Series: Dat het was (analogue photography, 2022)
Appartus: Zorki 6 & Voskhod
Film: Ilford (B&W)
Lab: Key-Color
Film: Ilford (B&W)
Lab: Key-Color
The process behind the interdisciplinary project Dat het was has been gradual, unfolding over many years with the involvement of many different hands and eyes. This page showcases the photographs taken during the creation process by Olivier Herter.
While working on the text composition of Dat het was, Herter took pictures in Noorderpark in Amsterdam, while walking his dog. He used two fully mechanical analogue cameras from the 1960s, both from the former Soviet Union: a Voskhod viewfinder with a fractured lens and a Zorki (Leica replica). These layered pictures are the result, as a visual counterpart to text and audio.
All the different pieces of the project (sound, text, voice, visuals) find meaning in their mutual context. Dat het was is experiential, fragmented, layered and non-linear, because the mind is. With the textual repetition ("Het huis is het huis is het huis"), the associative form, the sensory experience of the sonic composition and circular logic, Herter tried to bypass rational clarity. The audience pieces the work together with their own memories and interpretation, resulting in an immersive experience. Understanding and non-understanding take centre stage, and form is content.
To read more about the text, performance and audio story: click here.
Series: Dat het was — Layered, analogue photography (with mechanical errors as form), taken during while writing Dat het was
2022