Ulli Weiss
The photographer Ulli Weiss became an important collaborator of Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal from 1976 until her death in 2014. Her photographs captured and helped shape the perception of Pina Bausch‘s work until today.
In addition to photographing most performances and many rehearsals, Ulli Weiss collaborated on almost all publications of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch such as booklets, posters and festival catalogues. She also worked on her own publications and photo exhibitions.
The Pina Bausch Foundation is grateful and proud to be home for the rich Lifetime-Work of Ulli Weiss. Her collection comprehends around 150.000 objects including photos, prints, negatives about the Tanztheater Wuppertal and other projects.
Information
| April 13, 1943 | born in Bonn (Germany) |
| 1968 | Study trip to Greece and Turkey |
| 1969 to 1970 | Assistant to Prof. Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School in Essen |
| 1971 to 1976 | studies photography and photojournalism with Prof. Otto Steinert and Erich vom Endt at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen (Germany) |
| 1976 to 2014 | photographer for the Pina Bausch Dance Theatre in Wuppertal |
| 2014 | dies in Wuppertal at the age of 71 years |
Biography
Ulli Weiss,
born in April 1943 in Bonn, worked from 1961 to 1969 for Lufthansa in Bonn and Munich before becoming assistant to Professor Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School for Design, Essen, in 1969/70. In autumn 1971 she began a photography and photojournalism degree under Steinert which she completed in 1976 with a dissertation on free theatre ensembles in Europe. She first met Pina Bausch and made friends with her when still a student. After her photography course she worked as a freelance photographer and also completed a degree in theatre studies and German literature.
An unpretentious eye
She first photographed pieces by the Tanztheater Wuppertal in 1976, a role she continued up until her death. She was Pina Bausch’s favourite photographer and, in the early years especially, was responsible for the company’s image in the media. She remained modest, however, when asked about her photographs; she saw herself more as a theatre- than a dance-photographer. But perhaps for precisely this reason she had the right approach to Pina Bausch’s work from the start: both restrained and precise. She knew how to capture both the aesthetic of dance theatre as well as it’s emotion dimension, and this in movement too. Her work was never dominated by the construction of her own perspectives; instead she sought to connect with the pieces from within and render them palpable. Her eye was unpretentious and yet forceful. Ulli Weiss never placed her own artistic vision in the foreground, always the work. This could be seen right from her earliest publications such as Setz dich hin und lächle (‘sit down and smile’, 1979, with texts by Ille Chamier) or the large-format, illustrated volume Applausfotos (‘applause photos’, 1984, with a text by Raimund Hoghe).
Intimate observations
In her intimate observations of the end of performances, when the choreographer and ensemble appear in front of their audience, it is especially clear what revolutionary changes have taken place here, what unusual intimacy and directness this work is seeking, what new authenticity is being generated and what fresh humanity striven for here. In the faces and from the bodies we can sense both the battles just fought and the exhaustion as well as the feeling of release and cautious joy at having arrived. The dancers have overexerted themselves, exposed something of themselves, but also played a role. Ulli Weiss makes these balancing acts visible, without her eye becoming intrusive.
Pina Bausch rated her work and soon incorporated her into her team of closest colleagues. Up until her death Ulli Weiss was involved in almost every Tanztheater Wuppertal publication: festival leaflets, programmes and books. Alongside this she continued to publish her own books, together with Raimund Hoghe, Anne Linsel and Peter Pabst amongst others, and held solo exhibitions in locations including Milan (Isadora Duncan, Pina Bausch. Danza dell’anima) and Frascati (Pina Bausch, la danza dell’anima) and frequently in Wuppertal. Her admiration for Pina Bausch’s work remained consistent and unshakable. In 2010 she was awarded the Kulturpreis der Enno und Christa Springmann Stiftung (‘arts prize of the Enno and Christa Springmann Foundation’).
Ulli Weiss died in early July 2014 at the age of 71 in Wuppertal.
Text by Norbert Servos
Translated by Steph Morris
