Wolfgang Strassl is a German photographer specialising in Documentary Landscapes and Portrait Photography.
Wolfgang contacted me to help him with the edit of his new project “Underground Portraits”, a fantastic work of “faceless portraits” made in the London tube during the course of his many visits to the British capital, which he wanted to publish as a book.
Seeing all the pictures, what stroke me the most was - besides a very personal cut - his ability in keeping a consistent balance between a gentle, objective detachment, and an unmistakable love for humanity/subtle sense of humour - which gave the project a multilayered, caleidoscopic socio-psychological depth.
Aesthetically, Wolfgang rendered this with a consistent, non invasive framing and a punchy postproduction, defying all latest trends in desaturation with confidence and a refreshing “I-beat-my-own-drum” non-chalance.
The editing process was absolutely fun; I had so many great pictures to work with that I had the luxury to just go with my guts and “cherry-pick” the most interesting ones. Wolfgang had opted for a “1 picture per page” layout which would give his images the right space to breath, leaving the left page blank for more impact, so that we could focus more on the rhythm of the sequence rather than colour matching and coupling; nevertheless, since the subjects were very similar, it wasn’t easy deciding what to give more evidence to and how to conceptually develop the sequence.
The criteria that I’ve eventually used are many, just to name a few….balance between direction of the legs, mood, male and female subjects, age, contrast of style, contrast of personality… I also used some of the strongest portraits at the end as I think that this is a work that “grows” on you and I didn’t wanted to “burn” them too soon, if it makes sense.
Besides the photographic work, Wolfgang and I discussed what was the best option for his intro text and the best curators he could contact for such important task; the choice was eventually for curator Zelda Cheatle, who did an amazing job in analysing the project not just from an artistic point of view, but also giving it an important sociological context.
Today, I’m very, very pleased to share the final product here.
The book has been published in October 2019 by Kerber Verlag and is available on Wolfgang’s website, on the publisher’s site and on Amazon. It’s having great reviews and has been just published on the prestigious Photography section of The Guardian / Observer and in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
These are the results that made hard work so worthy; it is not just a personal satisfaction, it is a ray of hope for all photographers, I think. Because when a project is done with love, professionalism and passion, results will come.
Wolfgang has been so kind to share with me his thoughts on our work together:
“I have been very fortunate to be able to work with Raffaela on the picture editing for my book Underground Portraits. Her guidance and advice in the process of selecting and sequencing the images has provided me with interesting new perspectives, which eventually led a much improved and convincing result relative to my initial ideas. Her contribution did however go much beyond the pure editing process. It included her improvements to my introductory text as well as her ideas for the title. Last not least, she has been instrumental in helping me find Zelda Cheatle who has written a wonderful introduction for the book. Although we have not been meeting in person our cooperation via Skype and email exchange has been seamless, efficient and highly effective.”
