Wim Wenders: Written Once

An exhibition of photography by the acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders will be on view from January 28 through March 15, 2025 at Howard Greenberg Gallery. Written Once will showcase images made in the 1970s and 1980s when Wenders was researching locations for his films in the American West or traveling the country for film events. A key element of the exhibition is text written by Wenders to accompany a number of the photographs, which will be featured together with the images in the gallery. Wenders’ poetic stories surrounding the images give the viewer an extraordinary window into his filmmaking as well as his day-to-day life in the film world. The title of the exhibition, Written Once, is a nod to the two photographic series on view: Written in the West (1983-1987) and Once (1977-1984).

Written in the West

In 1983, Wenders set out on a road trip of the American West, photographing the unique light and desolate landscape in preparation for his iconic film Paris, Texas (1984). Wenders’ images from Texas, Arizonia, New Mexico and California are transformed by the filmmaker’s cinematic vision as he searches for the mythology of the frontier in the vast landscape. The trip resulted in the series, Written in the West, which was first exhibited in 1986 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

“It was another way of preparing for the film, too, a different kind of research that had less to do with locations than with the light in the West. I had never made a film in that landscape and was hoping that taking photographs would sharpen my understanding of the light and landscape, my sense of empathy with it. So although these photos were taken in connection with the film we made in that part of the country, they are quite independent of it, despite the fact that a lot of the photos were taken in Houston, Los Angeles, and other locations in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico where we did in fact shoot the film. But these large-format photos were my own personal, private way of preparing for the film,” Wenders noted in an interview in his 2015 photography book, Written in the West Revisited (Schirmer/Mosel & D.A.P.)

Once

In the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Wenders photographed his travels and encounters in Hollywood. Using the same command of the art of storytelling found in his films, Wenders presents a written anecdote with each image that often starts out with “Once, I…..” These behind-the-scenes accounts feature stories about his travel experiences often with the extraordinary group of actors and directors that have crossed his path including John Lurie, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Claire Denis, Elia Kazan, Isabella Rossellini, and Harry Dean Stanton.

Among the highlights is a 1977 photograph, When Martin Scorsese had a flat tire II. Wenders is both the imagemaker and the narrator of an unpredictable moment: while traveling in the remote landscape of the Valley of the Gods in Utah, he encountered a car pulled over by the side of the road with a flat tire. The man underneath the car was Martin Scorsese, who subsequently discovered that the rental car did not have a spare tire!

Autobiographical in scope with a literary tradition found in his filmmaking, the narrated texts and photographic trajectories provide an intimate look at the making of picture stills and their relationship to moving images.

About Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders (born 1945 in Düsseldorf) became internationally known as one of the protagonists of the New German Cinema of the 1970s. Today, he is considered as one of the most important figures of contemporary world cinema. The work of the screenwriter, director, producer, photographer and author includes multiple award-winning feature and documentary films, photo exhibitions presented worldwide, as well as numerous photo books, film books and text collections. He lives and works in Berlin with his wife Donata Wenders.

His films Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987) are today part of the international canon of film heritage, as are his innovative documentaries Pina, Buena Vista Social Club and The Salt of the Earth. His two most recent films had their world premiere at the Festival de Cannes in 2023: Anselm, his documentary film in 3D about Anselm Kiefer, and his Japanese feature film Perfect Days, for which lead actor Kōji Yakusho received the award for Best Actor in Cannes. Perfect Days, became his internationally most successful film and was nominated for an Oscar in the “Best International Feature Film” category in 2024.

In 2012, Wim and Donata Wenders established the Wenders Foundation in Wenders' native city Düsseldorf. The non-profit foundation brings together the artist's cinematic, photographic and literary lifework and makes it permanently accessible to the public. In the process, the films are restored to state-of-the-art digital masters. The Wim Wenders Foundation is also engaged in film education for schools and supports (in cooperation with the Film und Medienstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen) the promotion of young talent in the field of innovative cinematic storytelling with the Wim Wenders Scholarship.

^{Image: Sun Dries, Las Vegas, New Mexico from the series 'Writen in the West' 1983 © Win Wenders}