Untitled 1980

Editor: This is an untitled photograph by Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, taken in 1980. The silvery tones and the flat, watery foreground give it a strangely peaceful yet desolate quality. What strikes you about this work? Curator: I see a landscape almost stripped bare, a stage for primal existence. The animals along the ridge are starkly rendered, archetypal forms against a pale backdrop. They become potent symbols— survival, perhaps, and the enduring link between humanity, animals and place. Editor: It feels very minimal, almost abstract, despite clearly depicting a real place. Is there a reason to depict places stripped of civilization? Curator: The apparent simplicity is deceptive. Note the reflections in the water, how they double and distort the 'real' world above. Schulz-Dornburg presents not just a location, but a meditation on perception and reality. Do the stark, repeated lines remind you of something? Perhaps boundaries? Editor: Boundaries, yes! Like edges of settlement. It makes me wonder where it was taken and what the circumstances of the inhabitants may be. Curator: Precisely! The artist frequently photographed regions on the margins – both geographically and politically. She recorded those whose existence is etched in the land, preserving a visual memory of those people and places which may easily be forgotten or overlooked. Editor: So it’s about reminding us of shared cultural memory. Thank you – that really deepens my understanding of what I am looking at. Curator: My pleasure. Looking closely at the arrangement of these visual symbols enables us to remember something profound about what endures across place and time.