The photograph travels, it has its own internal dynamic that, somehow, intrigues. You follow as it leads to the woman’s flowing long hair. A strong, and powerful shot it signifies freedom, independence and maybe even a spirited semi-recklessness and adventure. Moscow-based street photographer Birka Wiedmaier also, as she shoots, has her own stories popping from her mind like startled hares running across wide open fields.
Copyright © Birka Wiedmaier
“I was waiting for the tube in London,” Birka said of her memory of the photograph. “With the arriving train came a gust of wind that moved her hair. I loved the light (even though it is not natural) illuminating her flying hair and something about this triggered emotions, and I was happy to take the shot. In my head was a story that I made up about her, she was waiting for her boyfriend/husband/lover (meanwhile) lost in her thoughts. It is a habit I have…making up stories about people whom I photograph…for me it is a way of connecting.”
She echoes my own belief in the fusion of the photographer and their subject in the one frame. That idea that what street photographers capture is interconnected with the geographical, sociological, politico-economic realities of the world – even though we might put our own narrative onto a photograph.
Her upbringing sounds, romantically, like something that has been lifted from Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller…but, Birka Wiedmaiester really was born in a little town called Arnstadt (pop: 25,000), Thuringia in the east of Germany. It was here as a teenager she discovered photography. At first she and her best friend used to take photographs of each other, but Wiedmaier was soon recording family gatherings and taking shots while on holidays.
“I tried different genres in the beginning,” She said of her early experiences and of trying to find her niche in photography. “But I always had the feeling my images were missing something. The first images I really liked were the ones with people in them. There was this feeling of life – of capturing a special moment…or just an emotion on a face or a person’s aura. I would call myself an observer, and can stay for hours in a place watching people and I admit I enjoy it.”
Her enthusiasm and inventiveness can be found in her street photography. Always edged with a nice little mystery, there is the feeling of being drawn into Wiedmaier’s images and trying to find a narrative for them. Perhaps even layering another story on top of the one she, herself, has created.
“The streets are packed with stories, told by people in them,” She echoes my thoughts as if she could read my mind. “They bring life to a city, small town or village and give it a face, this is what fascinates me.”
Copyright © Birka Wiedmaier
In one shot of women on a Metro Wiedmaier catches them as an observer would, just as the train has come to a halt, just as the women stare blankly out at the gathering gloom. There is a certain mystique in the shot focused around the central, darkly- dressed woman on the train. The photograph is quite striking, near haunting. Both women in the frame look somewhat condemned, or perhaps, simply weary after another day working.
“I often used the Moscow Metro to get from A to B,“ She explains. “Late in the afternoon when people are on their way home is my favourite time to capture their emotions, nobody pretends anything, they are who they are. Tired, exhausted, sometimes furious. The woman in the middle of my image seemed quite exhausted and tired but didn’t mind me taking her picture.”
Copyright © Birka Wiedmaier
Intrigue and a certain mystique swirls around the work of Birka Wiedmaier. A hooded man, clinging onto his hood, makes his way across a square on what looks like a windy rainy day. But we are left wondering? Is he holding his hood up to protect himself from the wind and driving rain? Or is he trying to avoid detection?
With the backdrop of, what look likes, a city in decline a lady tends washing on an urban rooftop.
Copyright © Birka Wiedmaier
“The lady hanging her laundry out was taken in Havana (Cuba),” She said of the photograph. “Every morning my husband and I spent an hour on the rooftop of our accommodation to watch Havana awakening. I don’t think she noticed me, and if so, I guess she would have waved. Cuban people are very friendly and open to foreigners. What I like about this image is that there is a lightness and something fresh about her. When you look at her surroundings, they are old and run down but she does not seem affected.”
Birka Wiedmaier’s work is a thoughtful, and often, emotional reflection on the social world we live in. A street photographer who captures the imagination and hints at a little mystery in what is drudgery of the day to day for most of us, and I don’t think she quite realises how good she is.
“One thing I know,” She tells me as we reach the end of the interview. “I would like to refine my personal style so my work is easier to recognise as mine.”
I think she already has a strong voice in street photography and has little to worry about.
Birka’s Street Photography Gallery
Visit Birka’s website at Birka Wiedmaier
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