Few photographers are gifted in teaching others the ability to listen through their pictures. Detlev Schilke's photographs are singing. Not only because he takes pictures of music. Whenever he meets a musician with his camera he is not satisfied by just fixing his features. He is not just concerned about contrasts, contours, foreground or surrounding. Recognizability follows spontaneous arrangements. Detlev Schilke subordinates the laws of optics, he looks behind the subject matter, he triggers vibrations. His glissandi allow the eye to slip through a facade that seems to be impermeable. Details often say more than the whole. It could be a musician's foot or a rolled up cable laying next to an instrument that captures Schilke's attention and uncovers aspects of an artist that go far beyond a well done portrait. It is not necessary having experienced a certain musical moment. You can imagine it with the full power of all senses through Detlev Schilke. - Detlev Schilke not only taught me to trust my ear, but to talk about music without describing it analogously. His photos have let me to the insight that it is not the obvious that matters but what you discovers behind it. Penetrating the surface to catch the character of a certain sound. Not identifying of the individual expression of others, but meeting them with an equally individual attitude. Schilke's visual magic is extremely emotional. He is intimate without denouncing, he tells stories and writes history. Each photo is the reflection of a moment, but with Detlev Schilke these moments are always to be understood as a particle of eternity.

Foreword: Wolf Kampmann (Translation: Daniela Aue) Editor: JazzPrezzo Verlag