Photomanipulation nominee

Shown are women suffering from breast cancer of different ages who have been confronted with this challenge at different stages of their lives. With my pictures I am not only looking at the physical pain that those women have experienced or at a story of suffering, but also at the story of overcoming and accepting this infirmity. Women who have breast cancer no longer comply with the ideal condition defined by society. With my series, I question the supposedly perfect. I use the technique of morphing here. Typically, during morphing, the contours of two images are generated by a computer program into a new image. In my work, I do not let two whole images merge, but only selected areas of two images. In this way I provoke the aberrations shown in the pictures. Selecting and assembling different images of different women and perspectives create a technical image that does not exist in reality. My work attacks the idea of physical perfection as the goal for human beings. Basically, the disease itself points at the inaccessibility of perfection. My aberrations take the spotlight away from the real scars. What remains is the individual, the living existence of of these people.

Peggy Stahnke, born in 1988, completed her training as a photographer in Hamburg after graduating from high school. From 2012 to 2017, then she studied communication design (B.A.&M.A.) at the Muthesius Art School, Kiel, in the photography department. After completing her master's degree in 2017 she was awarded the »Muthesius project« (scholarship) for further qualification of the work »up close« for two years. In 2019, her first photobook was published. From 2018-2020 she received a studio scholarship in Kiel. In 2020 Stahnke received a work scholarship from the Schleswig-Holstein Cultural Foundation. The work »About Body« was awarded first place in the context of the "Photo Reflections 05 Exhibition for Photography in Schleswig-Holstein"; for her series »embodiment of pain« she received the audience award at the presentation of the »Muthesius Prize«. Since 2014 she has participated in exhibitions all over Germany. The first international exhibition participation took place in 2018 at the "Les Rencontres de la photographie" in Arles. The subject of the photographer's work focuses on people and their individuality. Peggy Stahnke lives and works in Kiel.