BY SYLVIA SOUFFRIAU
1. About your publication ‘Critical Mass’, what was your personal motivation to do this project?
In the 1980s new social movements emerged in Western societies. People were questioning the economic concepts of growth, the role of woman in society and the arms race. In Germany the use of nuclear power among other environmental issues were fiercely debated. Decades later there is no backing for new nuclear plants and the ones in operation are one by one taken off the grid. With Critical Mass I document a technology which was disputed and the resulting debate changed society over the last decades. From a biographical point of view I am traveling back in time to places I had only heard of when I was a teen but never came close to or had been inside.
2. Where does the name of the title ‘Critical Mass’ comes from?
The title Critical Mass refers to physics, to the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction as well as to sociology and collective political action where it defines the critical number of personnel needed to affect policy and make a change. Critical Mass sums up what my work is about: technology and society.
© Critical Mass Library 2012, 99 books, magazines and records; variable dimensions
3. How would you consider the role of the photographer in this critical or controversial subject?
Critical Mass is a contribution to the debate on energy issues and in general how we want to live. I place the viewer in a distanced and observing position to the subject. I wanted to create a space, where the viewer can come to her or his own conclusions. The work is intended to asking questions rather then giving definite answers.
4. In your book you emphasize 3 positions: that of the police, the protesters view and the point of view of the author. Is it necessary for you that the viewer takes a (critical) position about this critical mass?
Debates in our societies on gender issues, the environment or the economy are not fought along the lines of left and right. They run deep into our communities and all parts of society participate in these discussions.
I wanted my work to reflect this and not only show the disputed technology but also society. This is why in addition to my photography the book shows archive images by two protagonists the state police and a protest photographer from the 1970s and 80s when the plants were constructed.
LASH Abt. 621 Nr. 560
5. How would you as a documentary photographer and teacher distinguish the term documentary photography from photojournalism?
Photojournalism refers to an event which took place at a certain time and place. This could be an image taken at a press conference depicting the meeting of politicians. It documents an event and less the intentions of the photographer.
Documentary photography makes something visible which is overseen. The photographer has an intention, he wants to draw attention to an issue in society or celebrate life. Therefore it is always taken from a subjective point of view.
6. In the book you lead the viewer from the outside to the inside of the heart of the nuclear reactor. Did the formality of the book play an important role for the content of your message?
The layout of the book serves my intention: I want to share with the viewer what I saw, give him or her space for thought. I take the viewer on a journey through these plants and explore the dimensions, devices, the security measures put in place and traces of the people at work.
© Michael Danner, ‘Critical Mass’
7. In your photographs we experience the presence of people trough their absence, we don’t see them in a literal way, although you’ve made portraits of the employees. What was for you the main reason to decide to show only the empty rooms and not the constant human activity? Does it have to do with the main characteristic of the subject namely the actual invisibility of radioactivity?
To me images of spaces have a hard standing next to images of people. If I would had used both, the portraits would get more attention I assume. I wanted the viewer to carefully read the spaces, their layout, designs and functions. The absence of staff to me also refers to the crucial role people play in running the sites: we might trust their technical knowledge or question their role which after all is fallible.
© Michael Danner, ‘Critical Mass’
8. How is the medium photography capable of making visible of what is not visible, in terms of the intangible of nuclear power?
Radioactivity is intangible but the efforts to contain it, are very much visible. An example is the dome shaped building to house the reactor which has cathedral like proportions. There is a lot to see and I hope my photography refers beyond the obvious architecture. It is society I want to draw attention to, how we want to life and how decisions on crucial issues are made.
© Michael Danner, ‘Critical Mass’
9. If we look at the book, we experience a sort of oscillation between opposites f. ex. the constant threat of danger towards the cleanliness of the rooms, human failure and the technological sublime. Was it your motive to play with these opposites? Did you experience yourself some discomfort when you entered the rooms?
Visiting the first plants was a little spooky, indeed. However I lost that eerily feeling and developed a routine which the staff must have appropriated, too.
10. On the cover of the book you refer to nature (picture of the forest), but through the holes in the cover we are confronted with a military strategy behind it… Is it a formally way of saying that the sublime of nature has shifted to a sublime of culture; well-defined the sublime of technology?
The cut through the front cover makes use of an archive as well as an image from my work and refers to the interaction of the present time and the past and the conflict between nuclear power opponents and the authorities.
© Michael Danner, ‘Critical Mass’
11.These days there is more an emphasize on renewable energy, it seems like the topic nuclear power gets far less attention. Do you think it is important that for instance the younger generation knows about the history of nuclear power?
History has something to say and has effects on the present and the future. Germany opted out as a result of several decades of debates. No party would secure a victory in elections with a pro-nuclear-agenda. Looking back, the nuclear opponents were successful in their demands and shaped society for a long time. Little strokes fell big oaks is what we can learn from their long-term objective. The book ends with images of waste disposal mines. To find a lasting solution for the radioactive waste is a question we still have to find an answer to and generations to come have to deal with.
© Michael Danner, ‘Critical Mass’
12.To round up the topic, a medium transgressing question: Did you see the movie ‘Dr Strangelove (1964)’, the black comedy about the nuclear bomb from Stanley Kubrick? If you speak about creating space for the viewer, does it also imply that there is room for humor about these serious topics?
The topic I am negotiating in my work Critical Mass might be serious but anything can be made fun of, I believe. Freedom of speech and expression are among other values what to me our Western societies constitute. Unfortunately after the recent events in Paris and the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this asset is threatened.
13. Which project(s) are you working on at the moment and can you tell us about your plans for the future?
I am in the middle of a new body of work on migration. I love photography and want to further explore my artistic practice as well as to reflect and think of photography when teaching at university.