Gerhard Hintermann
NEGATIV-POSITIV
May 24, 2008 – July 12, 2008
"Negative-Positive" consists of 78 portraits, originating in conversations between Friday May 23, 2008 7pm the models and the photographer about their sexuality. The pictures pick up these dialogues by means of the camera. Talking - not only about sexuality (who, how, and how often with whom?) - but also about responsibility, respect, self-confidence and self-betrayal. The portraits are the result of the hope that the models would offer a liberated, honest gaze after the conversations. Ideally there is a trajectory from the model’s gaze into the camera, conceived and developed by the photographer, to the viewer who looks at the final pictures.
"Negative-Positive" confronts the viewer eye to eye. The work is a visual attempt to take away the stigma of the HI-virus and of the disease known as AIDS. Whether it is successful, depends on the viewer's will to face this confrontation. The encounter with the models' steadfast gaze raises many questions, first of all: "Negative? Positive?" There is no escape into numbers, statistics, and visible certainties. This series of portraits is the documentation of a given situation, a way of giving the status quo a face.
"Negative-Positive" doesn't visualize HIV, but brings it into the open, into the public. It puts the traces of the conversations into public space, without depriving the models of their privacy. Not moralizing but questioning responsibility because a virus doesn't know of moral standards.
Gerhard Hintermann lives and works in Zurich. For his black and white portraits he solely used analogue photography.
"Negative-Positive" confronts the viewer eye to eye. The work is a visual attempt to take away the stigma of the HI-virus and of the disease known as AIDS. Whether it is successful, depends on the viewer's will to face this confrontation. The encounter with the models' steadfast gaze raises many questions, first of all: "Negative? Positive?" There is no escape into numbers, statistics, and visible certainties. This series of portraits is the documentation of a given situation, a way of giving the status quo a face.
"Negative-Positive" doesn't visualize HIV, but brings it into the open, into the public. It puts the traces of the conversations into public space, without depriving the models of their privacy. Not moralizing but questioning responsibility because a virus doesn't know of moral standards.
Gerhard Hintermann lives and works in Zurich. For his black and white portraits he solely used analogue photography.
