Wolfgang Sievers (1993)

During my last year at University, I plucked up the courage to get in contact with Wolfgang Sievers and asked if I could take his portrait.  Along with Max Dupain and David Moore, he was one of the group of Australian Photographers I had always greatly admired. His style was often soaring and dramatic.  Able to interpret cold, hard engineering or modernist architecture with a visual style that elevated physical achievements into high art, and all invariably lit with a technical and emotive beauty that arguably has now been lost to time.

Somewhat nervous as I knocked on the door, Wolfgang (Mim as he asked to be called) quickly made me feel at ease as we walked to the beach where I had suggested we we take the shot.  Giving of his time, and full of an energy that put me in the shade on a hot sunny Melbourne afternoon, he insisted on carrying my tripod so I could take shots along the way, and scrambled up the side of a cliff so we could get the perfect background.

Wolfgang shared stories about living in Australia, about growing up and about what it was to be a Photographer. I only took 36 frames, 1 roll of film, and going back through the contact sheet with the benefit of time behind me, I realise that it wasn’t about so much about a final image, but more about our time together. Less about the destination, more about the journey.

So here are the images from that afternoon a quarter of a century ago Mim.  Thank you, and I will forever be grateful for our time together, thankful for your council that helped me on my journey.

Photography

© Bruce Mitchell