RON HENGGELER

January 14, 2016
Photos by my mentor Mark Anstendig


After graduating from high school in 1971, I spent a year and a half in the art department at Kansas University in Lawrence Kansas before dropping out and moving to Arkansas to live in a tipi. Those were the heady days of change and revolution. The Vietnam War, the Counter Culture Movement, Gay Liberation, the King and Kennedy assassinations, Women's Lib, the American Indian Movement, drugs, and Seeking. I met Mark Anstendig during this time. I was 21, Mark was 38. Mark was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. He was one of the six to eight conducting majors under the French conductor, Jean Morel. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Fontainebleau, and was one of the few Active Conductors in the Herbert van Karajan conducting practicum. While in Berlin, where he lived for nine years, he was the associate of Mr. Joseph Dahl, the inventor of the Messraster focusing device. From Mr. Dahl, and from Professor Hayek-Halke, the photography teacher at the Technische Hochscule, Mark learned photography, photo-optics and photo-graphics. For the past 40 years, Mark has been my dearest friend, my lover, and my mentor. My background in photography begins with Mark. My life would have gone in a completely different direction had I never met him. Here are some of his photos.

This tin-type photograph of me was taken in Arkansas on my 20th birthday in 1973.

These few photos of my tipi and campsite in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas were taken in 1974 during a visit by my parents and two youngest brohers.

This is a photo of my Dad and I. The photo was taken by my Mother.

From left to right:

My youngest brother Tom, Dad, Mom, and brother Paul.

1974

A couple of months after these photos in Arkansas were taken, I had moved away from Arkansas, and was heading for a new life in San Francisco.

Shortly after my parents visit, I received this postcard from my friend John in Kansas City. John's brief note on the back of the postcard informed me that Mark Anstendig from San Francisco would soon be visiting him in KC. John added that Mark was a most remarkable man, and that if I wanted to meet him, I should come up from Arkansas.

My meeting Mark in Kansas City that summer in 1974 was a game-changer for me. I eventually broke down my campsite in Arkansas and moved to San Francisco. Before my departure to San Francisco, I set up the tipi in John's backyard in Kansas City to illustrate the process of it's construction. These photos were taken by my friend Kay Upton.

 

 

 

The photos that now follow, were taken were taken by this man, Mark Anstendig.

Berholt Brecht's Three Penny Opera

W H Auden

Harkness Ballet

Daphnis

James Baldwin

May Day Parade in East Berlin

Ansorge

Ekkehard Schall as Arturo Ui

Brecht Theatre

 

Ekkehard Schall as Arturo Ui

Brecht Theatre

Siegrid Gräfin von Richthofen, The Countess of Richthofen

W H Auden

James Baldwin

The great German sculptor, Bernhard Heiliger, in his studio at the Hochschule fuer Bildende Kunst (State Academy of Art)

Ekkehard Schall as Arturo Ui at a rally

Brecht Theatre

Beryl Cunningham

Beryl Cunningham

Blind Poet/Musician Moondog

New York City

Suzanne Bloch

Arturo Ui

Brecht Theatre

Suzanne Bloch

W H Auden

On the bow of the Queen Mary

Valeska Gert

The great grotesque pantomime

Brandenburg Gate

 

 

Valeska Gert

The great grotesque pantomime

Cain and Able

New York City's Central Park West

Cain and Able

New York City's Central Park circa 1962

 


Siegrid Gräfin von Richthofen, The Countess of Richthofen

 

Joseph Dahl

Das Kleine Mahogony

Mark's nephew David

Dieter Schwager

Domino

Don Quixote

East Berlin Guard

 

Ekkehard Schall doing his Hitler role inArturo Ui

Beryl Cunningham

 

From Mark's annual Fasching (Carnival season) party in Berlin.

Everyone who came was required to dress up and eventually face the camera.

Mark Anstendig

From Mark's annual Fasching (Carnival season) party in Berlin.

Everyone who came was required to dress up and eventually face the camera.

 

Frau Hoffman

Brandenburg Gate

Valeska Gert

The great grotesque pantomime

Cain and Able

Valeska Gert

The great grotesque pantomime

James Baldwin

Harkness Ballet

Valeska Gert

The great grotesque pantomime

 

Down and out in New York City

 

Guards at the Brandenburg Gate

Hammer

Harkness Ballet

Harkness Ballet

The great German sculptor, Bernhard Heiliger, in his studio at the Hochschule fuer Bildende Kunst (State Academy of Art)

Brandenburg Gate

Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's widow and a great actress in her own right, who was also the director of the Brecht Theater after Brecht's death.

Kennedy in Berlin

 

Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's widow and a great actress in her own right, who was also the director of the Brecht Theater after Brecht's death.

Hitting bottom in New York City

Frau Hoffman

Kennedy in Berlin

Jeno Vincze

 

Harkness Ballet

Lucille

Jeu de Polizei

May Day Parade in East Berlin

Werner Juhrke

From Mark's annual Fasching (Carnival season) party in Berlin.

Everyone who came was required to dress up and eventually face the camera.

Werner Juhrke

Kennedy in Berlin

Right after saying "Ich bin ein Berliner"

Harkness Ballet

Kennedy in Berlin

Right after saying "Ich bin ein Berliner"

Klaus

The great German sculptor, Bernhard Heiliger, in his studio at the Hochschule fuer Bildende Kunst (State Academy of Art)

 

Heinz Oestergaard, Designer

Leaders of the Eastern World

Werner Juhrke

From Mark's annual Fasching (Carnival season) party in Berlin.

Lissa Bauer

Lothar

Heinz Oestergaard, Designer

The Magnificent Lucille Ellis

 

May Day Parade in East Berlin

Minna von Barnhelm

Ula Larsson

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

Mark's Mother, his girlfriend Gisela, and his dog Napoleon (Nappi) at the

Tempelhof Airport in Berlin West

 

Napoleon

Siegesaule, The Victory Monument in Berlin

800 mm lens

The Magnificent Lucille Ellis

Kennedy in Berlin

New Jersey Beach 1962

Heinz Oestergaard, Designer

Radio City sculpture

Van Cliburn

Reichstag and soldier

Rhodes-Daphnis

Richard Krauss

Helen Anstendig

Mark's Mother

Siegrid Gräfin von Richthofen, The Countess of Richthofen

Napoleon

Russian War Monument

Schall doing make-up

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

 

Siegesaule, The Victory Monument in Berlin

Queen Mum and Queen Elizabeth II in Berlin


Siegrid Gräfin von Richthofen, The Countess of Richthofen

 

St. Michael

Anthony Strilko

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

 

Siegrid Gräfin von Richthofen, The Countess of Richthofen

Queen Elizabeth II in Berlin

Klaus

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

 

Tino Bierling, Artist

Queen Elizabeth II in Berlin

Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's widow and a great actress in her own right, who was also the director of the Brecht Theater after Brecht's death.

Heinz Oestergaard, Designer

Anneliese Römer

Anneliese Römer was one of the great actresses of the Schiller and Schlosspark Theater Ensemble in Berlin.

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

Van Cliburn

Lothar

Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's widow and a great actress in her own right, who was also the director of the Brecht Theater after Brecht's death.

Werner Juhrke

Fasching

Willy Brandt at the Kennedy speech in Berlin

 

Brunilda Ruiz

Harkness Ballet Solo Dancer

Ula in traffic

Siegesaule, The Victory Monument in Berlin

Ula with paper

Uwe Jens Serger

artist

Van Cliburn

 

President Richard Nixon in Berlin

Queen Elizabeth II in Berlin

Ula

Visits from East Berlin to the West after the Wall was up.

Mark considers this series of photos his best work.

I've worked with and studied under Mr. Anstendig since 1974. He taught me how to see and hear, and how to be still enough to sustain the finest, most rarified experiences. All that I know, love, and appreciate, about music comes from Mr. Anstendig. It is the source of all my art, refinement, and artistic discrimination. From him, I learned the uncompromising pursuit of artistic vision. Without his training, support, and encouragement, my life could never have become as rich as it is today.

To find out more about Mr. Anstendig, visit these sites:

anstendig.com

anstendig.org

 

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The images are not in the public domain. They are the sole property of the artist and may not be reproduced on the Internet, sold, altered, enhanced, modified by artificial, digital or computer imaging or in any other form without the express written permission of the artist. Non-watermarked copies of photographs on this site can be purchased by contacting Ron.