Globesession - African Vogue
Online travel and culture magazine, June 2015, text; Martin Hoch, images; Pit Buehler
photo« is the largest exhibition of Swiss photography. Over 130 photographers present their pictures here every year. At the beginning of the year, I visited »photo« because three of the photographers who had already shared their pictures on GlobeSession were presenting their work: Nico Schaerer, Martin Vogt and Oliver Bär. I came across an impressive number of outstanding photographic works of art - including the Africa pictures by Pit Bühler.
Pit Bühler attended the renowned Academy of Art in Leipzig - his photography focuses mainly on people. He has traveled to over 90 countries to portray the faces of the world. He is interested in a wide variety of people, he has photographed ordinary people in remote areas of the world, but also show business celebrities such as Arthur Cohn, Cate Blanchett, Harrison Ford, well-known Swiss personalities such as the publisher Jürg Marquard, Ringler CEO Marc Walder or politicians such as the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - the list is almost endless.
Here we have the pleasure of showing you pictures from the «African Vogue» series and were able to find out more about this fascinating project from Pit Bühler.
GS: You mainly work with people in your photography. What do you see in a face?
Pit Bühler Every face can tell us a story about what was, what could have been or what may be painfully waiting beneath the surface.
GS: What does a face reveal about a person?
Pit Bühlen I wouldn't necessarily say that a face reveals something about a person, but every face at least gives you an idea of a story and a destiny.
GS: Which is the strongest feeling - love. Hate or a completely different one?
Pit Bühler That is difficult to measure - for me, the most exciting emotions are those that cannot be filtered and neutralized by our «upper ego», regardless of whether they are hate, love, hope or fear. However, how strongly an emotion moves a person is not always apparent from their reactions.
GS: You travel a lot - you've visited over ninety countries in the last twenty years. Are the same emotions prevalent everywhere or are there strong regional differences?
Pit Bühler: There are certainly regional differences; they mostly consist of the fact that emotions and feelings are lived and shown differently in different parts of the world, depending on what social or educational conventions dictate. However, the basic instinct is at least similar in all people - only the conscious and unconscious control over it differs depending on the region, culture and origin.
GS: For the photo reportage «Afrlcan Vogue», you visited various ethnic groups in southern Ethiopia. You said: «The members of these tribes are very open and proud and are perfect as models, but they are often impatient and quickly become aggressive". Did this aggression result in difficult situations for you?
Pit Bühlen Posing has been a welcome source of income for many tribes for decades and a lucrative business for earning foreign currency with relatively little effort. The equivalent value of a photo can easily mean the income of several days' hard work in the fields. Many tribal members also see it as a sign of appreciation and recognition if they are chosen as a model. Aggression was often associated with alcohol or envy. That's why I tried to take the portraits early in the day and also to photograph and financially compensate tribal members who were not necessarily exciting subjects for us, in order to avoid envy and jealousy. Due to their temperament, some tribes could only be visited with military protection or in the company of tribal warriors. Nevertheless, we spent most nights in their settlements and thus gained an exciting and intimate insight into their way of life. Unfortunately, there were also times when we had to abort a shoot prematurely and spend the night in guarded military camps for security reasons.
GS: The shootings were preceded by negotiations - a price had to be set for the pictures How did that work?
Pit Bühler The negotiations were sometimes very demanding. First of all, you had to pay a «fee» to be allowed to travel to the tribal area at all and this was only permitted if you also hired a local guide and a tribal warrior for protection and provided them with transportation and food. Each settlement also demanded a «village fee» and sometimes there was no end to the demands. One tribe, for example, demanded that I pay an «extra fee» for my black background ... Only then did they start negotiating with the people they wanted to photograph. They often agreed on a fixed price per click - in other words, regardless of whether the model was moving, keeping her eyes closed or not following the instructions - every click was charged. Negotiations were often tough and very time-consuming. Even if you agreed on a price, the discussions started all over again after every click. You also had to treat all models equally to ensure that there were no arguments between them. The time and energy that had to be spent on such negotiations usually far exceeded the actual time spent taking photos. But with a bit of humor and a lot of patience, there were sometimes quite amusing and exciting anecdotes and results.
GS: Tell us about the best encounter you had during the photo reportage.
Pit Bühler. The most exciting and also most beautiful experience was the encounter with a culture that had been foreign, unknown and fascinating to me until then, the Arbore tribe with their countless traditions and the nightly virgin dances and exorcisms.
GS: You are fascinated by these warrior tribes and describe them as «living works of art«. But now these peoples are facing an overpowering Goliath, the international agribusinesses that are appropriating large parts of the land. A war that they will lose?
Pit Bühler: I would like to take back the term «living works of art» because some people take offense at this description. These people have a very high body aesthetic - jewelry, scarification and body paint are part of their culture and represent their social status - and it makes them such wonderful photo subjects. A controversial dam project, the development of new oil fields and the sale of huge agricultural areas to international corporations by the government are destroying more and more of these people's habitat and it is to be feared that these influencing factors and the development of this area to civilization will lead to these tribes losing their traditions and disappearing forever in the very near future ...
GS: I'm quoting you: «I enjoyed the evening around the campfire with a fine cigar and a glass of whisky until I was finally attacked by a horde of bats and retreated into the tent!» That sounds like an adventure. Do you miss this traveling life when you're at home? How long do you stay in Switzerland?
Pit Bühler: When I'm traveling, I miss home, and when I'm here, I long for the unknown and the unfamiliar ... That will probably always be the case. A year without travel and adventure - that would be really terrible.
GS: Finally: Describe the world to us in a maximum of three sentences.
Pit Bühler: The world is a wonderfully crazy land of adventure.
