Hans Günter Flieg: last photograph in Chemnitz and first photograph in São Paulo (1939)
Hans Günter Flieg: last photograph in Chemnitz and first photograph in São Paulo (1939)
Die Geschichte dieses Films ist die Geschichte des schwarzen Streifens zwischen den beiden Fotos.
[The story of this film is the story of the black strip between the two photographs. (ed. trans.)]
Hans Günter Flieg in an interview, 2013
The photographer Hans Günter Flieg emigrated to Brazil with his family in 1939. Some time later he discovered a strip of negative film which contained the last photograph he had taken in Chemnitz and the first one in São Paulo right next to one another.
The black strip separating the two photographs thus conceals the story of the journey from Germany to Brazil, thousands of kilometres concentrated into one tiny strip. It speaks of the farewell to familiar surroundings, of the last view from the window of the family home on the Kassberg in Chemnitz, of fellow emigrants the young man met on the train travelling across the Alpine highway or at the port shortly before embarking on his passage, which he can still remember today with photographic accuracy. For Flieg, it marks the beginning of the Second World War, which the family experienced while travelling. And it also refers to their arrival in exile. The first thing the photographer set eyes on when he arrived there was a flower vase, a familiar object that is, however, filled in this case with exotic orchids.
Gallery
