  Measurable spectra are theoretically very often derived from complicated
many-body Green's functions. In this way, one calculates much more information
than actually needed. Here we present an in principle exact approach to
construct effective potentials and kernels for the direct calculation of
electronic spectra. In particular, the potential that yields the spectral
function needed to describe photoemission turns out to be dynamical but {\it
local} and {\it real}. As example we illustrate this ``photoemission
potential'' for sodium and aluminium, modelled as homogeneous electron gas, and
discuss in particular its frequency dependence stemming from the nonlocality of
the corresponding self-energy. We also show that our approach leads to a very
short derivation of a kernel that is known to well describe absorption and
energy-loss spectra of a wide range of materials.
