Wim Wenders doesn’t travel with a script in mind. The German auteur of picturesque moody cult-favorite films such as Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire rather wanders until he encounters a place with narrative potential. 'When I can feel a place and be comfortable in it, the stories bound to happen there come to me,' he tells Wallpaper*. 'They must be stories that could not happen anywhere else.' The Berliner pursues a similar motivation to find the subjects of his photography, some of which are now on view at New York’s Howard Greenberg Gallery. The show, titled Written Once, in the historic Art Deco Fuller Building focuses on two bodies of work which Wenders captured in 1970s and ‘80s.
Wenders images, not unlike his internationally-lauded films such as 2023’s Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, stem from an urge to contemplate on a place. 'Most American films are story-driven, but my interest is in place-driven works,' he adds. The 79-year-old’s decades-long interest in the American west in fact embodies this appetite for enigmatic sites with veiled narratives. Abandoned gas stations, spectral motel signs, and haunted theaters intrigue him with their untold tales and unexpected beauty. The show’s colorful images, overall titled Written in the West (1983), embody Wenders’ journey into the endless highways dotted with teeny towns of lulled lives. Deserted storefronts, poetic billboards, and moody motel lobbies date back to the director’s research for Paris, Texas which earned him Palm D’Or in Cannes Film Festival in 1984. 'They are an effort to understand the landscape, light, and colors of the American west,' explains Wenders who believes the pictures made him a 'conscious color photographer.'
