The image detail shows a house façade completely filling the format. The eyes are instantly directed to the window where people are standing. Their posture is rather static evoking comparisons to contrived photos taken in a studio on special occasions. The window turns into a frame, the house into a scenario, its residents into protagonists. And yet, it is only the façade that is openly visible…and the people. The window frame seems to decouple them from the interior and all their personal belongings. The residents turn into an image. Only the façade itself and the part of the front yard that remains visible allow conclusions to be drawn on their identity. Does the camera show a seemingly unemotional performance? This work sees itself as portrait. In some of the photos, the peoples’ gazes wander off in the distance. They seem reserved, if not even detached from reality. Their silence and concentration make them appear like framed heroes who observe something lying beyond the image. The viewer finds himself in the role of a voyeur.
Some of the protagonists make eye-contact with the camera. The viewer suddenly finds himself caught red-handed in his curiosity and confronted with his voyeurism. But visible reflections in the windows partially conceal the portrayed people; it seems like they are trying to hide from the outside gaze. The curiosity of wanting to find out more and of wanting to get to know the residents’ personalities never really gets satisfied.
All the photos show houses and citizens of a small village in Saxony-Anhalt. Also in this German region in the former East of Germany, the population has diminished alarmingly in accordance with demographic changes. In line with the political shift, the once flourishing region lost substantial parts of its industry and thousands of jobs with it. Consequently, most young people leave the region looking for work and prosperity in the west of Germany or abroad. Many houses are unoccupied already.
The ones left behind are the aged. The average villager is in his early retirement age. Rural areas like the region of Saxony-Anhalt are becoming more and more desolated. Traditions are falling into oblivion and cultural identities are dissolving. The “Heimat”, the homeland, as the harbour of childhood, as sanctuary, as place of security and comfort, of refuge and shelter is in danger of getting lost. The photographs are frontal shots without sloping lines and with the sky nowhere to be seen. The façade fills the whole image and the front yard showing some personal touches added by the residents, was deliberately included its set-up. The recurring clear and linear composition of the image seems objective and unemotional. The photos of the house façades, taken from a neutral position, leave a sad impression and make one feel uncomfortable.
Text : Maria Dantz