Not always does destruction give way to new growth. 
A landscape, the rich vegetation once destroyed, can 
forever remain scorched earth. So also will a people, 
once severely maltreated, never again recover. 
Absolutely destructive powers exist, at least so it 
would seem, whose armies can trample the soil so 
as to prevent all healing.

Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_05

Morality requires 
Those who murder for lust 
To confess the murder
But not the lust.

Karl Kraus (1874 – 1936)

Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_04

All for the common people!
See how I laugh even to myself
at the bibles and sermons
and people’s fervent beliefs:
I, for my part, am an atheist!
But the common people, it is they who must believe.
Belief, like an amulet
Suspended o’er the enchanted earth:
We the eagles and they the doves!
And the common people, it is they who must believe,
Or at least make-believe.

Robert Eduard Prutz (1816 – 1872)

Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_03

Without words …


Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_08

The door to happiness,
To healing,
To salvation,
To self-actuation,
Opens outward.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)


Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_07

The absurd, presented tastefully, 
evokes aversion and admiration.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)


Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_02

Out of the lonely darkness
I peer, tracking back
To that short, sweet day
I encountered joy.

Yes, the path is still familiar
And the track still fresh.
But snow lies deep
Where I encountered joy.

There my tears fall
To warm the place.
And slowly the snow thaws,
And finally melts away.

Erich Mühsam (1878 – 1934)
Murdered at the Oranienburg Concentration Camp


Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_06

When confined to a cell, he said, 
you need to dream beyond its limits. Otherwise you won’t survive.

Kurt Tucholsky (1890 – 1935)


Poetography, is an artificial term derived from the combination of poetry and photography. The term resulted from deeply engaging with the philosophical thought of Vilém Flusser. The terms translation and back translation play a central role in Flusser’s media theory. Drawing on this concept, I have endeavoured to “back-translate” a series of images. These I have matched with texts found on the internet. This results in a higher level that gives way to a space for reflexion of a kind that is anything but binding.

Poetography_01

untitiled (oil on canvas)

Cliff jumpers (oil on canvas)

conformist,non-conformist

With troubled mind we wonder 'What will happen in this night ,what will come and shake us from this dream? What waits for us in this life? ' .  So with troubled mind we wait in the stillness of the night, for life to take us by surprise.

Night 

I've been working with photographs and internet images as a base for sketches. Sometimes the ideas come first sometimes the sketches lead to ideas. The images are altered and rearranged, much like a collage. I then use these blueprints to create paintings or drawings. Different figures are juxtaposed together with various textures and landscapes. Sometimes the page is filled with characters, sometimes the figures are solitary creatures.

In the end they all reflect one thing; the human condition. They reflect our desires, our vices, our loneliness, our fears our vain hopes and our often illogical ways. They show our constant struggle as individuals in our society as we search for authenticity and self-knowledge.


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Wolfgang Hofmeister

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