Carrara. 2007
His photographs, as diverse as the groups of work have proven to be, deal with the stories underneath the surface of the pictures. He photographs objects and things that people created and used and left behind as traces, as residue of life lived, i.e. relics. His pictures require as much knowledge as intuition from the viewers so that they recognize what's happened behind the photographically recorded surface. Is it any wonder that Bertram Kober found Carrara, which he first got to know on a trip in 2002, an interesting topic that fascinated him on the spot? Carrara, this Tuscan town set in the triangle between Genua, Padua and Pisa in the Apuan Alps, is known for its marble, a town where marble has been quarried since the time of the Romans, where everything that can be seen today is connected to our occidental culture. Therefore this legendary town with its never ending stories summarizes exactly what speaks to Bertram Kober and what he then continued working on during subsequent trips in 2005, 2006 and finally in 2007. That is to say, he investigated the history and conditions in more detail in situ at the same time he was photographing, true to the maxims according to which photographers should know what they want to record with the camera. ...
There are enough reasons for the transfiguration of what has been seen, such as the reference to the most famous sculptors who came here to get the stones for their masterpieces in the past. Bertram Kober is operating on the level of a sober survey which should not be confused with a lack of emotion. Without question he exhausts the optical precision given with the large format such as the possibilities to differentiate between colors. Consequently, his pictures achieve an extremely high level of factual concretion. The viewers can delve into every detail and make surprising discoveries that all together have something to do with the characteristics of the region. However, more than has been the case in his earlier series, the motifs taken in consistent precision tend more toward abstraction when the surfaces of the pictures dissolve and the viewers lose the real connection and only see surfaces and colors with unmistakable aesthetic appeal. ...
We don't recognize the landscapes and mountains as what they used to be, but instead we just see the condition as it appears after centuries of intensive digging. This can no longer be recognized in situ just its result. That there is no more of the most noble marble, the proverbial, white Carrara Marble, the marmo statuario, is a telling indication. In as much as discord, that is even stronger in the detail views, resonates and that is the weighted emotional component of this series in the augustness of the long shots photographed, for we are looking at the open wounds of nature being oppressed by mankind, a seductively beautiful as it may appear.
Enno Kaufhold
Excerpt from: Das Ende eines Mythos: Carrara In: Bertram Kober Carrara.
Kerber Verlag. 2007. Page 72
I visited the city of Carrara and a few marble quarries for the first time in 2002. I thought that the region was quarreling with its tradition from my first impression. In antiquity, in the Renaissance, in the Baroque era and in modern times: the marble had always remained one of the most consistently valuable raw materials. The status of the statues from Carrara Marble so it seems remains unrivaled to this day. The city of Carrara, however, is lackluster. It doesn't profit from its history. Fake Davids, Venuses, crucifixes and Madonnas poured from marble dust are hawked as mass produced souvenirs. The overflowing display windows and shelves, the theater of white figurines caught my attention. However, I also kept noticing the bizarre world of the quarries in the background. For the Apuan Alps at over 2000 meters create a certain sense of augustness from afar. ... The purest marble that which brings the most profit is hidden high up under the peaks. The removal is done by drilling and sawing, sometimes also by blasting. Wheel loaders, bucket excavators, and heavy trucks take care of the removal and transportation. The marble blocks weighing tonnes rumble down to the flatlands through the city and to the harbor. ... What used to take centuries, is now moved in months. What this means for Carrara's marble quarries is this: in the last 2000 years of mining history less was removed than in the last 30 years. What is left over is a hollowed out cadaver; an empty, ripped up mountain. The largest part of the marble that has been mined is used as a "noble" building material. That means that it is used to make window sills, flooring tiles or paneling for faηades. The artists use only marginal amounts for their production. ... Carrara's marble industry is not just pressured by its own circumstances. A much more serious danger is looming from much further away: from oversees, from Asia. Since over there, e.g. in China, everything is produced much cheaper. There are also marble deposites there, even pure white ones. Every time I visited the Apuan Alps, every time I climbed up to the marble quarries, my thoughts about decelerated mining and another possible source of income for Carrara were strengthened. Something that would leave a bit of the pride of the region of the fantastically beautiful world of the marble mountains, close to the sea, so full of bizarre beauty and majestic history. Why shouldn't tourists sway above the mountains and look down into the marble quarry that Michelangelo ran. Following that they could drink coffee on the terrace on the Campo Cecina and contemplate the mountains from another angle. The city of Carrara itself could have large and small hotels for tourists like many other small towns on the Mediterranean. It seems to me to be high time for changes. So that the myth of Carrara Marble isn't blasted away, sawn up and ground down to sand or sent off to home improvement centers as snow white gravel.
Bertram Kober
Excerpt from: Das Ende eines Mythos: Carrara In: Bertram Kober Carrara.
Kerber Verlag. 2007. Page 74