Jim Rakete - State of Things: 100 Portraits for the German Film Museum

For the first special exhibition "Stand der Dinge" at the newly designed Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, the great portrait photographer Jim Rakete has gathered everything of distinction in German film in front of his lens, creating one hundred wonderful portraits that are an extremely worthwhile testimony to the multifaceted talents of German filmmakers in front of and behind the camera. The wonderful catalogue accompanying the exhibition, published by Schirmer/Mosel, is introduced by two readable essays by FAZ editor Freddy Langer and director Dominik Graf, both of whom attempt to put the photographer's talent and the significance of Rakete and his work into appropriate words. The two texts are then followed by the very one hundred portraits that can also be seen in the exhibition. It is true that their effect in the beautifully designed catalogue is not quite as intense as that of the large-format prints in the Film Museum. But even in the smaller version, the pictures are more than worth seeing. Unlike his project "1/8 sec", which was also exhibited at the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt, Rakete decided for "Stand der Dinge" to photograph the personalities in front of the camera in color (and digitally). Over a period of two years, celebrities such as Bernd Eichinger, who died at the beginning of 2011, Nora Tschirner, Michael "Bully" Herbig, Thomas Kretschmann, Sebastian Koch, Roland Emmerich, Til Schweiger, Moritz Bleibtreu, Oscar winner Christoph Waltz and Götz George stood in front of Rakete's lens. The collaboration between photographer and artist has resulted in some truly fabulous portraits, to which a special detail has been added. For each of the portrayed was photographed with a prop or object that has a very special meaning for his or her career. For example, Götz George wears his legendary "Schimanski" jacket, Christoph Waltz holds his wristwatch from "Inglourious Basterds" into the camera, Nora Tschirner has her picture taken with a "Keinohrhasen", Caroline Link proudly shows off her Oscar for "Nowhere in Africa", Michael "Bully" Herbig sits on that folding chair the Indians dug up in "The Shoe of Manitu" and Jürgen Vogel poses with the baseball bat from the film "Gravity". For film buffs, it is exciting to find out what the significance of the items seen in the pictures are. Why, for example, did actress Tina Engel have herself photographed with a potato, director Dani Levy with sugar cubes or Axel Prahl eating currywurst? It is to the credit of the makers of the catalogue that they did not add the relevant information directly to the pictures, but only in the appendix. Because so the portraits have not only a high show, but also a great entertainment value. It is also noteworthy that the portrayed do not come excessively made up and therefore seem rather natural and not at all glamorous. Moreover, they were clearly not working for, but with, Rakete. So the pictures succeed in telling stories only because of the faces and the small props, which makes looking at them a real pleasure. "Stand der Dinge" shows not only the talent of Jim Rakete, but also that of German film, which at least sometimes is much better than its reputation. While these portraits are again typical Rakete pictures, they are also something new, exciting and surprising. And even if there are certainly actors or filmmakers among the 100 portrayed that you don't particularly like personally, the photos are absolutely worth seeing in their entirety. A beautiful book that can be warmly recommended not only to film lovers. 208 pages, 101 color plates For all images: copyright 2011 Jim Rakete / courtesy Schirmer/Mosel

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp