{"id":75824,"date":"2024-10-15T21:48:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=75824"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:22:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:22:50","slug":"you-forgot-the-colour-film","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/comment-and-debate\/you-forgot-the-colour-film\/","title":{"rendered":"You forgot the colour film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n
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\u2018It was really lovely here!\u2019<\/strong> Thoughts on the temporality of photography \u2013 and what Roland Barthes might have said about Nina Hagen\u2019s pop hit \u2018Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen\u2019 (You forgot the colour film).<\/p>\n

\r\n Bastian Betz<\/a><\/span><\/span> Photos: Nico Baesecke<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n \n\n
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Nina Hagen\u2019s song \u2018Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen\u2019 <\/strong>laments the use of black-and-white film to capture colourful holiday memories. In the song, Nina reproaches her boyfriend Michael for not taking any colour film on their holiday together on the island of Hiddensee. That, she says, is why all the photos are now in black and white \u2013 and therefore useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the song\u2019s first verse,<\/strong> Nina complains to her boyfriend Michael that he forgot the colour film on their holiday \u2013 so now nobody will believe how beautiful it was, and all the blue, white and green will be lost.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

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Why take photos on holiday?<\/h2>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\n\n\n\n

In our society we draw a clear line between working time and free time. A common way of spending free time is going on holiday. For a limited period, people leave their familiar surroundings to gain new experiences in a more or less unfamiliar place. And in this pursuit of experiences, the camera must never be missing. Especially today, when almost everyone has at least a mobile phone camera and can share the pictures immediately, it seems strange to travel purely for pleasure without taking photos. Photography becomes an important social rite, as the writer Susan Sontag emphasises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the song, Nina accuses Michael that now nobody will believe how beautiful it was. The photos were supposed to serve as irrefutable proof that the trip took place, that Nina went through the programme and enjoyed it. The philosopher Roland Barthes, for his part, observed that the advent of photography brought the private into the public sphere. Since the first Kodak camera was introduced more than 100 years ago, it has been possible for a broad section of the population to document their private lives photographically and present them to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Photographs document acts of consumption carried out beyond the reach of family, friends and neighbours,\u2019 says Susan Sontag. Everything is transient \u2013 the holiday, the happy moments, life itself. Photography can capture a fleeting moment and hold it in an image. This ability motivates us to photograph beautiful moments so that we can remember them in future and return to them again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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