Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke: New Ways of Thinking Film

By photofilms we understand films that essentially consist of photographs. Photographs placed in a cinematic context create a filmic experience. In photofilms, the film medium is dissected into its components. Photofilm authors experiment with the relationship of text, sound and image, reflecting on the composition of the cinematographic. They let us »think« cinema.

If a film image stops, the illusion is shattered that same instant. Or to be more precise: The illusion of the movement is shattered in that moment and irritation arises. In order to clarify this unusual situation, our mind becomes active. As soon as the image stops in the film, it invites us to contemplate and we are pleased at 'seeing more': Interpreting the image as a concept, participating in the author's study of the images, and being inspired by the imaginary extension.

Photofilms demand active, thinking viewers. Photofilm authors reflect, discuss, involve the viewer in the process of perusal. If you have a photograph in front of you and place another one beside it, you automatically begin to search for a connection. There's a proper program that then begins to run in your brain in order to connect up this encounter. We automatically search for meaning, yearn for interpretation.

Inspired by Roland Barthes' »The Third Meaning« it may be said that the future of the filmic is not strictly in movement, but rather in a third meaning, a framework for the unfolding of permutations that make a new theory of the photogram conceivable.