Oliver Most Clackastigmat 6.0

Oliver Möst is a spectacles wearer. He is shortsighted, without cut glasses in front of his eyes he sees everything blurred – and that badly. Primarily because of that, he is bothered by the question, in how far the things he sees equal the things others see, with or without spectacles. Because the world does not provide pictures, we create them ourselves. For this book Oliver Möst has photographed very different series, ordinary and very specific ones, some in the studio, others on the spot, in cities or at the sea. We see nudes, still lives with flowers, his father’s cup collection, horseman-statues from all over Europe, but beach houses and tourists as well.

For the pictures the photograph has reconstructed his AGFA CLACK, his own spectacles glass with the strength of 6 diopters avoids every feeling of acuity. Foreground, middle ground, background – everything is identically diffuse. What could be understood as an aesthetic device in the flower still lifes, becomes an irritation in other series. No matter how much we try to, it is not possible to make the pictures defined. We do not trust our eyes and arrive at the question, which has inspired Oliver Möst to his work.

From very different perspectives, Mariët Meester and Birgit Jooss contribute razor-sharp observations to the theme and to the work by Oliver Möst.