Born in Dresden, Germany

Based on my thesis ‘Retired Soil’, in which I dealt with the immediate social and ecological effects of lignite mining in eastern Germany, I developed a strong photographic interest in long-term observations. I see my photographic work as part of a tradition of documentary imagery as a means of making change visible and communicable. The focus here is particularly on landscape changes caused by humans and, conversely, their impact on humans.

Other works in which I pursue this idea include ‘Rezistenta Goldbach’, about a romanian community and the question of what people are willing to leave behind for the planned gold mining, and ‘Neuseenland’ (working title), the continuation of ‘Retired Soil’ with a focus on the touristic conversion of former open-cast mining areas in eastern Germany.

In addition, I work as a commissioned photographer at the intersection of commercial documentation, corporate reportage and advertising.

My work at the SPLASH! Festival during Passage Shorts, forms part of my ongoing photographic project on East German mining regions.

I had already been to the Ferropolis site in 2008 for ‘Retired Soil’, so it was an exciting experience for me to return after 16 years. The ‘city of iron’ offers an impressive but also very superficial backdrop. More exciting for me was the attempt to look beyond the concert scenery and see how ‘youth culture’ presents itself and whether the landscape still reveals traces of its origins. Many, if not most, of the visitors are probably unaware of the history of the place and the adjacent lake, despite the huge technical equipment on site. They have become a backdrop. One that I couldn’t always resist.