Hans Neumann
HANS NEUMANN’S WORK IS DREAMY, PLAINTIVE, WRY, AND CINEMATIC. EMBODYING A CLASSIC AND SOULFUL SPIRIT, HE’S ABLE TO TOUCH ON RECOGNIZABLE TROPES WHILST RETAINING A CONTEMPORANEOUS ZEAL.
Hans’s professional and personal work wears its influences lightly, but nonetheless draws on and builds upon the deadpan humor, insouciance, and relaxed glamour of independent cinematic and artistic figureheads of Eric Rohmer, Maurice Pialat, John Baldessari, and Joseph Beuys; as such it is both earnest and camp, vulnerable and sardonic, and wistfully melancholic whilst still remaining fun.
Hans shot this gallery for TSUKI and was able to answer a few questions about his process and life during lockdown.
HOW DO YOU CREATE AT HOME? HOW HAS THIS BEEN DIFFERENT FROM YOUR REGULAR PROCESS?
At first I was thinking: “What will I do during quarantine?” I was trying to make plans as always. "Finally I will have time to read, watch this movie, hopefully get back to work on some of my mixed-media pieces, etc.”… Then I got very ill with COVID-19. I was sick for 16 days, 6 out of which I had to be hospitalized with oxygen cause my levels were very low. It was a close call. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend (Bridget Fleming) I might not have gone to the hospital—I don’t love doctors let’s say. So I didn’t really get to think much for the first month, it was just survival mode for me.
Slowly, as I started feeling better and was able to walk more normally, I started looking at the light in my place and to photograph my surroundings. Like many of us, I feel the slowing down of the day-to-day was a welcome change in my life. Regularly, I am traveling, running around, meeting friends, going to work, organizing meetings, etc. Being forced to sit down and appreciate “the little things”, as cliché as it may sound, really has made me enjoy this break, and really made me think deeper about the idea of "home”, which is related to my work and connected to the notion of community. Returning to the original question, I haven’t been looking so much outside but inside.
What is my home now? As an immigrant it’s been difficult to adapt to a new country, language, and culture…slowly you start integrating, or really more like camouflaging to try to fit in. Now, faced with a new reality (of how the world is going to function under COVID-19) you tend to come to terms, re-examine, and look inside again to contemplate these notions.
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO WORK IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD OR YOUR STUDIO DURING THIS SITUATION? OR IS IT JUST FROM HOME?
Initially just at home, then during short walks (then longer) and eventually back to the studio. I started my career as a portrait/documentary photographer, and it was only when I started assisting that I got introduced to fashion. It’s been tough not to have subjects to shoot, but my home and short travels have become my subjects.
HAS THIS SITUATION ENCOURAGED OR EVEN DEMANDED YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW?
I have always been very self-sufficient when I create, it took me a long time to start delegating and trusting, so it’s been fun going back to basics. I was able to make a short film, which I shot over two days. As much as I love analog photography the whole short was shot on my iPhone; it just felt adequate for the type of story I was trying to tell, as well as being true to our times. As my first photography teacher Jorge Deustua used to say: “Don’t worry about the medium, if you want to tell a story you will tell it with whatever you have handy.”
HOW ARE YOU STAYING INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED?
I am so thankful to have this time to go back to my movies and books. They are a great source of inspiration, although I feel I have depleted my options on most cinema platforms during lockdown (lol). The one thing that has been challenging is that I usually get most of my ideas while moving, but luckily as the lockdown has eased up I’ve been able to do short walks and runs. On a larger scale, just being alive in these times we are living in—Brexit, Trump, Pandemic, Black Lives Matter—and seeing so many people helping and all these acts of solidarity, they really keep me motivated and inspired to keep creating and to get more involved.
HOW HAS LOCKDOWN-LIFE ALTERED YOUR WORK?
I don’t think it’s been altered, necessarily. Perhaps I’ve just been forced again to look more closely. In most of my personal work I’ve been trying to find my place and myself in the world through the stories and the people I photograph. Right before the pandemic I had decided it was time to go back to Peru, back to my "first home", and re-connect document and photograph. So if anything this lockdown has been a form of preparation to help me think deeper about such ideas.
ARE THERE ANY POSITIVE (OR NEGATIVE) CHANGES YOU CAN SEE COMING OUT OF THIS SITUATION?
I don’t think I can address this question without mentioning the Black Lives Matter movement. I remember back when England voted for Brexit and US voted for Trump—people got mad! People went out again and started marching. Although this is common practice, I feel like this is the first time I have seen it on this proportion, at least since the 60s and 70s. People have started fighting again for their rights and uniting as a society. Hopefully the age of the self and individualism is over, or at least evolving, and I hope we are trying to unite as a real democracy to ask for equality, and for a better world, including a push against climate change. So yes, I only hope for positive changes.
WHO ELSE’S WORK MIGHT YOU WANT TO SEE FEATURED IN TSUKI
My friend Ivan Sikic, another Peruvian like me who recently moved to New York. I think his work touches on a lot of relevant points regarding our current state of affairs. Oli Burslem is a musician but overall super creative person. Errol Rainey, who now I realize I’ve known for 12 years and who’s documentary photography I really admire. Nick Waplington, who I had the pleasure to meet once or twice through Oli actually; I recently heard a podcast he was on and found out about his paintings, I would love to see him featured and hear what’s he been up to during the lockdown. Simone Bodmer-Turner, a ceramist who thanks to my girlfriend I met last year—we’ve since been collaborating. Balthazar Klarwein, we met back in our assisting days, since then we collaborated on some projects, I always admire the freedom and vision in his work. Ugh, I could keep going forever.
HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING / LISTENING / READING ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US?
That’s a tough one. My list is long. Most recently: the film “Man Bites Dog” (French: “C'est arrivé près de chez vous”), Miles Davis’s “’Round Midnight”, and generally, The New York Times.