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American
Portraits –
photographs by Reiner Leist
An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Person to turn to. Dr. Vorsteher
From July 14 to October 13, 2004
in the exhibition hall of the the I.M. Pei building,
2nd floor |
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Over a period of seven years, since 1994, Leist traveled
across the USA trying to get in touch in that time with
different groups of inhabitants to question them about
the subject “America”. He talked with descendants
of the original inhabitants of the country, with people
living for generations in the USA and with immigrants
who before spent their childhood in another country.
His expectations as a European formed by many clichés
about “the country of the unlimited possibilities”,
lasting from the Statue of Liberty and cowboys, over
baseball to Hollywood, does Leist confront systematically
with the reality in different biographies. Almost 100
people between Rochester and Key West, between Seattle
and Los Angeles did the photographer meet and interview,
34 of them are presented in our exhibition. The spectrum
of the related lives and destinies Leist recorded, is
developing an America as seen by its people. Thereby,
Leist’s photos are becoming the medium in order
to ascertain and research a country’s authenticity.
Reiner Leist asked his interlocutors for a childhood
photo opposing it to a portrait taken by himself. In
brief, often very opened statements, the portrayed are
talking about the expectations, wishes and hopes they
were having at the time the photograph was taken and
the experiences they made in their lives as the time
went on. The photograph pairs and the text fragments
are equivalent to each other connecting it as a whole.
In the presented portraits a chapter of history is revealed
the viewer. In the interview with Susanne Baumann, Leist
describes his project American Portraits as
“the work on a kind of fragmentary map, a “new
world”, laid out in geographical breadth and biographical
depth”. Through the accounts and portraits of
Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany, a part of German-American
history moves into focus. Some of the illustrated people
themselves made world history: Little Heinz from Fürth
couldn’t anticipate at the time the first photograph
was taken, in 1931, that some day he would receive as
Henry Kissinger, US-American Secretary of State, the
Nobel Peace Prize…
The long-term-project of the photographer Reiner Leist
was published by Prestel Edition, Munich:
Reiner Leist. American
Portraits with essays by Vicki Goldberg, Claus Leggewie,
Christoph Menke and an interview by Susanne Baumann
with Reiner Leist, 176 pp.
Price: 29,95 €
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