NIGHT TRAIN – TRACES OF SPACETIME

Since the invention of photography it has been a predominant objective to reduce the dimension of time, i.e. the exposure time, to a minimum. At the beginning of the 19^th century the pioneers of that new medium had to expose their plates for hours or minutes. But only a few decades later new emulsions and cameras allowed photographers to ban a moment of time into an image. Nowadays it is possible to “freeze” time at a shutter speed of a four-thousandth of a second or less with even mid-range amateur cameras.

For a long time I have been working on different ideas to give the fourth dimension more space in photography, thus making time visible in my pictures.

For the NIGHT TRAIN project I used time exposures to photograph city- and landscapes while traveling at night on trains, tramways, ships or even quite unusual means of “public transport”. The lights passing by draw a multitude of seemingly abstract shapes, colours and structures onto the film. Different photographic techniques allow to create images which otherwise would not have been perceptible to the human eye.

In most cases I use an electronically controlled camera of my own design, that allows precise film winding during time exposures. The resulting “light paintings” are large panorama-like slides in the size of a complete roll of medium format film. Exposure times may vary from a few minutes up to two or three hours.