Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2023 in Leipzig
I was waiting for what feels like an eternity to see Wave-Gotik-Treffen taking place again, four days of nightly nostalgia.
It’s all about getting together; it’s about meeting friends and making new ones. There’s no need to feel disappointed if you couldn’t attend every band you wanted to because that’s the WGT! Going with the flow feels more important than anything else, so it’s exciting to wind up somewhere completely different than you had planned. The most crucial component is to reconnect with all of you. Yes, the music as well. Again, I am grateful to be here with all of you, just like it has always been.
On a side note, I am gaining more and more respect for people who just make something happen. Not just for profit or whatever but did you ever try to pull off a whole concert? Like contracts, dates, connections, light, promotion, judicial stuff, stage, everything! It’s not trivial at all. Every successful project contains some blood and sweat you never hear about. It’s important to appreciate all the people who make these events happen!
On a much smaller scale, even taking these pictures at WGT can be challenging. This year my computer went on strike, my flat is being renovated at the same time, with no water, and I am just trying really hard to ignore the noise in my safe space. Also, I usually miss most of the concerts trying to meet the deadlines. But I love to do this, people have been working for months on their outfits to express themselves and I am here and ready to record all the beauty and creativity! So always assume that there is a bigger picture in everything you see.
Just like last year, I was also part of the group exhibition “WGT at the Gallery” with Florentine Joop, Susan Illingworth, Holger Much & others at the “Kunst liebt Mut”- Gallery. On show: Selected works from “The Twilight Kaleidoscope” – this book is a horror anthology by Christian von Aster. Each of the images transports the sombre tone of the stories in black and white and accentuated blood red.
As usual, you can find a lot of my WGT-pictures online at MDR-Kultur.de/wgt
And just to stick with the tradition, here is my noir selection of some favorites.
