Erinnerungsspur--Statische Vibration (Memory's Trace--Static Vibration) 1978

Dieter Appelt’s photograph ‘Memory’s Trace – Static Vibration’ is a silver gelatin print where the world kind of flickers between clarity and obfuscation. The gray scale is rich, almost vibrating – it’s a world of shadows and light where nothing is entirely clear. I see the figure of a man in a white robe, or maybe a sheet, perched in the crook of a tree. It’s as if he’s caught in a moment of transformation, part human, part arboreal. The limbs of the tree intertwine with his figure, a dance between organic and human form. The contrasts are stark: the dark, gnarled branches against the pale, almost ghostly figure. There is a quality of stillness and of motion, a kind of echo of memory. Like a silent film, or perhaps a dream. I'm reminded of other artists working with similar themes, like Joel-Peter Witkin, but Appelt has his own distinct voice. This photograph feels like a fragment, an echo, a trace of something that was and is no more.