Vanitas

Vanitas Analogue Metamorphosis In time of digital reproduction the singularity of the picture is obsolete. Working with analogue film in a traditional manner maybe retrospective but it offers a big field of artistic possibilities. In the project “VANITAS” I try to push the boundaries of traditional photography without using digital equipment. By hand and with mechanical tools I am manipulating the negative film strips in a way which overlaps with other art forms. By destroying the chemical layers I am digging for deeper worlds to find behind the photographs. This second layer unveils a metamorphosis of strange and mystic worlds. In this work of staged photography are actually two decisive moments: the first when I record something with the camera, the second when I print. I draw on the negative, scratch it, or take things out and sketch something new on it. The moment of photography is instantaneously and instinctively. The moment of printing takes time for aesthetic decisions, for re-designing the image into something more powerful, more mysterious. 
In “VANITAS” I rearrange mythological figures to hermaphrodite of human and plants to a new perspective. So is the transience of the motives also part of the technical execution. Any destruction, manipulation of the negative film is a final decision and its materiality in turn unique. The illusion of the objects used and the subsequent manipulation play with the contrast between appearance and reality. Torn between humility and self-confidence the artwork justifies his own vanity.