30 | INTERVIEW | HOLGER MARTIN
Mýrdalssandur 4, 2010, Archival Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 25 x 37.5 cm / 57 x 38 cm
You speak of trying to capture ‘the unseen’ in your photography; do you think this is truly possible? What is your process for this? Recently, I have been thinking about this more and more. Making a photograph generally results in a two-dimensional representation of a particular situation, whether that situation is found or staged, or both. Arriving at that representation is limited by constraints, such as the properties of the recording apparatus (e.g. camera, film, sensor, print paper or screen). Diane Arbus for example speaks about her fascination with physical darkness, which cannot be seen in a photograph. The representation of a situation is also framed by the choices a photographer makes (e.g. framing the original exposure and maybe reframing in the darkroom). David Hockney experimented with capturing multiple perspectives of the same situation in his photography.
It would be technically possible to capture what people cannot see, for example through infrared photography, although this has not interested me so far. In a lot of my existing work, I have thought about capturing events through the traces that they leave, where the event itself remains unseen. I am now considering how much more about a situation I remember compared to what appears in the photograph of that situation. The visual aspects are the easiest to consider. For example, what was to the sides, above, below and behind me, when I pointed the camera ‘forwards’? But maybe one should also consider sounds, or the air quality or temperature, although these cannot appear in a traditional photograph.