Different visions through different means - Jeff Wall vs. Erik Hijweege

The main library in Utrecht is a cosy place, where you can read newspapers or flip through books while sipping tea and enjoying the view over the old canals. I found two catalogues of two photographers by chance as somebody left them aside on a bookshelf. A comparison between them would not bring any decent results, as both artists differ from eachother profoundly. But after checking out their works something started clicking...

Erik Hijweege (1963) is based in Holland and is a successful commercial photographer. He has an outstanding portfolio and his work is being comissioned by important clients. Jeff Wall (1946) is a Canadian artist, has proffesional background in art history and is very well known for his art photography.

Erik Hijweege,
Albino mother

Hijweege's Noir (2004) is a collection of photos that were taken on several expeditions to different parts of Africa. The majority of the selection consists of portraits of Africans he made using black background. Black is a leit-motif. Black skin of his people is disappearing into the background, blurring the contours of the bodies. Yes, Africa is the black continent, indeed, especially from the European point of view. White is the opposite of black, and Hijweege encountered albino children along his journeys. The third colour is red which is connected with warriors, rites, and nonetheless blood as our common characteristic.

Jeff Wall, The Storyteller (1986)

Wall's work The Storyteller (1986) depicts Native Canadians sitting by a bridge in a desolate place. They are scattered in two groups with the storyteller sitting alone. We can easily recognize influence of milestone paintings, like Manet's Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) and we can also go a few centuries back to Titian's Le Concert Champêtre (1509). The photographer is known for treating his photographs as paintings. Everything is sketched, well-planned, numerous takes are made and montage techniques are being applied. To go back to our photo - what are the people doing there? Are they homeless? How come they are gathering in such an unwelcoming place? What is the relationship between them? And why is the storyteller sitting alone?

Wall's Storyteller and Hijweege's Noir have something in common: they depict 'them'. Them is in both cases somebody else than 'us' - white caucasians, that is. Depicted peoples' societies are being disrupted or influenced by us, their old ways probably never to be recovered again.

Jeff Wall is putting forward the disruption - his Native Canadians might be trying to follow their traditions exactly on the same location as they have been doing it for centuries. Only the place has changed significantly - now they are sitting on the edge of society. And they are wearing western clothing. The work is aesthetically well-planned. Wall applies principles that were being developed in painting over centuries and criss-crosses them with those of documentary photography. His works are not overtly stylish as he tries to maintain balance between beauty and meaning.

Hijweege's stance is stylistically oriented. Colors are important and he (as a European) sees Africans black first, stories or emotions come second. Hijweege also sees a disruption. The white albino Africans are shining through the pictures as anomalies of their society. The author decided to help them by cooperating with a foundation called Stichting Afrikaanse Albino's, which is based in Holland. Erik Hijweege took a colonial distance from his subjects. He is the observer who sees that something is wrong within a foreign society and decided to help out. To tell us that, his view is concentrated on skin colour - an overtly aesthetic element that probably comes from ad photography.

Jeff Wall is not exploiting the physical appearance of Native Canadians for aesthetical reasons. He tries to make us ask ourselves about the causes for them to gather somewhere on the edge.

A further comparison between both photographers would be futile. I have tried to explain how different approaches of constructing an image can influence on understanding them. There are also different ways of telling something about 'them' in relation to 'us'. Wall's work can be perceived as cold and detached from people's personalities. But he stresses out the relations between themselves and their environment, that involves us as well. And although Hijweege got physically close to his subjects, they do not reveal anything else about themselves than their physical appearance. We can see only 'them' and the cause of their state - which can involve 'us' - is not so important. In the end we are just trying to help them without letting them think for themselves.

Links & Sources

www.galeries.nl/mnexpo.asp?exponr=17933
www.hijweege.com
www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall
www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue4/inthestudio4.htm

• Erik HIJWEEGE, Noir, Amsterdam 2004 (Redomond O'HANLON, Introduction)
• Jeff WALL, Photographs 1978 - 2004, London 2006 (Sheena WAGSTAFF, The Labouring Eye)