Casper Molenaar
Community Member
As a student Eastern European Studies I found an old photobook in a second hand bookstore in Amsterdam. It was from German photographer Kurt Hielscher (1881-1948). In it were 192 stunning photos of 1926 Yugoslavia in copperdeepprint, which looks amazing almost like 3D shining like gold. It was quite expensive and therefore I decided to do something with it. What? That was obvious: try to rephotograph the photos in it. One thing led to another and now I have all Kurt Hielscher’s photobooks of several European countries such as Spain, Germany and Italy and the ambition to make them all. Due to COVID-19 the project came to a standstill. A trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina had to be cancelled in March 2020, but after a while I moved on. Check my progress on: www.inthefootstepsofkurthielscher.com https://www.facebook.com/inthefootstepsofKurtHielscherhttps://www.facebook.com/Yugoslavia1926PresentInthefootstepsofKurtHielscher/ https://www.instagram.com/inthefootstepsofkurthielscher/
Casper Molenaar · commented on a post
12 months ago
Now also on the website: https://www.inthefootstepsofkurthielscher.com/limburg-an-der-lahn/
Casper Molenaar · upvoted 19 items
over 5 years ago
Yeah, we know. Everything is Greek. The Turkish coffee, the Turkish baklava, the yogurt, all of it is Greek. And you are right... Macedonia is a REGION in Greece and in Bulgaria, but where I was born is a STATE! Regards from North Macedonia. Peace.
Very well done. There was a somewhat similar project in Germany. Maybe you're able to read German. Here is a link from a newespaper reporting about the book and the photographer. https://www.hna.de/lokales/schwalmstadt/gilserberg-ort99723/elf-jahre-mit-kamera-durch-deutschland-13439265.html Hielscher was also famous (though he didn't know it) because his book on Spain was used in the 1920s and 30s in California as a model for how Europe looks. Some American landscape designers used it for designing the so called California Riviera close to L.A. where later a lot of German immigrants lived. More on that in an essay by German writer Francis Nenik: Aushäusige der Erinnerung. Exil und Exilanten im Thomas-Mann-Haus in Pacific Palisades, in: Exil, Heft 1/2, 2018, S. 5–23.
Casper Molenaar · commented on 20 posts
over 5 years ago
Thanks Andrew!!
Hi Dan Man, Thank you for your response and compliment!! And sorry for my late reaction. I am familiar with the similar project in Germany. I even met the man who's project it is: Wolfgang henkel; I met him at the beginning of this year and made a post about it: https://www.facebook.com/inthefootstepsofKurtHielscher/posts/503468063613515 I did not know about the second part of your comment though, so I thank you for that!! I will look out for the article or can you send it to me? By the way, I am also in touch with the grandson of Kurt Hielscher and he lives in California. Thanks Dan! Warm greetings, Casper Molenaar https://www.facebook.com/casper.molenaar.1/