On Obituaries / One Image, Two Perspectives
(with Alexandra Wanderer)
The article “Abschied von Girardi” is an obituary written by Ludwig Hirschfeld and published in 1918 in Moderne Welt (issue 1-2, page 11).
Photographic portrait: Dora Kallmus.
While the text is reverential, the portrait is more of a friendly caricature.
Dora Kallmus (Madame d’Ora, b. 1881, Vienna-d. 1963, Frohnleiten/Steiermark): photographer;
opens her first photography studio in 1907 (among others, portraits of Gustav Klimt, Alma Mahler-Werfel, Arthur Schnitzler);
in 1925, opens a studio in Paris (among others, portraits of Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich, Tamara de Lempicka, Pablo Picasso);
in hiding from 1940 to 1945 (South of France);
1956-1957: photo series in the slaughterhouses of Ivry-Les Halles and Rue Brancion, Paris.
Ludwig Hirschfeld (b.1882, Vienna-d. 1945, KZ Auschwitz): Author; journalist; playwright; director, Max und Moritz Theater; editor, Moderne Welt;
he and his family flee to France in 1938.
Alexander Girardi (b.1850, Graz-d. 1918, Vienna): Actor and operetta singer.
In its own way; Palais des Beaux Arts Wien is an obituary to a family as well as a site for divertissement and art.
What will cross a young photographer’s mind as she converses with the man on the picture?
Here, a singing comedian. Later, in exile, she will photograph cadavers in slaughterhouses – their gaunt skins and emaciated symmetries – then place the prints alongside famous people’s portraits she became known for.
Here’s to a singing comedian, his face almost a mask. See the dark makeup under his eyes – rouged, we may think –, the oblique hairline, the solid wrinkles around his mouth. A mime.
The last portrait of a man whose leg was cut off before he died.
He has a good head of hair for his age, I mean, he is what? in his late 60s in that picture? That’s a thick head of hair.
The tie is a Croatian invention. Not exactly how we see it today. Anyways, French royalty saw the Croatian soldiers wearing it and then took it over. Croats set the trend, but the French still credited them in the name “cravate”. I’m sure you can find a podcast about this.
He looks a little grumpy, constipated. But then I was thinking maybe he’s tired, as in it’s his fifth photoshoot of the day, even though it’s probably the fiftieth in his whole lifetime.
Gosh, I just read that he died, this is his obituary, well, now I feel terrible.
There is a good amount of triangles in the image, beginning with the hairline of Girardi, that makes a nearly perfect 90-degree angle, down to the tie, and another hiding behind the vest, and then, of course, the arms forming triangles, because the hands have been placed in the pockets.