Scetches of sound

Painting and music are sister arts, they say. No twins who could replace each other indiscriminately. But so close that one thinks one recognizes one in the other; that a rhythm of lines and planes, colors and movements on a picture turns into a rhythm of tones, staccato-like or sounds, harmoniously in our head, or that the sweet tones of the music can actually be seen like "onomatopoeia". The family ties between painting and music seem most obvious when they are based on atmospheres, impressions and ideas. It becomes more difficult when the motif of the painting itself is a "musical" one. Then the relationship often decays to the pose, seems deliberate and constructed. Ralf Walraff's music pictures, which are pictures of (jazz) musicians, are different.
Starting from photo series that Walraff makes at concerts, where he, like few other photographers, can approach the protagonists very closely, a kind of scenic collage emerges in a contemplative process, i.e. a condensing, intensifying process. Walraff practically composes a picture from his photographic "concert recording" that has the musician as its theme in his music. ...



Stefan Skowron, Aachen