Erinnerungsspur--Statische Vibration (Memory's Trace--Static Vibration) Possibly 1978 - 1979

This evocative photograph by Dieter Appelt uses black and white to explore a personal language around memory. I think of the darkroom as a space akin to the studio, a place to experiment. In both, you get to see a process unfold. Here, the surface texture of the print gives the image a dreamlike quality, as if we are glimpsing a half-remembered scene. There’s a woman, surrounded by twigs and branches, and wrapped in lights that halo her head. There’s also a strange, plastic-wrapped form to the left, like a discarded effigy, echoing the figure of the woman. Appelt is really playing with light and shadow to create a mood, a feeling of unease and mystery. I think of Francesca Woodman, another artist who used photography to explore themes of identity, the body, and the passage of time. What is photography if not a memory?