The Humanity in Using Photography for Painting - Gerhard Richter

In 2011 John-Paul Stonard writes about Gerhard Richter, in the Magazine Tate Inc., as he contemplates how the German artist handles his source material, his use of 'snaps' and images cut from illustrated West German Magazines:

Part of October 18, 1977 Series - Gerhard Richter

"Richter holds all of his sources at arm's length. He is never exhorting us to think this way or that."

He cites a series of paintings from 1977, dealing with the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, that used newspaper photographs as source material. Each is a blurred yet a photo real image that removes much of the narrative yet the subject is profound. The exact meaning of these is known to many who understand the political situation of the time and yet there are more who do not know the cultural reference. There exists an element of ambiguity.

Richter's choice of image for these paintings is based upon his reaction to the original article from which he took them, and the political environment of the time. In some respects he is trying to reproduce an atmosphere, rather than necessarily make a statement, which is partly evident through his removal of the lettering that originally punctuated the striking photographs.

Part of October 18, 1977 Series - Gerhard Richter

There is an air of uncertainty, a visual language that is primitive, and we understand on some level what this is and how it could in real life, and does in reflection, make us feel. This is perhaps the message that Richter wants to carry forward and part of his source. His original selection of the images for these paintings is also about him translating his feelings through duplicating the environment at the time and then their interpretation.

Richter also stays close to the original image's photographic make-up for this form of journalistic photograph also carries with it a voyeuristic element that only such photography can achieve and then allow us to literally witness something as if a crime scene. These powerful elements also exist in the work and bind the meanings.

On a deeper level Stonard states that Richter views photographs as 'natural things' and that they open a window onto nature. That nature consists of everything including humans and through photography you can gain direct access to nature and that Richter was a innovator in this area of the contemporary art world. The October 18, 1977 paintings we are witness to this. The results are harsh and visceral and we share in their humanity and nature.

STONARD, J-P, (2011) Inescapable Truths, Tate Etc. Issue 23, Autumn 2011, Tate Media, UK

Gerhard Richter on the Meaning of the Photograph in his Painting

When considering the use of photography as a means of gathering imagery for painting in 1993 Gerhard Richter talks to Hans-Ulrich Obrist and describes how he views the use of photography is becoming a kind of sketch.

 
"In the past, painters went out into the open air and scratched. We take snaps."  

For Richter this association with the word 'snaps' relates the use of the photography to the every day. He adds value to the experience, or sensation captured in the picture because it's important to the person who took it in the first place. When Richter is quoted as calling photographs and their function as being cult objects he comments:
 

Gerhard Richter, “Reisebüro” (1966)

"The legitimate pictures are the photographs – the devotional pictures that people hang up in their homes. We then sometimes use them for art, and that may well be illegitimate." Page 259

He is saying here that the strength of the photograph is more the actual reason for hanging it not necessarily the appropriation for his needs. He is placing importance upon the reason for its existence in the first place.
 
When questioned further about the use of photography in his painting Richter takes a defensive stance and says;

"Many critics thought that my art was a critique of contemporary life: criticising it for being cut off from direct experience. But that was never what I meant."

What did Richter mean by this? His photo-paintings, that span decades, show images of his family and film stills, the surfaces sometimes being blurred, the faces indistinguishable or otherworldly. Yet they are deeply personal the details that are hidden by a gesture or the position of, say, his daughter turning away from the camera seem to imply a very personal experience that the viewer will never truly understand. We are looking into a world that belongs to the artist and are trying to glean as much information that is possible.  We will never know that true sensation that first initiated the

photo from which the painting was constructed.
 
The atmosphere that Richter draws upon are his own sensations, his experiences and on many levels this is why the appropriation of photography when used as a source material for painting relying so heavily upon the artists initial response to this secondary source.

BORCHARDT-HUME, A. (2011) Gerhard Richter: Panorama: A Retrospective; Tate, England

OBRIST, H. (ed) (1995) Gerhard Richter The Daily Practice of Painting Writings 1962-1993; Thames and Hudson, Great Britain