From "Erinnerungsspur" (Memory's Trace) 1978

Dieter Appelt made this photographic print, part of his series "Erinnerungsspur," or Memory's Trace. It's a black and white image, a figure lying prone and vulnerable on what looks like a mud bed. I'm thinking about what Appelt was after, imagining how this image came to be, and feeling for the subject too. What does it mean to lay down, in the dirt, in the studio? The figure’s legs are tightly wrapped, almost like a mummy, and the textures are raw and palpable. The grayscale palette really emphasizes the tones and contrasts; you can almost feel the grit and the cool dampness of the earth. The wrapping looks deliberate. Does this restrain the body or protect it? What memories are being traced here? The light suggests the image was made in a studio, but there is also something elemental and earthy about it. The body is a landscape, and the mud flat is the edge of the world. This piece reminds me of the experimental performance art photography being made in Germany around this time. Artists conversing with one another through the medium of the body.