DIETER KIESSLING
16 November – 21 December 2013
Having one’s portrait taken requires two actors: the photographer and the subject. They exist in a relationship of dependency—while one decides the right moment to take the picture, the other can only wait for it. At the same time, the subject can compel the photographer to make a decision by striking various poses. The photographer, for their part, can respond to this interplay with unusual perspectives and framing, even adopting dynamic poses themselves. The artificiality of the pose is further encouraged by the presence of the technical apparatus—camera, tripod, and lighting—standing between subject and portraitist.
Dieter Kiessling overturns this unequal dynamic in his 2013 photo series “people in mirror are closer than they appear” by placing both actors side by side and having them look into a mirror. This minimizes the motion and expressive activity of both. The performative behavior in front of the camera on one side, and the searching, adjusting, and triggering of the camera on the other, give way to a matter-of-fact seriousness. Their mutual attentiveness while standing side by side now defines the relationship. The portraitist, furthermore, becomes part of the image.
What’s more, the traditional duo of portrait photography becomes a triangle. The Düsseldorf media artist chooses the size of the portraits so that a role reversal becomes possible. Depicted at approximately 90% of life-size, the viewer perceives the portrayed person as a real counterpart. One instinctively wonders: How would I appear in the image? Thus, gazes intersect in multiple ways—in the mirror, in the camera, within ourselves. At first, it’s not clear that our gaze is the only one in this arrangement that is not returned. We, the viewers, position ourselves, perhaps even strike a pose, compare our posture with the person opposite: Are we relaxed or tense, particularly alert or composed? The subject’s outward gaze becomes a gaze into our interior, an imagining of the triggering moment and its decisions aimed at creating enduring validity.
Installation Views
