Étude #6 2009 / 2009

THE SOUL OF DANCE

Etudes #1-8 are inspired and driven by the pure and timeless energy of classical dance. Below the eventful surface, these works show some of the prominent characteristics of photography, the essayist and philosopher Walter Benjamin appraised: "Here the camera intervenes with the resources of its lowerings and liftings, its interruptions and isolations, it extensions and accelerations, its enlargements and reductions. The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."*

Taking up these thoughts, Horst Kloever's photographs and the earlier works of congenial make, which are already part of art history, provide a deep insight into the inner mechanics of picture making and it's intrinsic motivations.
The dance moves are recorded with different speeds in an elaborate process, thereby extended or accelerated, also interrupted according to the natural rhythm. Single sections are visually emphasized and grouped. The unconscious optics are the rapid movements, now to be recognized in every detail - these photographs analyze the soul of dance.

Every elegant movement of the slender yet strong limbs of young Georgian born ballerina Tata Jashiashvili are meticulously recorded in the wide sequential images. Using the electronic flashlight as a high speed stroboscope gives the possibility to capture the delicacy and grace of classic dance on film. This fruitful cooperation of the ballerina, a performing artist at home on stages like the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, and a tech savvy photographer produced outstanding images, making it possible to enjoy the beauty of dance movements in a calm moment in front of still pictures filling the field of vision with delicate detail and matching shades of color.

The use of specific film camera and lighting equipment and 21st century digital image enhancement techniques made it possible to portray the dancer in many different sequential moves and in her natural surroundings: The stage with a flowing curtain in the background, visually lapping around the joyfully jumping or inward-looking classical dancer performing perfect ballet routines.

Earlier attempts to depict motion mostly where limited to a black space for technical reasons, resembling the laboratories where Chrono- or High Speed Photography originated, particularly the works of Engineer and Photographer Harald E. "Doc" Edgerton. Chrono- or High Speed Photography is focussing on picturing rapid movements in single images or sequences. The pioneers of the technique already succeeded in depicting rapid action of various kinds in the second half of the 19th Century and so defined the way how events, which are too fast for the human eye, are perceived today.

Previous to the Etudes #1-8 project, Horst Kloever made a name for himself with experimental photography in the fields of portrait, fashion and sports. His work earned him several awards. He also collaborated with an Academy Award-winning Director and Cameraman in the field of Special Effects. Horst Kloever is also active as a writer and curator.

*Quotation from: "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", part XIII, by Walter Benjamin 1936, transcribed by Andy Blunden in 1998.