Galen Gindes: Photographing Clara Schumann
J Greely
>(From the diaries of my brother, edited by Andrew Gindes)
Well, at least it's better-edited than usual. If you can persuade the
world that it's time for rec.photo.fiction, perhaps it would be
appropriate for you to continue in this vein.
-j
FCHLDRAY
Paris,
How I look foreward to this assignment. My first portrait sitting for pay
and I expect at least ten thalers for it! Today, I saw her, dressed in silk, as
she played before the Royal Court, and in a display of Chopin Etudes and
Mosceles and the Appasionata, she brought them all to their feet.
After the concert, I was shown in-by prearrangement--to the Green Room.
She had taken off her gown and was dressed in a simple black slip. Sloe eyed,
almost with an oriental cast to her face, her dark hair pulled back,
emphasizing the gracefulness of her neck, she gave off an aura of beauty and
sensuality. No photographer could want for a better subject.
"Fraulein Wieck, I am Galen Gindes, to take your photograph."
She affected weariness: "Not another of those daguerreotypes," she
complained, "they are so dreary, so time consuming. I cannot keep still for
such a long time very easily. Frankly, with such primitive photographic
techniques, I prefer the portrait."
"No problema, Fraulein, I have my Minolta 9xi and my 5400si flash."
"Ah, but direct lighting--so unflattering. Cannot we use the lights in
this room?"
"I don't have tungsten corrected film. Neither an 80a filter."
"But, Herr Galen, this is a kerosene lamp. What are you talking about?"
I admit I had never taken a photograph lit by a kerosene lamp but I
remembered the advice from someone--perhaps if I used Royal Gold, I could have
the printer correct the colors--and I would bracket widely.
Yet, the woman before me, seen as a woman, from the subtle curve of her
mouth, to the ironic glint in her eyes, to the gentle 'S' surve of her hips,
intrigued me as no other woman ever had.
"And how are Marie and Elise?" I asked, to get some informality into
the photo session.
She yawned. "Unborn. Curious you would ask."
I remembered a comment Franz Liszt had made to be when I had taken his
portrait.
"Forget that Wieck broad--all show and no go. Make a pass at her,
she'll slap your face silly."
"You played beautifully tonight, Fraulein."
"Danke. Some champaigne, perhaps?"
"I don't drink."
"Alas, Robert does--Bavarian ale--and far too much of it. Do you
play?"
"What?"
"An instrument?"
"The piano, as you do, but not in the way you do."
"You are so immodest.
So, I took my first celebrity portrait. Clara Wieck, in a black slip, lounging
indolently on a chair after a concert, her face flushed and her eyes burning
after the performance.
When I had gone through my 36 exposures, I was confident I had captured her
essence.
"Thank you, Fraulein Wieck, for your time."
"It is of no consequence. Perhaps, some day, I shall come to America."
"No."
"Then, that is a pity for we shall not meet again. I am engaged, do you
know that?"
"Have the banns been published?"
"No, but I have been given a ring by Robert Schumann--the great writer."
"The editor of New Paths."
"Yes."
"And the composer--"
"Then you have heard his Carnival, his Symphonic Etudes. Do you know he
just wrote a love poem for me? He calls it Kreislerianna."
"I could never equal such a man."
"But, as you know, he will die alone. I shant see him nor visit him."
"Why not?"
"It is of no significance," and I realized this was her customary way of
cutting off conversation on any topic she chose to avoid.
More than forty years later, I accompanied the stout old man to the
cemetery. So much had happened in the past years. Robert was dead and Marie had
married--some insignificant count or something. Elise had also married. And
Julie has also married into royalty. I had never taken any liking to Eugenie--a
spoiled brat who later embraced the Nazis.
I watched the rotund man slowly walk to the grave from my seat in the
black carriage. It rained down buckets on him. I could just see him take off
his hat, the rain streaming down his face, his muttering of words I would never
here.He walked back slowly, as if in great pain.
"You will live in history, forever, Herr Brahms," I told him because I
had taken his daguerreotype shortly after Thomas Edison had cut his first
classical hit--with a new and catchy title--"Brahms Lullaby.
But what I wanted to say was different.
"You sacrified the woman you loved to be great."
And he would reply as Joachim that perhaps it is best to be "Lonely but
Free,"
And he would only survive Clara by 11 months, taking his secrets to the
grave
San Francisco,.
Then in 1995, I was walking down a fashionable street in San Francisco
and I saw her again. Surely, no woman walked with such sultry assurance. No
woman defied her own beauty the way she did. No woman ever came so close and
yet held herself so apart.
"Frau Schumann," I called after her.
The woman turned around. "Pardon me?"
"You forget, I photographed you many years ago."
"But, you are wrong, Herr Gindes, I am but a legal secretary."
"I know who you are."
"No, I have never met you."
"I know who you are."
The passersby started paying attention. I was making a scene.
She stepped just a slight bit closer, "I knew you would never be a
photographer. Something else, em? And you were always too young and now you are
too old for me."
I never saw her again.
Galen Gindes
HRfoto
If I had to pick an exciting woman from the past, Clara Schuman certaily would
be one of them. In your travels in past history, did you ever come across Mata
Hari? Now there could be an exciting tale, possibly way beyond just
photographs........
Heinz Richter
HRphotography
PixNutz
Aaaaah, but someone will get on and ask what it has to do with
photography..... Such a limited imagination we seemed to have had the other
day...
Keep on, Andrew Gindes! The world awaits the rest of Galen's adventures in
rapt confusion! He had such a talent for interweaving helpful hints and
misadventures! And you have quite a flare for editing in and out "the good
stuff". Damn the glitches! Full modem ahead!
Ken Harp
> This morning HRfoto wrote:
> >
> >> Galen Gindes: Photographing Clara Schumann
> >
> Keep on, Andrew Gindes! The world awaits the rest of Galen's adventures in
> rapt confusion! He had such a talent for interweaving helpful hints and
> misadventures! And you have quite a flare for editing in and out "the good
> stuff". Damn the glitches! Full modem ahead!
Ditto, they are most enjoyable... and a welcome change of pace
on the newsgroup when my knarled neurons get caught up in the
zoom v.s. prime v.s. zoom v.s. prime discussions. Whew!
Cheers, Ken
Ron Walton
-
J Greely wrote in message ...
>fchl...@aol.com (FCHLDRAY) writes:
>>(From the diaries of my brother, edited by Andrew Gindes)
>
>Well, at least it's better-edited than usual. If you can persuade
the
>world that it's time for rec.photo.fiction, perhaps it would be
>appropriate for you to continue in this vein.
>
>-j
A very good point. I don't understand why this Gindes person
dosn't form his own NG. alt.fan.andrew-gindes
Is the word vein or vain.
Ron Walton
Randy2lor
on this newsgroup.