Anton Bartl

Anton Bartl

Isn’t this a wonderful face?

It belongs to a gentleman I met in Bavaria in 1994. His name is Anton Bartl.
I think he might have something of a story. And I hope a fellow F-C photog
with knowledge of Herr Bartl might enlighten me.

In October 1994 I was in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a short while to photograph
the rugged Partnachklamm (Partnach Gorge). It is a very deep chasm whose walls
rise 262 feet above the rushing Partnach River. As I recall, my photos in the gorge
were not wonderful by reason of less than favorable lighting, but I was impressed
enough to want to return and try to capture the craggy rock-scape and white water
under better conditions. Hopefully before much longer.

Well, if my cameras and I weren’t the happiest of campers inside the gorge, by the
time we emerged into the Bavarian sunshine, a worthy photo motif did, almost
immediately, present itself in the person of Herr Bartl.

As I recall, when I saw him, he was driving a tractor. He got off the tractor and
headed in the direction of the camera bedecked visitor. His clothing was covered
in new mown hay and his face had the kind of character that I just had to capture
on film. I assumed from the tractor and the straw on his clothes that he was a farmer...

We smiled and attempted conversation, but our skills in each other’s language
did not allow us to get much beyond my “Darf ich von Ihnen ein foto machen?”
and his smiling “Ja, gut!”

I questioned my original assessment of his being a farmer, when he welcomed
me into a Wirtschaft or Gasthaus which, from his manner, I assumed to be his
own. He offered me a glass of water when I indicated I was thirsty after the climb
out of the canyon. I did not want to impose beyond that, but I did ask him to write
down his name and postal address, so that I could send a photo along.

As (regretfully) sometimes happens, the paper and the film go their separate
ways – never quite lost, just mutually mis-located! But the photo, informally called
“Bavarian Farmer,” remained one of my favorite European character studies over the years.
Finally, paper and film fortuitously came together over the weekend, and I’m happy
to add Herr Bertl’s welcoming Bavarian presence to my work on the F-C.

Image from an Agfacolor original.

©1994/2010 Steve Ember