Author Description

From the Epilogue of this 178 page book, photographer Michael Ruetz writes: "The idea for 'Cosmos' came about in 1972 in Bohemia near Jincin, the birthplace of Karl Kraus. There was a storm, the wind blew the leaves of a bush upwards, the white underside of the leaves could be seen, and with it the wind. The unseen became visible. Goethe noted down on February 24, 1787, in Sant' Agata: 'The wind moved the olives and brought the silver underside of the leaves to light'. 'Cosmos' is the sum of three decades of work. The pictures of the microcosm were taken mainly in Australia and America, those of the macrocosm in Europe. No matter whether I was travelling or not, I still made the same amount of pictures. When I photographed the town (page 37) at twilight, I resolved that some day I would take the same photo at daytime. Seven years later the diptych was finished. Its context is temporal, not geographic. One has to take time if one doesn't have it; waiting and time are part of the picture