Thursday, March 20, 2014

World Cup '74 Portrait #5 (Heinz Flohe: West Germany)

 
 
 graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm
 
Today’s subject, randomly chosen from the now 252-strong pool of available player talent, is Heinz Flohe, a player who was selected for inclusion in both the FKS & Panini albums (the original image on which this drawing is based having been chosen from the former) & the official West German squad for the 1974 World Cup, subsequently making three appearance in the tournament itself, for the whole of his country’s 0 – 1 First Round loss to neighbours East Germany, & then as a late substitute in both of the following matches, the Second Round group victories over Yugoslavia, & Sweden. All of the portraits might be regarded as having a certain inherent poignancy, depicting as they do young men as they were 40 (& more, given the obvious vintage even then of some of the original source images) years ago, but some perhaps more so, in that they are, in effect, ghosts of ghosts as in this instance, with Flohe having died in 2013.
 
As is the format for the project, the original sticker image-object was photocopied first in colour, this then copied again, enlarged, in black & white to provide the immediate reference point from which the drawing was processed. Through the copying processes, image quality degrades, to a point far removed from the original photographic print or transparency of the portrait subject that provided the image from which the sticker itself was designed & printed, subjecting the image to numerous layers of removal before being finally ‘re-mediated’ as drawing, a process of, we have named & do so again, ‘de-photography’.


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