Remarks on the occasion of the Exhibition Opening "Pictures from a Vanished Country by Thomas Hoepker", German House, New York, June 6, 2007

It has been almost 18 years since the Berlin Wall fell and in its swirling wake, took down with it an entire state system. In the euphoria of reunification, one was glad to let history be history and little thought was given to coming to terms and remembrance. In recent years, however, interest in the true history of the GDR has been growing stronger again. Starting with films such as “Sonnenallee” und “Goodbye Lenin” up to the bleak yet realistic Oscar-winning film “The Lives of Others,” one is now also visually confronting the history of East Germany.

All of these films are well done and praise is due to the stage props. Nevertheless a fault adheres to the visual medium of film: that it only reproduces what has already happened. It cannot be a true snapshot. To attain true images, photographs taken on site at the time are required. Only they are original. Like a window onto the past, photos afford us insights into already forgotten times, or rather, in our case, a vanished country.

As we regard these illustrations now, memories are inevitably awakened in us. And precisely this is what today’s exhibit aims to do. Thomas Hoepker, the creator of these photos, was the first West German photographer to be accredited in the GDR. Through his works on view here, he grants us unvarnished insights into the “first socialist state on German soil.”

The photographs on view here are not only of great documentary value, but also masterpieces in and of themselves. Photography is a compound word made up from the Greek terms for light and drawing. The draftsperson here is the light, which draws. The artist, however, is the photographer, who must succeed in taming, and in this way capturing, the light. Henri Cartier-Bresson, cofounder of MAGNUM, himself once said about the relationship between painting and photography: “For me, a photo and a drawing are one and the same, neither has primacy over the other… I do not separate one from the other, except with respect to the instrument.” And so it is not so surprising that MAGNUM, whose 60th anniversary we commemorate this year, already established photography as a branch of art of its own in 1988.

Images from MAGNUM went, and go, around the world and influence us to this day. Yet MAGNUM is more than just a commercial institution for photos. It is just as much an artistic association. Apart from the commercial and temporal pressures of our times, at MAGNUM photographers find the time necessary for their craft. Behind many photographs are long periods of observation and stamina. And perhaps it is precisely the time and patience invested by MAGNUM members such as Mr. Hoepker that make their photos appear to us as timeless works of art that capture moments which have actually long since vanished.

I invite you to view at your leisure the works by Mr. Hoepker displayed here in the Consulate General, perhaps to linger over a memory at one or another picture and to continue the conversation with the artist and with us.