OSB – execution

As I was preparing my first trip to Angola in autumn 2001 I wanted
to take only black and white portraits for the project. Any other photographic work in that unfamiliar and presumably dangerous country, which was also at war at the time, seemed too risky to me. Fortunately, things turned out differently. My fascination with Luena,
a city of approx. 130,000 inhabitants in eastern Angola, half of whose population were refugees, and my interest in the way people live/survive there were too great for me to be able to remain passive. Just in case, I had packed about 100 sheets of colour negative film
in Germany. This proved to be a very lucky decision because it meant that I could wander around and capture what was for me an unbelievably alien picture of everyday life.

Interview with Rebecca Mujinga in Luena, Angola


 Taking photographs with a large format camera in comparatively inaccessible countries and at least subjectively dangerous situations is no easy matter. Instead of compact, light-weight equipment which can, if necessary, be kept in a photography vest, the lumbering body, heavy lenses, film cassettes and film changing bag, exposure meter, Polaroid magazine and naturally a sturdy tripod all have to be taken along. It is not possible to take photos inconspicuously or covertly, and onlookers occasionally become suspicious of the work one is doing.



 


 

 I generally used a medium focal length, at first a "simple" Symmar 5.6/150 mm from the 60s, compact, sharp and indestructible, then later a Super Symmar XL Aspheric 5.6/150 mm, which in addition to excellent sharpness has a very large image circle and therefore considerable shifting reserves. The longer focal length Tele-Arton 4.5/270 mm portrait lens was also ideally suited due to its high-resolution characteristic.
 

I already tried to imagine the pictures I was taking in a very large format while I was photographing. For the exhibitions, some prints were made of the colour photographs in formats up to 140x180 cm. This means that the pictures can already be recognised from a greater distance. As you approach the pictures, however, they do not become unsharp or grainy, but further details are revealed which contribute to an understanding of the image. With some photos the observer can still discover new details at a distance of a few centimetres such as the structures of leaves and textiles or markings made by minesweepers to demarcate a safe area.

Much of what I saw could not be photographed with the large format camera. In Angola I also realised that it would not be possible for me alone to document everything that was important to me during my short stay there. I therefore invited my friend and former fellow student Andreas Zierhut to accompany me on future trips. His photographs became an essential and extensive part of the project. They were not only printed in the book, One Step Beyond, but also published in numerous magazines.


To mark an exhibition held in Kabul in summer 2007 and further return trips to the countries concerned, a brochure was published which contains only portraits of the mine survivors. With this brochure and other pictures which show the stages and developments that the project has gone through in the course of time, how it has been received and what has happened to it, I want to travel back to the people who I talked to many years ago. I hope I can show them not only that their personal contribution is of relevance, but also where and in what form.




Book:
Einsele, Lukas,
ONE STEP BEYOND. The Mine Revisited,
Ostfildern-Ruit:Hatje Cantz 2005, ISBN 3-7757-1604-1,
Award: German Photo Book Prize 2006/2007.
Publisher www.hatjecantz.com, Author www.one-step-beyond.de
 

Companion and photographer:
Andreas Zierhut

"Making of" photos:
Christovao José Mukuyu (Angola),
Andreas Zierhut (Afghanistan, Bosnien-Herzegowina und Kambodscha)
Lukas Einsele

 

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