tobias m. schiel
It stands. See in the dim void how at last it stands. In the dim light source unknown. Before the downcast eyes. Clenched eyes. Staring eyes. Clenched staring eyes.
That shade. Once lying. Now standing. That a body? Yes. Say that a body. Somehow standing. In the dim void.
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Samuel Beckett: Worstward Ho | This is part four of five. A short introduction can be found in part one.
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Dim light source unknown. Know minimum. Know nothing no. Too much to hope. At most mere minimum. Meremost minimum.
No choice but stand. Somehow up and stand. Somehow stand. That or groan. The groan so long on its way. No. No groan. Simply pain. Simply up. A time when try how. Try see. Try say. How first it lay. Then somehow knelt. Bit by bit. Then on from there. Bit by bit. Till up at last. Not now. Fail better worse now.
Another. Say another. Head sunk on crippled hands. Vertex vertical. Eyes clenched. Seat of all. Germ of all.
No future in this. Alas yes.
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Samuel Beckett: Worstward Ho | This is part three of five. A short introduction can be found in part one.
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First the body. No. First the place. No. First both. Now either. Now the other. Sick of the either try the other. Sick of it back sick of the either. So on. Somehow on. Till sick of both. Throw up and go. Where neither. Till sick of there. Throw up and back. The body again. Where none. The place again. Where none. Try again. Fail again. Better again. Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse again. Till sick for good. Throw up for good. Go for good. Where neither for good. Good and all.
It stands. What? Yes. Say it stands. Had to up in the end and stand. Say bones. No bones but say bones. Say ground. No ground but say ground. So as to say pain. No mind and pain? Say yes that the bones may pain till no choice but stand. Somehow up and stand. Or better worse remains. Say remains of mind where none to permit of pain. Pain of bones till no choice but up and stand. Somehow up. Somehow stand. Remains of mind where none for the sake of pain. Here of bones. Other examples if needs must. Of pain. Relief from. Change of.
All of old. Nothing else ever. But never so failed. Worse failed. With care never worse failed.
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Samuel Beckett: Worstward Ho | This is part two of five. A short introduction can be found in part one.
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On. Say on. Be said on. Somehow on. Till nohow on. Said nohow on.
Say for be said. Missaid. From now say for missaid.
Say a body. Where none. No mind. Where none. That at least. A place. Where none. For the body. To be in. Move in. Out of. Back into. No. No out. No back. Only in. Stay in. On in. Still.
All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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Samuel Beckett: Worstward Ho | It all started with a visit to Hamburger Kunsthalle. They had a small but inspiring exhibition entitled “Fail Better”. A short introduction to the show quoted Beckett. The words “Try again. Fail again. Fail better” have been with me since, and I soon found out that they come from one of his last texts, Worstward Ho.
Enters the philologist: What’s the context of this line? What is Beckett’s text all about? I read the text, or, frankly, the first half of it. It intrigued me the way good poetry does. At a point I paid attention to the pictures it evokes. Could I actually make any such pictures?
Which was when I stopped reading any further. Instead, I went back to reading the first couple of pages again and again, looking for cues that triggered certain images. With them in mind, I set out for a walk in the nearby meadows scattered with apple trees. I took my camera. I made these pictures.
This is part one of five.
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Made pictures of monuments. Visited an airfield. Contemplated a modernist chapel. Displayed photos from the Airlift Memorial, Frankfurt. Played with eggs. Tried a breakfast table. Was haunted by bunkers. Visited ironworks. Found a way to photograph Wiesbaden’s Monopteron. Was fascinated by structures of a Colombier, a trickle of water. Intrigued by the cliffs of Fécamp. | Please klick the photos for larger images.
One solitary tree.
A second perspective on this week’s photo challenge: Objects that are just there, out in the open – provided by a community, for a community…
“In your photos people are not there, but I see them”, wrote Vanni in a comment. I think that’s a good motto for this post – my contribution for the Weekly Photo Challenge.
“I look and sometimes I see,” writes Siri Hustvedt. That could be a good start for a photographic process. When and if I see, I sometimes use my camera to report it. Occasionally the resulting photograph resembles what I saw (it is then a good photo in my eyes). And sometimes it succeeds in making those who look at it see something too: What do you see? I wonder.
Weather: Always a bit unexpected, in spite of the forecasts. And who would have thought the light would be like this?
While it was bright and sunny in Longues-sur-Mer, visibility in Arromanches-les-Bains was poor (as BBC Weather would put it), rendering most of my pictures a harsh, almost rough black and white that reminds me of Capa’s D-Day pictures. So I pick smoother pictures here, asking myself if they might be too pretty for the subject. (Top: Arromanches; bottom: Longues)
Batterie Longues-sur-Mer. People killed here. People died here. A tractor tows a plough over the fields, back and forth; birds sing, gulls scream. I smell the sea.
I know the guns reached far and were not easily destroyed. However, I’d like to imagine that after the first destructive blows the remaining soldiers realised that their chances dwindled. And ran.
People run around and photograph the cannons. I don’t want cannons; they are not appealing, not even visually. I try to make a picture of this space that stifles me.
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[This week’s photo challenge reminded me that today might be an adequate day for posting this.]
Pondering the subject of this week’s photo challenge, I realize that water points towards the concept of infinity in so many ways: On the shore, I often see (or actually do not see) the sea touch the sky. I witness the tides, and with that I suddenly understand water is always going somewhere. Like infinity, I cannot grasp it. The picture shows water running over a sandy beach in a rivulet. Capturing its movement, I found a beast’s eye –
One thing I love about my native language: there is no limit to the length of words. Throw it all together and have fun! Ein Leuchtturmtürstopper would be a lighthouse door stop.
empire of lights 