Category Archives: Ruckenfigur – Rear View

Cycling, a great sport, a great way to get around.  Pity that the gear can be so unflattering. Photo: Hove, April 2013

This is closer to a true ruckenfigur than some recent views of the backs of people. Photo: Cuckmere Haven, Seaford, April 2013

These figures are neither in nor of the landscape.  They are detached from it and view it in detachment from on high.  They engage with it both visually and through the mediation of illustrated guides.  Tourists, they become temporarily ‘halted … Continue reading →

A literal interpretation of rückenfigur is ‘back figure’.  The faux ami approach to translation might have lead to ‘a figure carrying a rucksack’.  Sadly not, but the diversity of back packs – rarely fashion items – is an interesting facet … Continue reading →

Is this figure looking for someone, waiting for someone?  The other figures in the scene are themselves in rear view, walking away from her.  Does she envy them their purpose, or is she happy just to enjoy the riverscape (and … Continue reading →

Two questions prompted by this picture.  Is a group incompatible with the idea of the rückenfigur?  Do the full faces destroy the essential concept of the rückenfigur?  Maybe ‘yes’ to both.  So it becomes more a ‘rear view’ picture; and does … Continue reading →

Figures of authority keep watch over the scene in front of them.  We keep watch on them. Or partial watch, we see only the shape of authority, it is not fully revealed and the anonymous black figures takes on an … Continue reading →

Sometimes the rückenfigur is introduced into paintings to establish scale.  Here the figure not only establishes the grand scale of the buildings, but in her own hooded world she emphasises the separateness of the street from the isolated, secured world … Continue reading →

This figure judging shire horses is closer to a rückenfigur than sone other rear view pictures I’ve posted.  He’s not exactly  a ‘halted traveller’ and he’s not contemplating the infinite, but, like a true rückenfigur, he knits together near and … Continue reading →

Like the previous posting, this rear view focuses on dress.  It is a perspective often used in fashion photography, where the garment in important and the face is not.  Is this couple looking onto the future or reflecting on carefree college … Continue reading →

I have just started giving more serious though to the rückenfigur/rear view pictures I’ve been taking periodically in a rather unstructured way.  It has prompted me to look back through old contact sheets for early examples.  This is one I … Continue reading →

Living statue and tourist pose for a camera phone.  Who presents the stranger face? Photo: South Bank, London, October 2012

Silent figures wait for a train.  They are apart, yet together in this shared space.  They embody the isolation and ennui of waiting, of the pause before moving on to new places.  Moving on to new relationships, perhaps. Photo: Ely … Continue reading →

I have been revisiting one of my favourite photo books, Walker Evans at Work, Thames and Hudson, 1983.  This picture recalls to me some of his Coney Island photographs of 1928-29. Photo: Brighton September 2012

Rukenfigur and seascape framed. Photo: Margate, July 2012