Gesammelte Helden

Fotball er en merkelig sak. Ikke alt for spennende som idrett, men fascinerende som fenomen. For noen uker siden sjekket jeg ut utstillingen "Das Spiel" som viser sportfotografiet (dvs knyttet til fotball-VM) opp gjennom tidene. Synd å si det, men særlig mange interessante bilder så jeg ikke.

Et ganske annet trøkk er det i Volker Schranks prosjekt "Gesammelte Helden". Joda, det er en annen sjanger, og det er jo alltid mye å hente i gamle menns ansikter. Men bildet av tidenes VM-helt Gerd "Der Bomber" Müller får unektelig noen ekstra dimensjoner over seg.

Prosjektet er fra 2003 og kom i gang i forbindelse med at det var 30 år siden Tysklands VM-seier på hjemmebane i 1974. Interessen har selvsagt tatt seg opp forut for årets VM.

In this series of portraits, Volker Schrank turns the process of how a hero is constructed in the media into this topic: the creation of a German myth.


Schrank depicts the players of the 1974 World Championship squad not as a team but portrays them as individuals, directing the observer's focus towards the players' eyes as the most expressive part of their faces.

He shows each player in the pose of a footballing hero and turns their personal features into the focal point of the picture. At the same time he reconstructs the typecasting of footballers as he remembers them from the collector's cards of his youth.

The details of the photos remain the same, all the picture are of equal size, the players´ strip is uniform and blurred - just like the monochrome background. Despite his strong visual presence, the idol remains distant. Entranced and taller than life, the squad members of the 1974 (German?) World Championship team stand for the myth, which they embody as footballing heroes in the collective memory beyond their own generation.

Gesammelte-helden.de

volker-schrank.de.