Manfred Willmann, 1985
From the Introduction to his book of photographs, Das Land

“At all times, there is a limit to that which can be said. To reach this limit you have to be dedicated. To have the pain and the joy of the world before your eyes and in your heart in order to express them. To develop feelings for the objects around you and to communicate them with precision and control. I have yet to lose the control; move beyond the images already accepted. To be ahead of the feeling of the times. To show the world in even greater beauty or ugliness, perhaps. To speak of coldness and love; of killing and of being killed, to look at everything. Above all, not to tell "boring stories of glory days."

My life is that of an observer of the surface of the impermanent.

As long as there is something to see on the surface, that is enough for me. The blue of the sky, dirty slush in winter, tears on a cheek. To want to say something in my way. The sky, winter and tears are examples of having to say something: something it's worth finding a shape for, worth thinking about what is to be represented and learning something from the result.”