Beletage: Ansichten eines Fensterputzers - A book featuring portrait photographs of people in their homes. These people are clients of Lars Nickel, a photographer who earns his living cleaning windows.
Lars Nickel does not choose the people he photographs. You hire the window cleaner and get a photographer thrown in for free. This is what creates the wonderful serenity and normality of these photographs. They show the residents and what lies behind their front doors. Pictures, accessories, furniture, carpets – all these things naturally tell us something about the people who surround themselves with them. But there is no particular agenda behind this, just a little curiosity. The normal curiosity about one's neighbours. But what looks so normal in the pictures does not happen by itself. It is precisely the seemingly simple things that require great experience and photographic skill. Light, decorum, linearity, the technical aspects. Above all, however, the eye contact between the photographer and the subjects, the agreement between the two not to harm each other. This can certainly be understood as a kind of counter-programme to the current desire for visual revelation. In any case, I am not aware of any comparable project in contemporary portrait photography.
Matthias Flügge
#book #buch #boek #photobook #fotobuch #fotoboek #people #giftshop #geschenkartikel #photobookcollectors #portraits #portraitphotography #portretfotografie #photography #fotografie #windowcleaner #webshop #fensterputzer #artbook
Lars Nickel does not choose the people he photographs. You hire the window cleaner and get a photographer thrown in for free. This is what creates the wonderful serenity and normality of these photographs. They show the residents and what lies behind their front doors. Pictures, accessories, furniture, carpets – all these things naturally tell us something about the people who surround themselves with them. But there is no particular agenda behind this, just a little curiosity. The normal curiosity about one's neighbours. But what looks so normal in the pictures does not happen by itself. It is precisely the seemingly simple things that require great experience and photographic skill. Light, decorum, linearity, the technical aspects. Above all, however, the eye contact between the photographer and the subjects, the agreement between the two not to harm each other. This can certainly be understood as a kind of counter-programme to the current desire for visual revelation. In any case, I am not aware of any comparable project in contemporary portrait photography.
Matthias Flügge
#book #buch #boek #photobook #fotobuch #fotoboek #people #giftshop #geschenkartikel #photobookcollectors #portraits #portraitphotography #portretfotografie #photography #fotografie #windowcleaner #webshop #fensterputzer #artbook



