Herbert List

Smile Please! Pencil drawing by Nigel A. JAMES

An Exhibition to Behold

Westlicht is playing host to an all time great, and if you enjoy photography, and you are within easy reach of Vienna, then this sensational exhibition is for you!

It is impressions that one takes home from exhibitions, and trying to put them into words of understanding is well nigh impossible; the only thing that I can say about what I had the pleasure of seeing is wow!

Divided into four separate sections, this retrospective covers the entirety of the essential works by List.

His nudes are neither bad reproductions of uncovered flesh for the sake of art, nor are they naked bad taste. They are, instead, a celebration of life at its youthful best in all its vitality!

Applying vitality to still life and abstract composition is not easy; but, somehow, it is the simplicity of List’s composures that are so arresting and magnetic. There is no pretence in the beauty of even the most common of household utensils when set against the right, if not unexpected background. List understood the harmony of objects as well as the nature of people. And there is no better word than magnetic for his portraits!

Capturing someone on film is easy. Taking a very good portrait, however, is one of the most difficult photographic challenges that exists! List certainly had no problem. There must have existed a tremendous empathy between the photographer and his subjects. His portraits all reveal a very strong dimension of positive feeling that’s seldom – even amongst the best. And his real life pictures, or street photography as it is referred to nowadays, was, too, streets ahead of the rest of the pack.

His pictures of every life shows all from the very small to the very great. His photographs are a fascinating historical document of his time. There are the clothes, the backgrounds, and all of the other small but important things that made up the way of life at the time. Without knowing it, everyone in all of his pictures have become part of an extremely valuable contribution to the recording of the picture of man!

I cannot speak too highly of this exhibition. It is on until the middle of April at Westlicht in the seventh district of Vienna. The address is Westbahnstrasse 40. 1070 Wien. http://www.westlicht.com/

Language Assistance

The word behold, as in the title of this piece, means to closely observe or to pay serious attention to.

The word nigh is an old fashioned word and is no longer in (such) common use. It means nearly.

I hope you have enjoyed this very brief review, and if you wish to send me a mail, my address is, njmailboy@gmail.com

Market Forces

Schönbrunn Easter Market - photo by Nigel A. JAMES

Stalls Are Not Only For Kneeling!

Churches are not the only places that are full at Easter. I took this picture at the Schönbrunn Easter Market in Vienna. Easter, for traders is already well under way; and they seem to be doing just fine. Prey it continue!

Sandwich Gabi

A Square Meal - Pencil drawing by Nigel A. JAMES

Sandwiches Are More Than Just Fillings!

Just the other day, I was taking a coffee with an acquaintance of mine, Maria Brieber, a woman of note in the city of Vienna. And, by and by, as the way things normally go, she got around to telling me about a friend of hers, a certain Gabi.

It happened just three or four years ago. Gabi, just after leaving her 50th behind, was looking forward to a soft ride home towards retirement. She was good at her job. She was popular with the customers, and her bosses in the shoe retailing world were happy with her more than just a few years of profitable sales experience. Then came the shock!

The blue letter arrived. Gabi was no longer needed; she had been “reorganized” out of the system. She was redundant! Quicker than a wink of an eye, her life turned from colour to darkness.

But, when it gets dark the morning always comes; and, bit by bit and little by little, the dawn of a new beginning started to rise and to shine. From somewhere within her a certain strength was beginning to stir; and, with the passing of time, it came to her that being fifty was, in terms of modern day life, a half-way stage - not the beginning of the end.

Having made up her mind to act, things, too, started to happen in her favour. Whilst having an Italian meal with an old friend, she discovered that a friend of this friend was in the sandwich business; and further, this sandwich person had a sandwich bar in a local school that she would be giving up in about a year.

The sandwich business? Why not? Gabi moved quickly. Soon she was working at the sandwich bar, earning whilst learning, and, within the year, the sandwich bar had become her own!

Gabi’s life has changed completely. Retirement is no longer an issue. Why should it be? Her own business, because of the way that she is with people, has become extremely successful; and the rewards are the direct results of her own making.

Work is no longer 6 days a work, she no longer has an anonymous boss, and she is no longer restricted to a pay cheque that is not of her making. Life, for Gabi, has taken off, not crashed as maybe it could have done!

Life is like a sandwich! It is as good as its filling.

Language Aid/English - German

Acquaintance – Bekannten
A certain – ein gewisse.
Retirement – Pension.
Reorganized – umstrukturiert.
Redundant – arbeitslos.
Dawn – Morgendämmerung.
To rise – steigen.
To stir – sich bewegen
In her favour – zu ihrer Vorteil
Earning – verdienen

ps. I called the above picture A Square Meal because everything that's in it is round. There is a round bottle, a round cheese roll, two round glasses and two round plates! Can you find them all? A "square meal" is another way of saying a satisfying or substantial meal.

Toys and Drawings

Pirate Ship - pencil drawing by Nigel A. James

Ship Ahoy! This is in fact a pirate ship which belongs to Maxi, my son. The different shadings are a product of my own imagination.

Sonja Hubmann

Sonja Hubmann - photo by Nigel A. JAMES

Dreamy and Timeless!


Sonja Hubmann is a person who has spent her entire life being herself; and being one’s self means the living out of the dreams that are within one; and the thing that’s within Sonja is a very deep sense of the being part of the very positive, and very fun side of the entire human race!

For Sonja, being part of the whole means total involvement; and her life, until now, has comprised of a chain of achievements that have reflected her incredible mastery in the way that she is able to touch the depths of those she encounters.

And Sonja touches people in a very special way. On her journey to where she is now, she has written and produced a musical, she has taken the saddle in a country and western show, she has painted pictures for exhibitions, she has photographed animals, and her dreamy and timeless voice has been shot to the top on a set of super CDs which she wrote, composed and produced!

But this chain of artistic successes would be nothing without the people who make up the links of appreciation. People are very important for Sonja. At the moment she is expanding her horizons by getting to know a lot more people from all over the world in a language exchange programme which is being run by the University of Vienna. And the more people one knows – the more knowledge one has – and knowledge is the seed of tomorrow’s creations!

Sonja’s strength lies in her creativity, and, as all creative people know, horizons disappear as soon as they are reached; and when they are reached, new ones appear. But people with no dreams have no where to go, and only go where they are led!

Language Aid

Involvement – Engagement.
Comprise – besteht aus,-
Achievements- Errungenschaften
Incredible – erstaunlich
To encounter - begegnen

link - Glied

Touch – berühren
Chain – Kette
Appreciation – Schätzungen.
Creation(s) - Schöpfungen .

If you are interested in finding out more about Sonja, she has a very interesting homepage, www.sonni.tv

From A to B? - Or From B to A?

Buffers! Photo by Nigel A. James

Alpha and Omega
Is this the end of the line? Or is it the begining of the line? It is both in one! It is "b" when going from "a" to "b", but, when returning to "a" it has become "a" and the original "a" has become "b". Coming is sometimes going and the other way around as well!