If Adam and Eve had not been expelled from the Garden of Eden in the first place, what would it be like for us, humans and animals, who are also living beings on the blue planet? Photographer Walter Jenkel tries to give a platonic possibility through his perspective.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Jenkel has many years of experience as a fashion photographer. In addition to shows and models, he is also a portrait photographer for singers and celebrities, having filmed films such as science titan Stephen Hawking, stylist film director Woody Allen, electronic dance diva Kylie Minogue... In 2008, he began to document the models he photographed from a different perspective, and The Praise of Laziness took photography into a more personal realm: teenagers were relaxed, collapsed naked in the center of the camera, presenting themselves unreservedly to the viewer and the camera, in light and color, each like Caravaggio's teenager, soft and lazy.
A Poetics of the Ineffable series
Jenkel doesn't stop at the shooting of teenagers, he has more important issues to explore, pushing the boundaries of photography forward. In the new filming project "A Poetics of the Ineffable", the teenagers are placed in a landscape that seems to be quite wild and natural, accompanied by a variety of creatures - snakes, birds, wolves, turtles... Peaceful coexistence, a harmonious faction, like the "Sweet Wild Boy" returning to the Garden of Eden, full of the beautiful scene of prosperity and harmony of all things.
With a certain curiosity and conjecture about the shooting, as well as empathy for Jenkel's worldview, we contacted the photographer himself and began the following questions and conversations.
Hello Jenkel, it's a pleasure to meet you. Can you tell us and the readers of Weekend Pictorial a little bit about yourself?
As a photographer, I don't cover a very broad range. When I started, my job included running private photography classes, shooting model cards for agencies, and backstage photos of international shows. Recently, the Spanish edition of GQ magazine just published a group of my recent photographs, which I have contributed to for the first time. I have also worked with several record labels to produce promotional portraits of musicians and bands at home and abroad.
In 2008, I embarked on some creative private perspectives, in the portfolio "The Praise of Laziness", I conveyed my perspective on the adolescent world, and in my most recent project "A Poetics of the Ineffable", I was a collection of photographic works about my concern and love for nature and animals, about the interactive connection between man and creation. The starting point of this work is that through these photos taken with the model, the reader is informed about many different species, some from the Iberian Peninsula (where the photographer is located), some artificially raised, and some exotic wild species.
You have a very rich work history, how did you start the filming project of A Poetics of the Ineffable by chance?
A Poetics of the Ineffable is a project I've been conceiving for years, but until then, studio shooting, using props, or post-production alone wouldn't have been able to do that type of shooting.
Barcelona, the city you are in now, what is its charm?
I don't like big cities. In order to take pictures, I especially like the sense of wilderness of nature, and the large houses in the wild that have long been abandoned, where wild boars and their cubs live leisurely.
The teenagers you photograph have a kind of "rough" and "wilderness" general beauty, where are they attracting you?
I don't like to change models every time, I prefer to work with the same male model all the time in the same stage. Over time, the two sides developed a sense of trust, and it was easier and faster to enter the private field of creation.
The framing of your photos is very clear - the character is centered on the main body of the picture, how did you get hooked on this beauty?
Since 2008, I've been shooting portraits in a sideways framing style. Personally, I think this is very cinematic, and can better convey and interpret the plot narrative of each set of images.
What was the inspiration for the Teen & Animals series? Are teenagers also part of animals? Did you choose the animal first, or did you choose the teenager first? How to make the two of them more "matched" visually?
"How to live in harmony with animals" has developed new issues in the present, and the challenge of animals and teenagers when taking pictures has also opened up a new and important perspective for my current shooting. This shoot is about the connection between this interaction between humans and animals, to explore and create possibilities between each other. In these "relationships" that have been established, I would like to rethink the return of people and animals to their natural environment, and propose that this "relationship" promotes the ideas and contributions of our culture and society.
Has the teenager had any experience with animals? How to communicate in advance in general, and what is the process of shooting? For example, will there be a beast trainer on the spot? Or are the animals just boys' pets?
That's what I wanted – through the picture, let the viewer ask questions and ask questions to themselves.
Have you ever photographed birds of prey such as falcons, snakes, etc., and there have been accidents on the spot?
This is actually a misunderstanding of the natural world by the current urban civilization, especially for snakes. We have forgotten that the survival of each species is important to the health of the ecosystem, and that the first thing these animals do rather than attack humans is to avoid humans.
You're shooting teenagers, are they transmitting a certain emotion? Or are you transmitting some kind of subjective emotion to you through them?
Both are true. But I don't preset too much in advance before shooting, everything just goes naturally.
How did you get on the path of a photographer? When did you get your first camera? What is the charm of photography?
I had my first camera when I was very young, and photography has always been my passion. Personally, I love to shoot portraits of people, both in color and black and white. What attracts me most about "beauty" itself is its fleeting.
What have you been up to lately? Have you started the next stage of creation?
We are studying snakes. Snakes were associated with religious beliefs and medicine in ancient times, and today, snakes, also known as the snake family, are still an unknown world for many people.
What are the things that make you happy? Have you ever envisioned your future?
Time will precipitate into nostalgia and longing, and happiness and joy will brew from it. I want a more organized and thoughtful world, but we live in chaos, so I never plan for the future.
Written by Flea Zhang
Edit Mark Liu
Images courtesy of respondents