A Rare Breed
Photographs by Julia Baum

Statement:

A redhead myself, I use the photographic portrait to investigate elements of what makes the red haired person so unique. The project was initiated by a widely printed rumor that redheads are going extinct. While the rumor proved to be false, I began documenting my red haired subjects both as an exploration of portraiture (I had until then been a landscape photographer) and as a way of documenting and preserving the legacy of redheads.

As redheads, we are used to being one in a crowd and regularly noted for our appearance. Experiencing life in this way from infancy through adulthood influences who we are. As a natural redhead, I know our hair color affects more than just our appearance. As only 1% of the entire human population, our distinctive coloring is a relevant topic from day one.

Throughout the series, while the red hair gene is constant, each coloration and personality within the series exemplifies a unique manifestation. In A Rare Breed, I take advantage of the radiant light of my daylight studio to examine the outward appearance and inner character my subjects present. While photographing individuals in front of a simple white background, I allow the viewer to examine the nuance of each shade of red in a provocative and intimate series of photographs.

-26,8mag
Photographs by Alexander Binder

Statement:

I have a deep interest in not only reproducing a scene but catching the 'aura' of a certain situation. From my point of view, traditional processes of capturing light (e.g. camera obscura) are the best solution to merge light, time and space - and thereby reproduce the atmosphere of a special moment.

Years ago I started to modify my whole equipment and I developed a technique which combines the advantages of modern digital photography with the most simple methods of optical projection: I use d-SLRs with self-made pinhole-, acrylic- and kaleidoscope-lenses to create my works. The results are somehow impressionistic images that evoke associations to classical paintings and reflect the zeitgeist of 2000+ at the same time. I find the technical inspiration for my photographic experiments in vintage school books about physics for the so-called 'Sekundarstufe' education (~ German for High School education). This kind of books - and especially the amateur-experiments with light - heavily influence my way of photographing. Most of my projects move between two extremes: On one side the naive ideal of a romanticized, virgin nature in which light unfolds its primordial power as the basic-energy of life. And on the other side the disenchanted, monochrome works that reflect the dystopian living circumstances of modern society.

Untitled (selection of work)
Photographs by Gustav Gustafsson

Statement:

With my work I want to learn more about human behaviors and the affect they have on nature. I document how the surroundings created by people evolve and degenerate. And I seek to illustrate and narrate events I'm not sure have, will or could happen.

Constructing the Exotic
Photographs by Michael Bühler-Rose

Statement:

The project discusses the elastic structures of the notion of exotic through an Occidental Oriental world.

Untitled (selection of work)
Photographs by Misha de Ridder

Statement:

"De Ridder approaches nature in unconventional fashion. In his words, "I don't treat nature as something beautiful. My work is more about being in that nature, being part of nature. This is clear in the perspectives I choose, which are not what you are used to for example, that you are crawling around beneath the bushes, like an animal, or that you are just looking down in a field of grain and there is no horizon.""

- Excerpt From "LUXURIANT REALITY"
By Maria Barnas

Conditions
Photographs by Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann

Statement:

I was born between Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. In a country that lacks independence: Perú. Its rich folklore, its vivid rural traditions and wide range of landscapes contradict radically to the urban life in the capital city. A place where people have no options and even less opportunities, where every problem can easily be solved by means of corruption and where most decisions are made by someone else, rather than oneself.

We were molded to fit into roles in society in order to be successful...

I moved to Berlin when I was 20. After several attempts I finally found a small room on the first floor of an ex-squat located in the Samariterstraße. It wasn't the wide cultural range of the environment or the picturesque community that made me stay, but the straightforwardness I was beginning to get familiarized with, the challenging urge to self-expression, a counter-culture opposed to any kind of authority, a place where boundaries won?t create differences but where differences are accepted and even embraced. During the three and a half years I was living there, I didn't take pictures of these surroundings - I was just living there. I only started to make pictures after I moved out again. I shot mostly in bedrooms, using an intimate approach. I realized that the isolation of the subject was fundamental to establish a private dialog in which questions about social norms and cultural behavior could be raised. Those were the questions that gave form to this personal narrative.

I don't look for an instant reproduction of an incident but I rather try to compose a visual arrangement about it. I'm fascinated by the possibilities of constructing a mental place, a mythical environment. I removed the project from its particular physical location, a geographical description didn't interest me anymore. I wanted the series to involve my everyday life. I started to set up daily situations and to extend the range of my subjects. I decided to build a lyrical composition by bending fantasy and realism, to weave familiar moments and ordinary objects into a pattern that would transcend the realms of common experience.

My intention was to frame an abstraction and accumulation of memories and thoughts gathered during that period. I had to do something about this odd feeling of restriction, about those awkward ideals and limitations that I was carrying with me when I left my homeland?s capital city. I had to denounce them by raising a call for mutual acceptance and the right to condition our lives.