Donata: Islands of Silence

by Donata Wenders (photographer), Siri Hustvedt, Mark Gisbourne

Although she has spent many years assisting her husband, filmmaker Wim Wenders, Donata Wenders is a celebrated photographer in her own right. Her access to some of the most important creative figures of our day—musicians, artists, actors, and dancers—has given her opportunities to catch her famous subjects in rare moments of unselfconsciousness. Presented in an elegant package that features a linen jacket and gold embossing, these sumptuous black-and-white images of celebrities and ordinary people illustrate moments of exquisite contemplation, which she likens to "islands of silence." Accompanied by essays from novelist Siri Hustvedt and critic Mark Gisbourne, these glimpses of everyday life remind us of the world we all inhabit, regardless of our fame.

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2006

Reviews

[Alex Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been sleeping on this for way too long - picked this up at Prospero’s in KC on a whim like 6 years ago or so and I don’t think I ever opened it until today.

The photos here all could stand on their own, but their thematic consistency is strong and striking. Like Robert Frank, I am left to marvel at how the photographer was able to capture such honest images, but in Wenders’ case it’s much more intimate. The comfort she is able to instill in her subjects is palpable, and, like the two contributing essays in this book both allude to, Wenders shows here a mastery of balancing the revealing power of photography without ever feeling invasive.

These photos specifically speak to me in terms of my own photography and what I most like to shoot and view from others. I tend to like “street” (for lack of a better term) better than portraiture, but I often find myself shooting mostly portraits all the same. The images here remind me of both the limitless nature of what can be accomplished with “simple” (my own mindless prejudices against) portraiture, and how my presence may be better managed to allow for such conditions to reveal themselves when photographing friends and other subjects.

There are a few photos in this book that I love (the final photo in the book of the three people on the stairs is EXACTLY the kind of photo I love), but the one that I think I’ll remember most as emblematic of the rest of the work is the ballerina(?) leaning against a wall, hair sticking up and glancing down, with the blurry yet ominous silhouette of a man in the light of the end of the hallway.

[Birge · Rating 3 out of 5]

wonderful, old-fashioned photos.....