There is at the moment a great exhibit in Berlin on Gerard Richter and I was surprised to see that one of his piece was of the Nuba tribe, the same one Leni portrayed. It was very interesting to see how the same people were perceived and showed in a complete different way. Where Leni was aiming for perfection and beauty, Richter gave a blur to a scene that already looks pretty chaotic. The contrast between the two work is fascinating and to my opinion refutes a bit her claim that she did not intend to base her pictures on Nazi estheticism. Richter's work proves that it is possible to give a variation in interpreting the Nuba tribe.
Very interesting ... and he has to have been thinking of Riefenstahl when he decided to do an image of the Nuba.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree solynka. this image totally refutes her claim that it was not intended to show ethic purity and a strong people.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to chime in with my 2 cents here and also agree; what a cherry-picker of ethnically-aesthetic photos!
ReplyDeleteI agree as well--and I also think that in choosing the Nuba AND deciding to style the photographs so chaotically and more importantly, imperfectly, he was not just considering Riefenstahl--in my opinion, he was responding to (and opposing) her work directly!
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