Zwischenwelten pt. 1

[Zwischenwelten pt. 1] In the dialogue between visual perception and the reflection of blurring techniques, this series opens up an in-between world that is explored through photographic abstraction. The parameter of blur has accompanied photographic art discourse since the medium's beginnings and represents an important aspect in the establishment of photography in the system of the arts. Exploratory and experimental work with defocusing, movement of the camera, longer exposure times, underexposure and overexposure, and shallow depth of field as means of design and expression have continuously abstracted from an essentiality of photography — sharpness — which seems to be inevitably anchored within our society with a correct photographic image. Blur dissolves the identifiability of the representational, relegates it in favor of abstraction and form, and abstracts fragments of reality. This creates an ambivalent relationship to photography's fidelity to the image, as it has often been attributed to it since its beginnings. In addition, the blur in this series takes a metaphorical place in that it embodies the process of deceleration, arising from a subjective view. Thus, it is related to a theme relevant to the photographer — deceleration within the botanical environment. The choice of the portrait format of the photograph brings about another level of abstraction of human vision. In the abstract photographs of Zwischenwelten pt. 1, the object or the real motif does not appear in itself, but the idea and the design are objectified and take the place of the real motif. The medium of photography as an individual space of experience comes to the fore.

[Zwischenwelten pt. 2] was inspired by the interplay of photographic "foreign reference and self-reference". Thus Zwischenwelten pt. 2 is increasingly concerned with the opaque side of photography. According to the semiotician Winfried Nöth, a photographic sign can be both transparent and opaque and always stands between viewer "and the world behind it". A photograph is transparent when it embodies the representation of the world to which it refers, whereby iconicity and indexicality play a considerable role. On the one hand, what is represented is reflected; on the other hand, the photograph refers to its reference object like a trace. The opaque photo, however, "does not allow a view through to a world it represents". This gives rise to "new way[s] of looking at things" that are directed at the photographic sign itself. Thus, traces that plants leave on various surfaces through shadows and light reflections were photographed, creating another level of abstraction —  it is not the plants themselves that serve as the basic motifs, but their traces, which pushes the transparent side of the photograph even further into the background.