Wim Wenders
[Artist and filmmaker, b. 1945, Düsseldorf, lives in Berlin.]
I think seeing happens partly through the eyes, but not entirely.
I remember that even my first impression of Italian cinema was pictures by paparazzi because my mom was reading all of these trash magazines with paparazzo pictures.
The digitized picture has broken the relationship between the picture and reality once and for all. We are entering an era when no one will be able to say whether a picture is true or false. They are all becoming beautiful and extraordinary, and with each passing day they belong increasingly to the world of advertising. Their beauty, like their truth, is slipping away from us. Soon they will really end up making us blind.
Photographs put time into such a perspective. They humble us and our selfish memories.
To take pictures (rather: to have the incredible privilege of taking pictures) is “too good to be true.” But just as certainly, it is too true to be good.
In photography, finally, I found a tool where I could really honor... landscapes and keep them center stage and not be overwhelmed by characters and stories.
