In his work, Tom Weichelt explores a particular logistical process in photography: Almost every photographic image has a journey after the moment it is taken and before it is developed in the darkroom. But what is the status of the latent, as yet undeveloped image, what journey does it make, and what events could influence its colour and expression during this journey?
To condense these questions, Weichelt takes us on a journey to the border river Eipel, which separates the former CSSR from Hungary. In 1989, people crossed this border to reach the West via the then free Hungary. At the same time, the artist specifies that the seven photographs taken there in 2022 may only be developed after a fixed interval of 11 years.
The work thus opens up a variety of questions: What is the relationship between geography, socio-political reality and the latency of the image? How does the moment of latency complicate the testimonial function of analogue photography? And what is the personal significance of latency when life must be preserved in images and images in darkness - a darkness that also serves to swim through border rivers at night? The landscape that can be seen in the only image that has already been developed doesn't answer these questions.
Moritz Frischkorn