Inge Morath: (1923
Graz - 2002 New York)
Border.Areas - Last Journey
World famous photographer Inge Morath, who died at the end of January
2002, journeyed through the borderland between southern Styria and Slovenia
searching for clues to her own origins and the interaction of history,
daily life and culture in the border area.
Born in Graz in 1923, photographer Inge Morath embarked on a special
journey through the borderland between southern Austria and Slovenia.
Her project for Graz 2003 entitled "Border.Areas" became a
trip through time on a number of different levels - geographical, autobiographical,
historical and cultural - with the multi-faceted photographer herself
as linking element.
(from left) Inge Morath (detail): Boy with an
mushroom, Conductor, train Dravograd - Maribor
The photographer’s last project before her death in January 2002 is
based on an idea by Regina Strassegger and dedicated to many features
of this special border which exists since 1919. For Morath, who in her
varied photographic work (including jobs with international magazines
such as Magnum, Life, Paris Match and Vogue), always tried to capture
human aspects and everyday life rather than spectacular events, it was
also a search for her own roots.
"I have a secret longing for this stretch of land on the border
- let’s do something." This wish uttered by Morath in autumn 1999
during her first encounter with film-maker and journalist Regina Strassegger
in Vienna has now become reality. Strassegger describes the complex
outcome as a "photo-cinematic journey of discovery that follows
seasons and life cycles, back and forth between here and there, rural
and urban, commonplace and special. The results will be featured in
a film (film script and direction: Regina Strassegger), a book (Prestel
Verlag) and an exhibition of some 120 examples of Morath’s photography.
For the globe-trotter Morath, this project was also a trip through
her own past, to the home of her ancestors and a house in the vineyards
that had been a life-long friend.
Her mother’s family, Wiesler-Morath, originated from what used to be
"Lower Styria", now Slovenia, and the area was full of memories
for Morath: "When I was a child and walked for days through the
vineyards and hillsides with my grandfather, and we found shells from
a period thousands of years ago when this land was an ocean, I felt
like I was on a submarine taking a trip around the world."
This, however, is also an area with historical and political implications:
traumatic years during two World Wars, expulsion, fascism, communism
and finally the metamorphoses of the present have all marked the area
and its inhabitants.
The exhibition of Morath’s borderland photography will be opened on
the first anniversary of her death on 30 January 2003 in Graz (Künstlerhaus),
and will then go on an international tour to New York, Budapest, Slovenj
Gradec, Ljubljana and other cities.
The film will be shown on 3sat and ORF TV; German- and English-language
premieres are scheduled in Graz and New York.
Idea and concept: Regina Strassegger
Realisation: Regina Strassegger (book and film); Kurt Kaindl, Brigitte
Blüml (exhibition design)
A project by Graz 2003 - Cultural Capital of Europe, in cooperation
with 3sat
Inge Morath:
Stojan Kerbler & Branko Lenart
Stojan Kerbler,
Inge Morath in Karel Pečko v Slovenj Gradcu, 2001.
Branko Lenart, 1980, iz serije Millerton-Project,
fotografiji: Mike Shea (Grady)
