If One Thing Matters

Subtitled A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans, Heiko Kalmbach’s video portrait of the German-born, London-based photographer frustrates because of the way it hovers between the esoteric and the quotidian. Its weeklong run at Manhattan’s Anthology Film Archives could attract the philosophically minded—those interested in theoretical conundrums regarding the nature of representation—along with photography buffs and Tillmans groupies. That’s a narrow subset of potential viewers, even within academic and arthouse circles.

Kalmbach—a filmmaker with a few shorts and some television work to his credit—has chosen a worthy subject for his first feature length documentary. The only photographer to have won Britain’s prestigious Turner Prize, in 2000, Tillmans made his reputation shooting queer club scenes during the 1990s. If One Thing Matters was culled from footage Kalmbach shot over a four-year span (2000-2003) in Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, London and New York. “See Wolfgang at work,” “See Wolfgang play,” “See Wolfgang lounging around his flat, in his studio, in transit from one city to another.” He’s shown greeting well-wishers at the opening of an exhibition, installing shows at the Tate Gallery and Guggenheim, and waking up in bed after a night of partying. There’s relatively little of him actually taking photos, partly because he says he only spends two or three days a month behind a camera. In 2003, the Pet Shop Boys commissioned Tillmans to shoot a video for the band and he found inspiration in the London Underground—in the rodents scurrying amongst trackside rubbish, to be exact.

With his toothy grin and boyish appearance (his hairstyle changes radically during the film—from shaggy to skinheady Mohawk), Tillmans comes off as amiable and thoughtful, occasionally droll and always quick to laugh at himself. His meticulous approach to his art, which Kalmbach presents mostly in the context of a show or situation as opposed to in stand-alone shots, is evident despite his easygoing manner. Though he doesn’t try to conceal his presence at all, Kalmbach himself is unseen and unheard and there’s no voiceover, extraneous commentary or interviews.

The film’s title comes from an unattributed quote scribbled on a scrap of paper and pinned to Tillmans’ office wall: “If one thing matters, everything matters.” This metaphysical declaration could spur a lifetime’s worth of noodling. Fortunately, Tillmans’ musings about his process raise more specific theoretical questions. His bedrock assertion is that art photography can’t be reduced to documentation; it’s not about the moment captured—a flash of inspiration frozen in time. What’s seen through the lens is less important than the environment in which the resulting image is placed. The meaning of a photograph changes depending on that context and is ever-developing, never static. Tillmans considers it his job to put it in a place and context, hence the lion’s share of his time is spent doing so.

Snapping the picture may be the easiest part, but Tillmans as channeled through Kalmbach is bent on trying to disabuse us of the idea that photography is easy or transparent. That point is essential to the aesthetics of photography. The general notion that making art is painstaking and requires hard work seems rather mundane however. It ought to be difficult, right? Kalmbach is in danger of preaching to the choir in his effort to sanctify Tillmans’ daily routine and the minutiae of his process. Appropriately, Kalmbach’s production company is called WhyMakeThings Productions. Answers regarding this film and Tillmans’ work are both obvious and elusive. If One Thing Matters succeeds in making you want to engage with his oeuvre, yet you must be willing to dive into a pool of theory, not knowing where the bottom lies. In that sense, If One Thing Matters is a big “if” that doubles back on itself, serving as a reminder that looking at the world through any kind of camera is always risky and never straightforward.

Distributor: Anthology Film Archives
Director/Producer: Heiko Kalmbach
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated, German and English-language, with subtitles
Running time: 72 min.
Release date: September 18 NY