Piece of Cake

Is there a recipe for creating photographic icons? Anja Engelke has taken this question literally. By baking images by well-known photographers (including Alec Soth, Thomas Ruff, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Martin Parr, Joel Sternfeld) and then putting these into photographic form she appropriates photographic history and virtually imbibes it. This kind of transposition demands precise analysis of the represented works. The photographer explains: ‘During my day-to-day work with the photographic medium, it is apparent time and time again just how important it is to have an understanding of photographic history. After all, this forms the foundations without which photography in its current from would not exist.’