| Vienna-based photographer Matthias Herrmann is not known for shyness, at least in front of his own camera. As an openly gay artist willing to present himself nude, in jockstraps, in underwear, or in drag, he has used his own body in books, self-published magazines, and exhibitions spanning the major cities of Europe, North America, and Australia to explore and comment on the state of the contemporary world, its culture, and its politics. His work is witty, amusing, sexy, and provocative. It is also deeply committed to testing the limits of what it means to live in a society where traditional definitions of everything from masculine and feminine to public and private are no longer as stable as they were for earlier generations. In his recent book Hotel_Diary, Herrmann uses a combination of text and images to explore what it means for him to be a gay man living with AIDS. The book does not mince words—or images. It is a pointed reminder that AIDS remains a sexually transmitted disease, no matter what the other modes of transmission are. And the excerpts from Herrmann’s diary it incorporates offer a poignant glimpse into the mind of someone who had his own mortality driven home to him when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive at age 36, even as his flourishing career was taking off in new directions with his election as President of Vienna Secession, the prestigious Austrian arts organization that traces its roots back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and its first President, the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt. The images in the book were shot in hotel rooms in various European and North American cities in 2002 and 2003. The diary excerpts are from the years 2000 and 2003. In the following interview, Herrmann talks about his photography and the effects of AIDS on his life and work. Lester Strong: How would you define your photography? What are its aims? Into what genre does it fall, if any? Matthias Herrmann: Aims…that would be enough for a thesis, I guess. Of course, it is photography of “myself.” But I am using me/my body in the way the American photographer Cindy Sherman uses hers in her work, for social commentary. It’s not self-portraiture. As for genre—body art, maybe? What have been your artistic influences? In Hotel_Diary you mention Robert Mapplethorpe, along with Cindy Sherman. I think nobody working “on the male body” can claim not to be influenced by Mapplethorpe [died of AIDS in 1989]—his work and the aftermath of the culture war it provoked are part of our cultural heritage, no? In a more artistic way, Sherman has really been an influence. Also the German artist Juergen Klauke. David Wojnarowicz [American AIDS activist who died of the disease in 1992] has been a great source for me, although more his writing than his visual work, which I am not so fond of. Who else? The French artist and photographer Pierre Molinier, I guess. Maybe the American photographer Peter Hujar [died of AIDS in 1987]. Some writers. When were you diagnosed as HIV-positive? As having AIDS? Where are you now in terms of AIDS—are your meds working? I was infected on June 10, 1999, and diagnosed in September 1999. As to having AIDS, as you might know, there are at least two different definitions, the American and the European. The American definition involves a positive HIV test result, and at least one opportunistic infection or an absolute CD4 count under 200 (and it does not matter if the CD4 count rises again). The European definition does not include the absolute CD4 count. As my CD4 count was 175 at a certain point, I qualify as having AIDS under the U.S. definition but not the European. My meds are working quite well—no, very well, I guess, as I am not experiencing any side effects. My CD4 count is 380 right now—not so very well, but still OK—and my viral load is undetectable. My CD4/CD8 ratio is 1:35, which is quite good. So I guess I am doing just fine! How has AIDS affected your life? A lot! I think basically in every aspect. I once read about a porn star stating that HIV made him get his act together. My act was not completely un-together before my diagnosis, but I am a very happy and healthy person now. At least that’s what I feel like most of the time. I try to avoid too much stress—something I am not very good at yet. I try to sleep a lot. No drugs or alcohol. Enough good food. In general, “healthy living.” How has AIDS affected your photography? In the beginning, my work got darker, without me really wanting it to. Quite literally: I was using a lot of dark background suddenly, without this being an apparent decision. When I decided to go public with my HIV status, I started to incorporate my experience into my writing, and the medications into some images. This is something I might want to explore more. Hotel_Diary is a very personal document. There’s the panic, anger, upset, and worry you describe in your diary excerpts, the images of you with a plastic bag resembling a condom over your head, you in shadow with a wicker basket over your head, as if unable to find your way around, or you completely covered by a blanket, as though hiding from the world. There’s also the image of you sitting on a bed, your back turned to the camera, with an apple on your head, as if waiting fatalistically for some William Tell to shoot his arrow with you having no way of knowing when. Why did you decide to go so public about your HIV status in the pages of this book? Good question! My shrink asked the same! Do you think it’s too public? Well, I guess the answer is that I haven’t been very secretive all my life, and my whole work is about this border of “secret versus taboo.” So I wondered why I should try to keep secret the fact that was the most important feature of my life at a certain point, especially as it does define me/my work/my thinking so much. I felt I wanted to use it in my work in a way that was not hidden and secretive. Why do you need to keep something like an HIV-positive status secret when the world talks about everything else very openly? What purpose does this secrecy serve? Also, where are the positive role models? I really did not find too many, although in this respect I know the European situation is different than the one in the U.S. And then, people also started to talk/gossip. Of course my close friends knew about my HIV status, and there are always leaks. Word spread, so I thought I’d be better off, especially regarding my position at Secession, to be upfront about it. What is the situation for people living with AIDS in Austria? On a medical level, very good. Insurance covers medications and even some alternative treatments. Socially I have never had any problems—but I am living in a very enlightened environment. There’s little general awareness in Austria in terms of gender and sexual differences, so I can imagine that life as a PWA could be tough on a personal level for those living elsewhere in the country. If you had to describe your relationship to AIDS in a single sentence, what would it be? This is no picnic; still I have learned to live with the disease, and feel very fortunate to have access to the best medical and psychological treatments available. Lester Strong Published in A&U magazine, New York, July 2004 |