Interview #4: Ulise Meier (2020)
Ulise Meier is a stonemason and sculptor from southern Germany who invites us into her vibrant haptic world through close-up photography. She has been implicated in the emancipation of various artistic communities on Instagram. Here’s our interview with her.
MS／Let’s begin by introducing yourself, who you are and what you’re about.
UM／Who am I? I’m a woman, I’m a stonemason, I’m a sculptor. I love my femininity and I love my profession. It’s so satisfying for me to create something with my hands, to allow my ideas to become visible and tangible. Sculpting, felting or gardening: seeing something emerging under my hands — that’s simply wonderful!
I also enjoy cooking — and eating, of course! To taste and to smell, that’s all very important to me — the haptics of things surrounding me at home and at work; I am often observing the world with my fingertips. I also adore great typography, and am a fan of letter-carving, of drawing lettered designs by hand.
I’m sensual — I simply love to use my senses.
MS／What’s your relation to photography? When did it start and how did it grow on you?
UM／he person who was most “crazy” about photography in my early years was my grandmother. She used to capture every holiday, every family meeting, every important event. As often as possible she’d arrange her fourteen grandchildren on the sofa to take pictures of us.
I remember trying to shoot “postcard motifs” later when I became a teenager using a very simple film camera (can’t remember which type exactly). You were only given few attempts, and it could be a big disappointment if the pictures didn’t come up as expected!
I also had some art lessons in school in which we developed photos in a darkroom, but unfortunately there were so many more interesting things around me at that age, so I never got deeper into this subject.
In the end, photography has always been “trial and error” for me — learning by doing. I was never taught photography and didn’t study it. It’s just a hobby — but a beloved one!
MS／What has photography meant to you in recent years? What place does it take in your life?
UM／I discovered photography as a hobby only a few years ago, and it opened up possibilities to show what catches my attention, what speaks to me and what beauty means to me — often things that are overlooked by many.
As I am no professional in photography, coincidence has become my most important “partner in crime”. I don’t go out purposefully to shoot; it just happens to me. And if it does happen, it is pure joy for me to explore my motif with my (mobile phone) camera — to touch it visually.
Recently I’ve been trying to combine my profession and my hobby, seeking to capture and show the poetry and soul of stones — and the traces left by our tools.
I usually don’t edit my shots much, but just crop them to get what looks essential in my eyes; and then I might do a little editing to emphasize this or that, but always trying to keep it as naturally-looking as possible.
MS／How do you determine which pictures make it to the final cut?
UM／Sometimes I don’t need many shots to achieve the intended result, especially when you have to be quick to catch a certain scene — in those cases it’s relatively easy to select which shot to share. But if I start dissecting an object with my macro-lens, I often end up with a huge amount of images, most of them quite similar — then it becomes difficult to pick the “one and only”, the shot which illustrates best what I felt about my motif at that moment.
MS／Have you previously shared your work elsewhere, and how has your experience on Instagram been so far?
UM／Up until now, I haven’t published any of my images anywhere but on Instagram. I haven’t done any exhibition nor am I a member of any photography organization. But I do greatly value my experience here. Thanks to this platform and all the lovely people here, I’ve got more and more confidence in my own point of view and the way I photograph.
It’s great to get enthusiastic comments, and it’s even greater to read things such as: “your image made me think of…”, “it gave me the feeling of…”, “it inspired me to…” or even “I thought of you while taking this shot”.
I think that’s the true magic of this community I’m part of: to support and inspire each other. My eyes have certainly sharpened since I began posting my images. And in the meantime, I also got to meet and know some really wonderful people here — some of them even personally!
MS／You say you’re not part of any formal organization, but you seem quite active here. What kind of interactions are you having?
UM／Yes, you’re right. Being active on Instagram, watching and commenting on images is also a hobby of mine. I “suffer” from pareidolia, which is to say: I often see things which aren’t there (isn’t that kind of the opposite of abstraction, in a way?) and I often comment my very first thought or impression of a shot (of which I’ve been told could be quite cheeky at times!). My comments are a bit different from the typical “so lovely” type, and occasionally I’ll happen to meet a kindred soul with whom a kind of comment-ping-pong game will start, which can eventually lead into very interesting conversations.
MS／Could you describe your community? What kind of people are in there, and how are you involved?
UM／Since I’m interested in different kinds of pictures, I wouldn’t say I’m part of any specific community. It’s more like various circles of interests which partially overlap. What most of them have in common is a certain melancholy, even morbidity sometimes, and often are about beauty and poetry in unlikely places, often displaying decay. I think the artists behind the shots are often people who simply take their time to look.
Which leads me to A 2nd Look (@a_2nd_look). I started as a mod for Unsung Tiny Heroes (@unsung_tiny_heroes). Until the founder decided do everything on her own and fired all the mods. So I started together with another ex-mod “A 2nd Look” to feature images where we’d see something special, something hidden, something unexpected which asked for a second look to find out. In the meantime, the mods have changed and the enthusiasm isn’t as big as it was at the beginning; we realized how much effort it takes… so it burns on low flame for now.
MS／What is it about this melancholy you’ve mentioned that seems so attractive?
UM／“Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad” — you probably know these words by Victor Hugo. I agree, but wouldn’t go so far either. For me melancholy is the knowledge that everything will come to an end, that nothing lasts forever. And it is at the same time the discovery of beauty through its ephemerality.
And perhaps there’s even more beauty to be found in decay than in completely new and fresh things. A fresh flower is lovely — don’t get me wrong! But to me it gets more interesting as it starts to fade and wither. I often try to capture this wistful beauty, this exact moment that seems to say “things cannot stay this way”. This can be shadows or a certain lighting too, for instance. Melancholy is accepting, and maybe even adoring, the ephemeral.
Ulise Meier is a stonemason and sculptor from southern Germany who invites us into her vibrant haptic world through close-up photography. She has been implicated in the emancipation of various artistic communities on Instagram. Here’s our interview with her.
Interviewed and curated
by M. Solav.
