RECOMMENDATION: Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller. Photography & Film (the book) / 2013 📷

Authors: Melanie Ohnemus, Andréa Picard, Dietmar Schwärzler
Editor: Dietmar Schwärzler
Publisher: JRP Ringier Kunstverlag, Zurich
Content: 368 pages, incl. 1 DVD
ISBN: 978-3-03764-320-4
Year: 2013

This publication offers a selective retrospective of the work of photographer and filmmaker Friedl Kubelka – known as a filmmaker under the name of Friedl vom Gröller. In addition to a selection of her fashion photographs, the book focuses on portraits of her friends and family, as well as series of images and films.

Kubelka started on her long-term project Year’s Portraits in 1972: she photographed herself on a daily basis over a period of one year – a process that she has repeated every five years since. This conceptually-structured work on the subject of self-portraiture produces a complex picture of a woman’s search for her own identity by alternating exaggerated poses of female self-representation with documents of personal retreat. Through the choice of staging and props, minor adventures and personal experiences are hinted at; the individual photographs seem to link up to form a film running at a rate of one frame per day.

Among the artist’s portrait subjects are Franz West, Walter Pichler and Peter Kubelka, as well as central protagonists of American Independent Cinema such as Jack Smith, Bruce Conner, Hollis Frampton, Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, George and Mike Kuchar, and many more. Most of the images gathered together here are published for the first time in book form.

The book is part of the series of artists’ projects edited by Christoph Keller and is published by Index DVD Edition, Vienna.

 

- https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/publications/friedl-kubelka-vom-groller-photography-film/