Part of my BA looking at photographer Michael Wesley

1. Michael Wesley
I first came across the photographer Michael Wesley in amateur photographer. There was
an article on his work and a special offer on his book. I ordered the book form a company
in Brecon. After a three-month wait, they told me it was out of print. I looked the book up
on the Internet and saw that copies were available from the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. Two weeks later, the book arrived. It had a profound effect on how I viewed
photography.
Photography is the combination of a light tight box, an aperture through which to allow
light into the box and a shutter which controls the amount of time the light is allowed to
reach the film, paper or photosensitive material. Since its invention, photography has been
used to capture images and moments in time. Never in the history of photography had
anyone imagined what German based photographer, Michael Wesley was about to do.
The traditional role of a portrait was to capture or give an impression of the subject. Posed,
staged, natural or impromptu. Within a fraction of a second, the subject would be retained
on a piece of film and the instantaneous moment is resigned to history. Michael Wesley
had other ideas. He first experimented with long-term exposures in 1988. Having been
given a portrait assignment at the Bavarian State School for Photography. He concluded
that the essence of a person could not be captured in a fraction of a second. He admitted to
being an unexceptional portrait photographer and decided to take a lateral view. He
explains,
‘I just turned this system upside down and said, ‘Okay, I cannot collect the best moments,
or cannot find them in my contact sheets, so I’d better collect millions of moments in one
picture.” Reference: Open Shutter, Michael Wesley, Museum of Modern Art, 2004
His response was a reaction to ‘The Decisive Moment’, which was the mantra of the
French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. Wesley began by using pinhole cameras for
his portraits. The exposures lasted up to 20 minutes. During that time, his subjects
composed themselves. In Wesley’s view, this gave a more accurate representation of the
subject. He intuited that the image would not serve to show what his subject looked like,
but what it would be like to be in his or her presence.
For most photographers, the exposure time
is a technical matter. It is generally long
enough to register an image and short
enough to stop motion. Wesley made the
exposure time the essential conceptual
framework for his images. The length of an
action or event would determine the length
of exposure. In 1992, Wesley set up his
cameras on train stations around Europe.
His exposures began when a train left the
station. The exposure lasted as long as it
took for the train to reach Munich, Wesley’s hometown. All we see in the image is a train

2. station, void of people. The structure perfectly still. The tell tale sign that this is a long
exposure is a clock with no hands. There are faint, ghost like figures. They are registration
marks of people that stayed still for long periods of time. Each picture is a document of a
trip through time. The longest exposure during this travel time series lasted for two days.
He was constantly pushing the boundaries and doubling the exposure times.
By 1994, Wesley was measuring his
exposure time in months. Wesley had
attracted the interest of Helmut Friedel.
Friedel was the director of Munich’s
Stadische Galerie in Lenbachhaus. He
agreed for Wesley to set up two cameras.
One in his office and the other in the gallery.
At the end of a yearlong exposure, Wesley
discovered that the cameras had been moved
slightly. Although the images were spoiled,
the exposures were fine.
Wesley came up with a solution to the problem of the moving camera. He reverted to his
skills at building pinhole cameras. He set about constructing custom built large format
cameras. These he would secure to heavy metal tripods that were impossible to move. One
year later, he made his first successful exposure. The camera had been positioned in the
Portikus Gallery, Frankfurt am Main. He had also placed one in the office of the director,
Kasper Konig.
Wesley had come a long way since he constructed his first pinhole camera in 1979. In
1988 Wesley photographed the contact sheets of some 12,000 negatives he had created up
to that point. It symbolised the end of his photographic studies and the beginning of his
movement into art based photography. Wesley’s influences were Eugene Atget, August
Sander, Ed Ruscha and Harold Edgerton. He defines two types of photographer. The first
is primarily concerned with and connected to the physical world. The second is concerned
with and connected to an idea. Wesley identifies with conceptual artists. He believes that
with a conceptual foundation, the nature and significance of the visual results change.
In 1998, Wesley trained his camera
on the Pinakothek der Moderne in
Munich. The exposure lasted four
years. The images are extremely
beautiful. The sun’s passage shows as
arcs of light. The arcs are only
interrupted by bouts of bad weather.
There is a complete absence of
people, cars and animals. All we see
is an urban landscape. Sometimes
this landscape changes. A new
building is erected and Wesley’s
camera records the gradual rise of the

3. building. It is a three-dimensional photograph, which exhibits the increase or decrease of
volume. Wesley admits to being fascinated by sculptors. Many of his friends at art school
were sculptors. Wesley saw the presence of volume and a three dimensional view in the
pictures that his friends were taking of their work. It had a strong influence on his work.
If there is a decisive moment in Wesley’s work, it has to be the long exposures, which
include the World Trade Centre pre September 11th. He is now involved with a long
exposure photograph of the rebuilding on the site of the World Trade Centre. He continues
to extend the exposure times. He is aiming to complete a 50-year exposure. The obstacles
he sees are not of a technical nature. It his own mortality that will ultimately define the
moment when the shutter is closed. If Henry Cartier-Bresson is credited with defining the
decisive moment then Michael Wesley must be credited with defining time itself. His
images have provided a glimpse of a World that was and a World that might be. The ever-
present rising and setting of the sun which marks each day that passes. The long-term
presence of the natural world and the ever-changing man made structures. Man just cannot
stand still long enough for Michael Wesley.
Photographs;
Hamburg 9:07-Munich18:06, 1992, From the Travel Time Series, Michael Wesley
29.7.1996-29.7.1997, Office of Helmut Friedel, Michael Wesley
8.1.1998-16.9.2002, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Michael Wesley
18/10/2002-18/10/2003, Central Park, New York, Michael Wesley