Fourteen centimeters in length, seven centimeters wide … — I carry my atelier in my pocket all the time. If an idea comes to me, I see a motif: my studio is always at hand.
Actually, I am a novelist. A few years ago I had the idea for a story in which a photographer was to play the leading role.
While setting up his first exhibition in London, the first major one ever, he recalls his apprenticeship. — Of days and nights in the studios. Of the sound of the blues and legendary concerts. Of a great, lost love …
After four days on the Thames, he still hadn’t seen much more than the gallery walls. — He knew Westminster, the London Eye and the Shard from countless pictures on the web, of course. In the end, it was just such images, colorful and mendacious, that prompted his photos.
Actually, his pictures were just snapshots of cups, tubes, cloths: Everyday things, seen from an unusual angle, processed with various art filters. But everything suddenly seemed strange, alien. He had christened the series »Alien Diaries«.
I set off with my iPhone to discover the truth behind appearances: The »Alien Diaries« — a recapture of beauty from the world of commodities, as it were — was to be created as part of the project, parallel to the manuscript. I posted the images on Instagram …
The manuscript is still unfinished. But hundreds of images are now hanging in my cloud, some can be seen on websites and on real walls …
Today the project consists of more series than just the »Alien Diaries«. »Sentimental Journey«, »Better Times«, »Crazy Views« … — For all together I found the name »The Art of Amok«, short: »amok:art«. Because my intention is still that of my novel hero:
The photo cycle »amok:art« — ordinary motifs, seen in an unusual way — is an attack on seeing and thinking: a destruction of familiar image patterns and an alienation of the categories we use to arrange them in our worldview.
At a time when hardly any photo escapes rape by Photoshop and other weapons of advertising, the pictures of »amok:art« are a counterattack, freeing objects from the captivity of marketing.
All images are digitally alienated, partially with AI algorithms.
There are thousands of outstanding photographers. But to discover such images in the digital wilderness … — That is my view and my attitude to life. Only I can do that. Of course, I need my atelier for that. But I always have it in my pocket.
Actually, I am a novelist. A few years ago I had the idea for a story in which a photographer was to play the leading role.
While setting up his first exhibition in London, the first major one ever, he recalls his apprenticeship. — Of days and nights in the studios. Of the sound of the blues and legendary concerts. Of a great, lost love …
After four days on the Thames, he still hadn’t seen much more than the gallery walls. — He knew Westminster, the London Eye and the Shard from countless pictures on the web, of course. In the end, it was just such images, colorful and mendacious, that prompted his photos.
Actually, his pictures were just snapshots of cups, tubes, cloths: Everyday things, seen from an unusual angle, processed with various art filters. But everything suddenly seemed strange, alien. He had christened the series »Alien Diaries«.
I set off with my iPhone to discover the truth behind appearances: The »Alien Diaries« — a recapture of beauty from the world of commodities, as it were — was to be created as part of the project, parallel to the manuscript. I posted the images on Instagram …
The manuscript is still unfinished. But hundreds of images are now hanging in my cloud, some can be seen on websites and on real walls …
Today the project consists of more series than just the »Alien Diaries«. »Sentimental Journey«, »Better Times«, »Crazy Views« … — For all together I found the name »The Art of Amok«, short: »amok:art«. Because my intention is still that of my novel hero:
The photo cycle »amok:art« — ordinary motifs, seen in an unusual way — is an attack on seeing and thinking: a destruction of familiar image patterns and an alienation of the categories we use to arrange them in our worldview.
At a time when hardly any photo escapes rape by Photoshop and other weapons of advertising, the pictures of »amok:art« are a counterattack, freeing objects from the captivity of marketing.
All images are digitally alienated, partially with AI algorithms.
There are thousands of outstanding photographers. But to discover such images in the digital wilderness … — That is my view and my attitude to life. Only I can do that. Of course, I need my atelier for that. But I always have it in my pocket.