GRETA MERDAN

Often thought of as an archetypally modern artistic technique, the collage has origins in France and was used to describe Picasso’s and Braque’s Cubist innovations at the beginning of the 20th century. With the rise of the influence of digitalization, the technique of collage has strongly influenced photography. Barbara Confino, a writer and visual artist in her text « Collage and the Photographic Imagination » describes the technique with the following: « Mirroring both associative thought and emotional sensibility, it molds itself after the pattern of its maker more faithfully than any other medium save drawing », adding that « the dazzling possibilities of post-production have transformed photography from a primarily perceptual to a more deeply creative medium ». 

(Source:cp.org/perspective/collage-and-the-photographic-imagination, Jul 06, 2016).

For some, the photo collages represent a challenge of what is considered to be a photograph. With the possibility of creating a narrative story by adding, removing, and using images and tools in the post-production process behind the computer, the photo collage technique greatly approaches painting. The work of a  German artist Greta Merdan based in Munich, which we will present in this article, follows the same logic, as something between painting and photography. Therefore, she uses the term « fotoimages » to describe her digital photographs. Recognizable for her color palettes, and composition, Greta Merdan’s photographs tell a story of a modern and post-modern individual and his place in a depersonalised, defragmented world, where the element of nature is a warning and a reminder to preserve ourselves and our humanity.

Ana: If you were given just one visual motive to photograph, as many times as you wanted, what would it be?

G. Merdan: Spontaneously comes in front of my eyes a corridor with closed doors. I tried to capture this sometimes, but I am still discontent not finding yet the right rooms, the light, the right perspective, and the mood. I am still in search of this image. Maybe a reminiscence of my childhood when we lived in a schoolhouse, as my father was a teacher. It was a large flat, but we had to share it with two sisters who had been expatriated from postwar Czechia. These sisters locked their doors every time they left a room, and my mind has unconsciously saved this kind of claustrophobic image. The image of these sisters with this sensation of an inside prison remains in my memory.

Ana: Keeping in mind your engagement in film, as an associate director and assistant editor, could you explain more in detail how film influences your photographic work, and what would be your most memorable experiences from that time?

G. Merdan: There are many admired film directors, especially classic ones, like Antonioni and Melville. I love their strong composed film language, and there are also content commonalities in terms of solitude, alienation, and ruination of our world. Film work was a time when I learned that I didn’t want to stay with movies. Film is teamwork, but I prefer to work for myself. By the way, like Melville, who even had his film studio… My most memorable experiences were while cutting: I remember staring at some pictures, a film stripe from a black-gloved hand, out of a light blue coat sleeve. Recorded by the camera in motion. What fascinated me was to have a materialized transformation in my hands from motion to pictures. You never know why such a self-evident phenomenon was so fascinating to me at this moment. The film experience influenced me to make collages from stringed-together serial shots, which was later another reason to go for digital.

Ana: How much would you say that your work is « in tune » with the human condition of today’s world?

G. Merdan:  This is one aspect that I try not to lose track of while working. In the end, I wonder if there is something more than a nice composition, if I can transport something from my perception of the world. I want to tell you something. Not in a direct manner, viewers should interpret their way. I have not to mention the disorder in our world, the fact, that there will be one time a posthumous era. Photos from present-day Chernobyl, where plants have recaptured the area, strongly impress me. They are my visions of a posthumous world.

Ana: In your biography, you mentioned collaborating with Erdal Merdan, a German dramatist, actor, and stage director. How did this experience influence your approach to photography?

G. Merdan: There had been many influences, of course, after all we had lived together for fourty years. I discovered my desire for staging. What I am doing now is some kind of orchestration too, there are commonalities to staging in theater. I feel like a director working with one actor, discovering the human body as a means of expression. Erdal Merdan was a migrant, as well as some of his friends. So I was impressed and curious to hear about their experiences. This and diversity became one of the issues for my pictures, the more, as I had experienced boundaries the other way in my biography.