Two Cars and A Woman Waiting

Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders has directed many acclaimed films including a Road Movie trilogy. He also works with the medium of photography, and this work Two Cars and A Woman Waiting was originally part of the series Written in the West, exhibited at the Pompidou in 1986.

A highly filmic quality underscores the photograph, with the framing seemingly recalling a film being projected onto a black screen. The stylised view captures two passing cars and a woman with a suitcase waiting on a corner. With a strong narrative element to the image, we long to know what happens next.

For Wenders, the technical perfection of an image — its view, lines, colours — must balance perfectly with the emotion or tension of the scene it captures; otherwise the picture remains empty and one becomes merely a tourist snapping away at another view.

Total Editions: 442