F.R.: I got into photography twice. I bought my first camera at the age of eighteen and took it to a three months tour through Australia. I enjoyed taking photos very much but didn't see it as a profession. So I went studying sociology and socio-economics; when I was 24-25 I got another camera, it was digital, which made things easier to experiment with, and around that time I decided that photography might be the path I would like to pursue, without knowing anything about it. I learned a bit, and soon I got invited to shoot for the paper of the Student Union in Austria, that's how I started.

 

F.R.: I have a few different approaches to choosing the next project. It has to be a combination of visuals, content, ideas and my profane living realities. Sometimes it merely depends on whether I have funds or time to shoot it or not. Generally, I have at least ten stories up my sleeve I would love to shoot in the coming years, some in Africa, some in Eastern or Southern Europe, some right out of my front door. But I have to focus on finding outlets for publishing work before producing it, especially for more expensive projects.

 

I think all of my projects are somehow different from each other. What I always keep in mind though is the question: "What is photography, how does it transform its subjects, how does it work for the recipient?" Sometimes these questions are more important like in 'The Lost Land' sometimes they recede a bit, like in 'Transitions'. Another central interest is coming from my sociological background. Naturally, I have a rather analytical way of capturing the way people behave, sometimes it is funny or even theatrical, sometimes tragic - but it is always surrounded by and based on societal structures. In 'Fluchtwege' for example I chose a rather detached view on things - how could I, stemming from a middle-class Austrian background, possibly understand what it is like to flee a destroyed former life. So I predominantly focussed on the mass movement through my home country, knowing that it would change national politics in the midterm - and I combined it with texts that capture the public discourse in Austria during the three months period of Autumn 2015. Going through that book now you can see what went wrong back then - but also what went perfectly right. For the new book 'Grauzone' I chose a somewhat different approach, also because the texts were part of the concept from the beginning.

I am trying to push my personal and professional boundaries, evaluating the ways photographs can be produced, but I still think that a photographer is a person who likes to go out, feels a situation and translates that into pictures - however, these look in the end. And I am still learning.

F.R.: I still love to produce images, work with people, work with ideas, making meaningful books and hopefully beautiful and inspiring exhibitions. But, like in every profession, there are frustrating things in photography as well. For me it is the business side of things which I find exhausting; self-marketing is a bore. What I find somewhat frustrating but fascinating at the same time is the "cliche-ness" of photography. It was interesting to observe the popularisation of the neo-romanticism photography in the early 2000's. Or the internet based work of the early 10s. Or the formalist work since 2015. Like in every (artistic) field you have schools in photography, more or less established ways how to produce images and market them. But the Zeitgeist is powerful in photography. And then there is a number of visual topics that keep reoccurring for decades. I also enjoy playing with the popular tricks and styles in my commercial work, but for my personal work, I try not to get inspired by other photographers work too much. I don’t like to steal from colleagues.

F.R.: I think it is not good or bad. I see that Instagram and its own aesthetic. It's clear, it's happy, people don't usually put heavy images there. People enjoy scrolling the feed with pretty, or voyeuristic or dreamy photos, just like they always enjoyed flipping the pages of a magazine. It kind of bores me, which might be because of my privileged position of a working photographer who experiences a lot.

 

What fascinates me more is the "hashtagization" of the world. For example, if you are looking up #Donetsk on Instagram, you often would find positive imagery of people, showing off their new clothes, new nails, enjoying life or things like that - but no images of the actual hardships of life, and the ongoing conflict a few kilometers away. It is a phenomenon that was already visible on the smartphones of Syrian refugees: they didn’t carry with them images of destruction but their beautiful life before the war started. For amateurs, photography is a way to keep beautiful memories. Mix that with social media’s like culture, and there you go. But that trend will fade in the end, too.

 

I use Instagram for outtakes, or mini-series as well as my commissioned work. I am still experimenting with it - but not focussing on it too much.


© Florian Rainer from the series 'Grauzone', 2017


© Florian Rainer from the series 'Grauzone', 2017

Do you shoot similarities of the communities you visit, or you are looking for the differences between them?
F.R.: I think once you established a personal vision of the world you will always carry that, wherever you go. Photography itself is a homogenizing force anyway - only take the simple fact that you are displaying the outside world onto a 2d image, be it film or sensor based. And then you put it on the internet which flattens things even more. That is merely the medium aspect of photography.

 

F.R.: It tremendously helped to have Jutta Sommerbauer with me, who speaks the language, knows the conflict in the Donbass region well and produces excellent texts. We traveled the whole front line together and had a focus on Donetsk. The initial idea was to create a book where photographs and writings are equally important and interwoven. I had to figure out how to photograph a situation of existential crisis without actually shooting the fights, the deaths. Second, it was important to not come back with the hundredth book which fulfills every visual cliche of Eastern Europe. It was hard to find focus with armed fights and shooting a few hundred meters away. And then it was hard to combine the images with text - without being a photojournalist but an artist translating the situation into his visual vocabulary.


© Florian Rainer from the series 'Grauzone', 2017


© Florian Rainer from the series 'Grauzone', 2017

Could you please tell us about the journalist you have been working with on this project?
F.R.: Jutta Sommerbauer is the Russia correspondent for the Austrian daily DiePresse and a seasoned journalist in the region. I think she is Austria’s best when it comes to all things Russian and Ukrainian. I was honored that she was willing to do this project with me - although we never worked together before. I think she was interested that this book gave her freedom of expression, and the possibility to experiment with language as well - to produce something which she wouldn’t usually.

 

F.R.: World domination of course. But on my way there I will experiment with possibilities of photographic printing - and take the results to another project.

Jean Baudrillard: 'The System of Objects' 
Swetlana Alexijewitsch:' Secondhand Time' 
Rudolf Arnheim: 'Art and Visual Perception'

Rinko Kawauchi: 'Illuminance' 
Manfred Willmann: 'Das Land' 
Klaus Pichler: 'Golden Days'


LINKS
Florian Rainer
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