As of: January 31, 2024, 1:39 p.m
By: Martin Schullerus
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Photographer Walter Merkle at work: Wood in all forms has been one of the artist's favorite subjects from Gräfelfing for decades.
© Michael Schönwälder
“The world is full of motifs,” says Walter Merkle.
And he has captured the world for over six decades - with his camera.
The professional photographer stores a life's work in black and white and color, tens of thousands of images, in his house in Gräfelfing.
A universe of people, nature, architecture, culture.
Gräfelfing
– “The motifs jump at me and shout: Please take me in,” says Walter Merkle (85).
And he never said no when he encountered beauty.
“I basically photograph everything, from A for nude to Z for zoo,” says Merkle.
Basically: as long as the motif meets his high standards.
And a lot has to come together.
Because Walter Merkle is a photographer of the old school who says things like: “I thought analogue photography would be buried with me.
Now she has beaten me to it.” Of course, the digital age could not affect his desire, even addiction, to take photographs.
Walter Merkle comes from a family that has lived in Gräfelfing for many decades.
His grandfather was Dr.
Benno Merkle, who, as assistant to Prime Minister Kurt Eisner, stood at the SPD politician's side when he was shot in Munich on February 21, 1919.
Merkle later served as mayor of Schweinfurt (1920 to 1933) and opened the first meeting of the Gräfelfingen municipal council after the Second World War.
He lived at Schulstrasse 32 until his death.
His grandson Walter Merkle was also born in Schweinfurt, trained as an industrial clerk at Kugelfischer, then studied the “profitless art” of photography for two years in Munich - to his father's chagrin.
The bourgeois life of Germany's economic miracle finally became too restrictive for him, and he went to the USA for five and a half years, where he worked as a photographer, mainly in New York.
Back then, the Americans were not squeamish when it came to their army and quickly drafted Merkle for two years.
He completed basic training and then learned to repair tanks and howitzers.
Exploding trailer at Army
One of his few action photos comes from a large-scale exercise as an Army soldier in the Mojave Desert - an exploding trailer.
“I saw smoke in the distance and stalked it with my camera,” says Merkle.
“Suddenly the petrol cans on the trailer exploded – and I shot straight into them.” The shot with the camera almost cost him his life; the detonation threw him back several meters.
But what remains is a photo, as beautiful as a ball of fire.
The analogy between photographer and hunter does not scare Walter Merkle.
His weapon is the camera;
it has become so much a habitus, a part of his personality, that he feels incomplete without it.
“I never leave the house naked,” he says.
It's unimaginable that a subject would jump out at him and he wouldn't be able to capture it.
Unlike the hunter's prey, however, his motives don't just survive;
he gives them immortality.
And he proved his father wrong, because his passion was very good for making a living.
Walter Merkle worked at AGFA-Gevaert in Munich and eventually became a trainer himself, for example in X-ray photography, which was still made by hand at the time, and which he taught at home and abroad in either German or English.
And he taught young photographers darkroom tricks that can be considered an honest predecessor of Photoshop.
He showed them how a bath in black tea alienated the color of the picture, how an original on hard sheet film, half developed and briefly exposed to light, created white outlines of the nude, like a halo.
He managed to mutate a lizard into a colorful chameleon.
The darkroom becomes a treasure trove
He no longer needs his darkroom in the Gräfelfinger Haus.
It acts as a treasury.
Around 3,000 large prints are stored here, some of which have been shown in exhibitions.
Among other things, they represent probably the largest photo collection with Gräfelfing motifs. The folders are labeled with terms such as “Sculptures”, “Hellabrunn Wood”, “Hellabrunn Animals”, “Gräfelfing - Buildings”, “Gräfelfing - Town Hall” or “ Gräfelfing - Doors”.
Walter Merkle says: “I really enjoy photographing doors.
The door tells about what is behind it.” “Nature - Würm” is written on a folder.
It contains wonderful shots of the river and its accompanying greenery from all seasons.
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Another 15,000 photos fill the albums that Walter Merkle keeps neatly labeled on the bookshelves in his study.
He donated the 14,000 slides, 1,300 of which were from the USA, to the US Consulate.
The search for motifs was also the driving force behind many of the trips abroad that Walter Merkle took with his camera - especially to the USA and New York, which he visited repeatedly.
There he met his current wife Hannelore – a Munich woman – 60 years ago.
And that's where the couple's first child, their daughter, was born.
In 1967 they returned to Gräfelfing.
The couple, who also have a son, took in siblings from a Kiev family to relax in the summer for four years after the Chernobyl reactor accident.
“This is my Mona Lisa,” says Walter Merkle, his eyes shining as he looks at the portrait of a pretty girl hanging in his study.
It shows the then eleven-year-old Maria Riabtchenko, whom he often portrayed, like her sister and brother.
“I didn’t have a filter for the soft focus back then;
I did it with Vaseline on the lens, as was common practice in the past,” explains the photographer.
The digital age may have replaced the darkroom;
Walter Merkle also takes photos today with a small digital camera.
But he doesn't have the time or energy to digitize his treasures afterwards.
So he is looking for a “meaningful use” of his extensive oeuvre, for example in an archive or a collection.
“That’s all in the past now,” says Walter Merkle quietly.
And he would be happy if his life's work also had a future.