me|you
In a continuous process of communication we are trying to find out who we are. In this process we are generating images of others and ourselves. These images are based on factual and observed information, but also on misinterpretation, lack of information and situational conditions.
The long-term project me|you is a subjective – and actually paradoxical – attempt to research personal identity and to document this process in photographic portraits.
As raw material for the series I photograph people from my direct surroundings: friends, acquaintances, relatives. The subject is always depicted using a frontal headshot in order to refer to the factual, straightforward images commonly used for visual identification such as passport photos or mugshots.
However, through visible interferences such as scratching, folding, grinding, polishing and cutting, or photochemical and digital treatments, the photographic materials are altered. Flat images become tangible objects. The image generating procedures and materials of the medium of photography are deliberately revealed.
In this way my body functions as an individual image processing tool. This method of processing is unmistakeably human – as opposed to computer-based – and is clearly connected to my own identity. Therefore, photographer and subject are simultaneously depicted in the portraits.
