My dear father

 

   © Photos: Nicolás Mutter, Text: Ana Muller

Time goes by and my father's work, as it is reviewed over and over again, is like a good wine, adding bouquet, which is the aftertaste of a flavor full of nuances. Much has been written about his gaze, the moment he caught, about that "art" that he did consider himself not to have. Nicolás Muller said that he had taken only a hundred good photos. Now I know that, probably, his reduced selection was due to his approach was nor shared with others. Maybe it was because of modesty. The case is that, reviewing in depth his way of seeing and doing, it is surprising that with such scant means - the Rollei, a photometer, medium sensitivity films and a containment in making the right shots - the result is so brilliant.

The photographers of my generation had already cameras with a motor and optical variables, which made our work and the creative process much easier, by comparison to the limited means that photographers, like my father, who wanted to go light, to go unnoticed, and catch and freeze the image that would never be repeated again.

He had instinct when undertaking a work and practicality at producing them. He resolved appropriately the framing with the proper light and the necessary expressiveness, but he did not insist on rummaging the angles or recomposing the shot. I've always been amazed that there can be three different locations and six good images, on a 12-shot reel!

He followed his favourite photographer, Cartier-Bresson, to the letter: “To photograph is to put the head, the eye and the heart on the same axis. And to shot at the decisive moment."

The small collection shown here is drawn from the many photographs that belong to commissioned works (books, brochures, tourism, various publications), direct images without artifices, they do not need any title, and they say all themself. Images that already belong to the graphic memory of a past but alive time, which maintains the way of looking at Nicolás Muller, my dear father, fresh and modern.