Jia Zazhia blogzine on poetic PHOTOGRAPHY in & near China, plus other Beauties

本周假杂志专访的摄影师是德国摄影师Chrischa Maria Oswald。她的摄影很有爱。

This week’s feature photographer is Chrischa Maria Oswald, born in Germany. Her works are full of love.

能以你自己喜欢的方式介绍下自己吗？
我在1984年因爱的结合而诞生，所以我希望我的照片都源于爱。我对人以及人之间的关系颇感兴趣，也对人的隐私情感着迷。对旁观者的挑衅，荒谬的时刻，以及表现一点阶段性以审视所谓“现实”的图片都是我很喜欢的概念。

你是什么时候开始对摄影产生兴趣的？是如何开始的？
我不知道最早是什么时候。我4岁时拍了第一张照片，是我父亲拿相机给我让我给他和母亲拍照。好像当我大些的时候我对他的相机又产生了兴趣，然后开始拍摄各种各样的东西。我还参加过学校里的一个摄影课程，那课程是我的数学老师开设的。后来当我思考自己想学什么的时候，我意识到摄影是我真正喜欢做并对其充满热情的事情。另外我想做些实用性更强些的事情而不是再花两年时间只学理论的东西。我的摄影生涯就是这样开始的。

提到“大师”，你马上想到的人是谁？请以一句话评价他/她。
呃，这个问题比较难回答，我想到的不止“一位”大师，而是许多由不同知名或不知名的摄影师完成的作品。不过让我对摄影抱有更认真态度的是当我为彼得·林德伯格的作品倾倒并喜爱的时候。他实际上是一个时尚摄影师，着重拍黑白照，作品都充满叙述性，并且主题多是女人……有力量的同时充满细腻和诗意的味道。至今我还很喜欢很多年前得到的作为圣诞节礼物的他的作品集，仍旧为他的这些美丽照片而倾心不已。

你写了很多的诗，请谈谈你对诗歌和摄影的关系如何看？
从某种意义上来说，诗歌是我第一个摄影的方式。写诗就像是用文字在画图；文字的可塑性很强，你可以随心所欲地组合。诗歌是将脑中的图画表达出来或者将看过或经历过的事情重组的一个方式。也许诗歌是我脑中的摄影机，将情绪的图画记录下来。而摄影是记录我的外在可视世界的工具。也许你问这个问题更为大众一些，我想，诗歌和摄影直接按存在着某种联系，因为诗歌可以是一幅图片，而图片也可以是一首诗。在我看来两种方式都与情绪相关，我们通过它们都试图表达出一些不能宣之于口的“东西”。比起阐释来说，说“表达”更为准确。在对某样东西表达个人想法的同时，让其他人得到一种奇怪的亲密感，也建立起一种与诗歌或者图片的个人联系起来。

请描述一下你生长的地方。
我生长在德国下巴伐利亚区一个只有12000人口的小镇。我还在乡下祖父母处度过了许多时光，与兄弟姐妹玩在一处。至今我还对自然和乡村有着不可割舍的情感，不过现在住在大一点儿的城市里我也很开心，因为可以享受到丰富的文化滋养，遇到形形色色的人等等。但对我来说在城市中有个公园那样的地方还是很重要的。也许是我的童年环境使我更倾向于在户外的自然光线中进行拍摄。

你的家人对你的摄影有什么影响？
我和家人的关系十分融洽，这让我很开心，因为我知道有个地方像我的根据地一样，随时欢迎我，在我想回去的时候也尽管回去无妨。我很感激我的父母对我说我应该对自己感兴趣的东西坚持学习，我很高兴不必为学习美术这个决定而犯愁。当我做摄影项目的时候，我将我的家人也纳入其中，让他们成为我艺术作品的一部分，这也让他们更理解我的事业。我的家人是我很重要的支撑力量，当我怀疑自己的想法的时候总是能得到他们的鼓励。

最近给你灵感的东西有哪些？
最近我从奥地利搬到慕尼黑。开始找合租公寓的时候比较困难，不过现在我对我的新家和合租伙伴非常满意！我相信这会是一个新的开始，而我也会得到更多的惊喜和灵感。

你看过电影《2012》吗？你觉得那年真的会是世界末日吗？
我没看过这部电影，不过我觉得世界末日不会真的在2012年到来。但是，我认为我们都应该更慎重地对待自己生存的自然环境，并改变思维，好好思考一下究竟什么更为重要，这样才能避免类似世界末日那样的灾难。

（访谈：言由 / 假杂志版权所有，转载请超链接本文网址）

Could you introduce yourself in your personal style?
I was made with love in 1984 and so I want to make my photos with love, too. I´m very interested in people and their relationship and therefore also in intimacy. Also irritating the viewer and absurd moments or slightly staged pictures that examine “reality” are concepts that i´m intrigued with.

When did you get interested in photography? How did you start?
I don´t know when it first started. I took my first pictures at the age of 4 when my Dad was giving his camera to me to take a picture of him and my mum. And somehow when I grew older I got interested in his cam again and started taking photos of everything. I was also joining a little photo-course at our school which was run bei my maths-teacher. When I thought about what I wanted to study later I realized that photography was something I really liked and was passionate about. And I also wanted to do something that was more applied instead of just learning theoretical stuff for another couple of years. So that´s how it started.

Speaking of “master”, who will you instantly think of? please give your comments on him/her in one sentence?
Uh, that´s a difficult question. I couldn´t say there was ONE master but rather a lot of great pictures by different photographers (known or unknown). Anyway, when I first got interested more seriously in photography I was fascinated by and fell in love with the pictures of Peter Lindbergh who´s actually a fashion-photographer who was working especially in black and white and whose pictures are very narrative and mostly of women…strong but also tender and poetic. I still love the big book I got for x-Mas many years ago and I´m still caught by the beauty of the photos.

I konw you write many poems, what’s you opinion on the relation between poetry and photography?
Poetry was my first way to take pictures in a way. It was a possibility to kind of draw or paint pictures with words which I regarded as a very plastic material I could play with.
It was a way to express pictures in my head or to rewind and reform experiences or things I had seen. Maybe poetry is my inner camera, the one for emotional pictures.
And photography is my tool for the visible world outside me. Oh and now I see that your question was meant more common but I guess that poetry and photography have a certain connection because a poem can be a picture and a photo can be a poem. In my opinion both things should have a lot to do with emotions and try to express something in a way we haven´t come across that “something”. It´s generally more about expressing than about explaining i suppose. Expressing a personal view on something while giving other people a feeling of strange intimacy resp. a certain personal connection to the poem or photo.

Could you describe the place where you were brought up?
I grew up in a small town with 12 000 inhabitants in Lower Bavaria. I also spent a lot of time in the village of my grandparents and was playing a lot with my brother and my cousins, too. I still feel very connected to nature and the countryside but now I’m also happy to live in a larger city with more chances to enjoy culture, meet different people etc…It´s important to me to have a bit of nature like parks etc. in the city, too, however. And maybe my upbringing is also a reason for my preference to take pictures outdoors and shoot with natural light.

How does your family effect on your photography career?
I´ve a real good relationship with my family and I´m quite happy about that as that means that there´s a kind of base I´m always welcome and I can always go back to. And I`m grateful that my parents said I should study anything I wanted to as long as I was interested in it and it would make me happy. So I had not to fight for my decision to study Fine Arts. And when I started to do photo-projects in which I involved my family that meant to make my family part of my work and to transport them into art somehow to make them understand my work better. My family is also encouraging me when I´m doubting my ideas and is a real strong background in general.

What give you inspiration recently?
I have moved from Austria to Munich recently and after having problems finding a shared flat I´m more than happy now about my new home and new flatmates! I hope and I guess that this is kind of a new beginning now that is holding suprises and inspiration…

Have you seen the film 2012? Do you agree that day is doomsday?
I havent seen the film 2012 but would say that it won´t be doomsday. Anyway, I think that we have to find a way to deal with nature more carefully and to change our mind concerning what´s important in life to avoid a near doomsday.

(Interviewed by Yuan Di / all images © Justin Waldron; please link JIAZAZHI, if you want to use any part of this aritcle )