborators for the film lived only blocks away from each other. It was an intimate production. I met and interviewed a small group of fascinating interview subjects and most importantly we spent several shooting days together with Bidgood and created playful scenes in the spirit of his photographs and film. Most fulfilling was for me that I was able to shoot several magical moments together with James on my Super-8 camera. Theses sequences carry a beautiful spirit- the colorful flickering images of James in the subway, at the flower shop or strolling the streets in his neighborhood- joking with me through the camera, making fun, making irreverent comments and having a smile on his face.

• How do his images still influence image makers today ?

I believe James became a gay celebrity in New York after the book was released. “Anonymous” was now a man with a name: James Bidgood. Finally, the maker of the cult underground film Pink Narcissus was discovered. The Museum of Modern Art showed Pink Narcissus. He received all the honors he deserved. Both his film and he, himself are inspiring. He had made Pink Narcissus during the 1970’s when it was risky to produce soft pornographic content. Public showings and mailing images of this type of sexual content through the US Postal system was not permitted. But his passion, mastery of filmmaking, and tasteful aesthetics found an audience and will inspire future content creators who want to work in this genre.

• Your documentary talks about the film Pink Narcissus but also the photographs behind it. How do you perceive the link but also the difference between still and moving images ?

I see photographs and film frames as “siblings”. James Bidgood started photographing pinup-style images and then expanded his project into a movie. In this process photographs can be the beginning seed of a creative idea and lead into a story for a filmic narrative. I believe that Bidgood  experimented with still photographs in his home studio and then used the experience and the results  of his casting process of young male models to further develop the idea of Pink Narcissus.

• In your documentaries you explore the process of image makers, being still or moving images. Where and how, visually speaking, do you find the balance between making this process accessible and preserve the secret magic of it all ?

Making documentaries about image makers invites me to step into their worlds of creation. It is a pleasure for me to discover new content, working styles and aesthetics and the personalities of image makers. And it is challenging to create a specific distance to their works. Presenting photographs in a film has a unique challenge: how do you slow down? How do you represent the still shot within a moving sequence and how do you respect the original framing and proportions of an original still image? My challenge is to discover the work of a specific artist and get close to their working style while still maintaining my own filmmaking style. When I worked for Arte, I was following a philosophy of “cinematic écriture” – a unique cinematic handwriting, my way of telling a story.

Arte supports a culture of essayistic filmmaking that allows for the director and writer to work uniquely. In this style I aim for “taking the audience member by their hand” and walk them through a process of discovery. It is intimate- a way of slowly sharing what I discovered when I worked with the artist. An important part of this process is working in an experimental mode. I improvise and play. I allow myself to use a variety of cameras – high resolution digital and low resolution grainy film material. These varied media allow for a variety of access points for the viewer. For example, hi- resolution digital imagery reproduces an accurate account of a detailed photograph and in contrast

Super 8 film may evoke a more emotional reaction. It allows to communicate a feeling state and communicates another dimension of information about the subject. It feels good to be a “photographic carnivore”.