"Drei Magnolien in Vase"

Gelatin silver contact print (bromide lithprint) on Agfa Record Rapid 111 (1980s), selenium toned

signed, dated, edited and stamped on museum cardboard verso

The magnolia has a rich symbolism in the history of art, especially in East Asia. In Chinese and Japanese culture, it stands for purity, feminine beauty and the awakening of spring. The flower often appears before the leaves, which emphasizes its delicacy and at the same time its strength - a paradoxical tension that makes it a popular motif in poetry and painting. In its short flowering period and calm, almost meditative appearance, it is reminiscent of the cherry blossom, but is associated less with pathos and more with stillness and dignity.
In Western art, the magnolia was taken up above all in Art Nouveau. The magnolia plays a particularly prominent role in the work of Émile Gallé, one of the most important representatives of French Art Nouveau. Gallé used it in his glass objects and pieces of furniture, for example in engraved vases or elaborately inlaid woodwork.¹ The magnolia was not only depicted as a decorative element, but also as an expression of a natural-philosophical world view in which life, fragility and beauty are interwoven. This combination of observation of nature, material art and symbolism is reminiscent of the role that the cherry blossom plays in Japanese aesthetics - as a symbol of a poetic, yet ephemeral world. The magnolia in Art Nouveau thus symbolizes a European response to Far Eastern nature motifs, such as those that penetrated Western art through Japonism.
Waldbauer uses analog photography techniques and processing methods that are slowly falling into oblivion. He used natural light as illumination and an 8x10 inch large-format camera for the photograph. The print was made as a contact print, whereby the negative is placed directly onto the photographic paper and exposed. The size of the print thus corresponds to the size of the negative and therefore to the original image in the camera. This very direct method of producing photo prints has a long tradition and dates back to the first photographs.
Waldbauer uses old black and white paper as photographic paper, such as this "Record Rapid 111" from the German manufacturer Agfa (Bayer-Leverkusen) from the 1980s. The number 111 stands for a cardboard-thick, white, glossy baryth paper. The first digit (hundreds place) indicates the paper thickness - 1 means cardboard thick. The second digit provides information about the color - 1 stands for white, 2 for chamois and 3 for ivory. The third digit says something about the surface - 1 stands for glossy, 2 for semi-matt, 3 for matt, 4 for noble matt.² 
(Christoph Fuchs, 2025)

Notes:

1
Philippe Garner, Émile Gallé, New York 1979, pp. 68–72.

2
​​​​​​Foto Vogel, Grundlagen der Schwarz-Weiß Fotografie. Die Kennzeichnung von Fotopapieren, http://www.fotovogel-mg.de/Papiere_1.htm (4.5.2024)