The Carrara series of Leipzig-based photographer Bertram Kober

Fascinating marble - Interview with photographer Bertram Kober

Bertram Kober’s studio is located in the brick idyll of the former cotton mill in Leipzig, used by galleries and artists today. The photographer never left his native Leipzig for long, here he has studied at the university. Still, his work leads him to Italy regularly. Or more specifically, to the famous marble quarries of Carrara. Mona Horncastle went to see the photographer in Leipzig.

Leipzig Plagwitz – here, in the western part of town, the “Neue Leipziger Schule” was founded after Europe's formerly largest cotton mill was forced to stop production. It is thanks to a lucky coincidence that the red brick buildings can be used by artists, galleries and as a home for some families: The giant roofs of the complex have always been green, which made the bomber pilots in World War II confuse them with meadows. Had the giant industrial area been spotted, it would certainly have been bombed.

I climb an iron staircase to the highest floor in house 20C. A sign saying “Stuckbau” (“Stucco building”) and a couple of stucco elements show me the way to Bertram Kober's studio. Not long ago stucco plasterers learned working with gypsum in these rooms. Now the painter Hans Aichinger, photographer Susanne Wagner and the photographer Bertram Kober share the space.

Bertram Kober, born 1961, welcomes me with the friendly serenity of a passionate photographer. He radiates the calmness that is necessary to circle a subject for hours, days or even years with a camera – until the individual images are shot and become a series telling a story.

He prefers to let his photographs speak today as well. He continually takes new works out of a shelf stuffed with boxes, cardboard rolls and folders and presents his graduation works of Paul Möbius' houses, the Sacri Monti series, his images of raised hides and – again and again – the images of Carrara. The photos from the time-honoured Italian marble quarry brought me here. It is time to ask some questions.

Bertram Kober in his studio in Leipzig

Bertram Kober

It is natural for sculptors to go to the marble quarries of Carrara. What made you as a photographer climb the 2000 metre mountains?

I came to Carrara for the first time in 2002, when I visited friends. I knew all the stories of sculptors and their statues made from Carrara marble, of course. My first impression was that the region struggled with its tradition. In Carrara there are rows and rows of souvenir shops selling cheap copies. Michelangelo's David, the Venus of Milo, Madonnas and crosses everywhere – mass merchandise that has nothing in common with the most precious of all material – white Carrara marble. I was fascinated by this.

Was this first impression only a starting point? Your series on Carrara consists mainly of images of the quarries, or am I mistaken?

My first photographies have actually never been published. I continued visiting Carrara until 2007 and after I went to the quarries a couple of times they started to fascinate me much more. The place, the copies, the history of the region and the mountains are all connected, yet I felt as though I was able to explore the most in the quarries.

Nr. 60 (Horse) & Nr. 42 (Cathedral) - Photos from Bertram Kober's Carrara series - AVAILABLE IN OUR SHOP

The mountains are an industrial quarry. Is it easy to just go there?

The first couple of times I went with workers I knew from friends. We always went very early in the morning. I simply tried to behave as normally as possible, you never know which parcel you stand upon, it is rather confusing up there. It went well for a while, and when I was finally caught by a superior I already knew all the secret paths. I preferred going on the weekends anyway, when the quarries were deserted. Just the mountain, the quarries and the machines.

For me, the Carrara-images radiate a morbid beauty. The combination of beauty, natural spectacle and quarrying or raw material, which means destruction, makes for a fascinating tension. I like to call it the depth of focus of the gaze. It is possible to interpret it technologically in your images as well. The panorama appears razor-sharp from up close, yet graphically abstract from afar. Would you tell me your secret?

It is hardly a secret, but the effect you are talking about is indeed created by a technological trick. The panorama consists of 26 individual images. By putting them together an optical illusion is created. The forefront and the background are basically on one level, which makes the image seem very different from up close than from further away. You would never be able to see the panorama this way in reality. Yet is seems entirely realistic.

Do you sum up the fascination of the subject in one image?

You could say that. It certainly is the main image of the series.

Panorama - Photo from Bertram Kober's Carrara series - AVAILABLE IN OUR SHOP