Statement of Intend

August Sander once said that the photography gave us new possibilities to show the world in its eternal beauty or in its horrific truth, but it also can cheat us with the picture it provides. He continued that his goal was to show us the things in the way they are, that his intention was not to picture the reality in the way it should be or could be. Today of cores we are aware of the fact that we are never able to show the things 'how they are', photography always reflects a particular point of view, it is a fragment of the world. Nevertheless for me his statement, that he wants to show us the world the way it is, and not to use technical and artistic tricks to achieve a picture of the world as it should be, is still very important. It means that my approach to photograph the world is as straightforward as possible. But in contrast to Sanders I'm certain that a photograph even in this case is a creation: first through the decisions of the photographer and second (in portrait photography) of the individual which gets photographed. He or she decides, in my case, and that's crucial, what to wear and how to present him/herself to the camera. I am very interested in the peoples self-representation for the camera. Since I believe that we dress more individually in our recreation time, where the rules are not as strict compare to the working world where the cloths have to be more formal or practical, I concentrate in my continuing project on this aspect of live.

My personal interest in this subject matter is rooted by my upbringing in a working class family in a rural area. Within this context a created appearance was received as something phony. By moving to Zurich when I was seventeen I developed a consciousness of the possibility that a person can create an image and put on another one if necessary. Hence, a constant motive in my work has been the way of how we represent ourselves to the others, to the public. It is an essential desire of human beings to dress up and create an appearance, an identity, not just for others but also to assure ourselves about whom we are. For this approach it requires to let the people be as 'natural' as they can be in front of my camera. The gestures they assume are crucial because they indicate a reflection of cultural convention. One question that preoccupies me is the different self-representation of the different social classes.