Deutschlandbilder: Images Of Germany, Part II

About

We are pleased to present works by eight members of the Berlin-based photographic agency OSTKREUZ. The photographers offer a multifaceted panorama of the supposedly familiar and the new. In their survey the OSTKREUZ members raise fundamental questions — such as what distinguishes a sense of belonging from what is alien, such as identity and the future, people's personal needs and their desires, everyday life and the unconventional. One recurrent theme in all photographic sequences is the concept of native identity or homeland — formulated in the pervasive yet elusive German term Heimat — as a geographical, social and political determinant, but also as an expression of sentiments and desires. Anne Schönharting draws the viewer's attention to the provisionary Heimat offered to abandoned children in a former school. Annette Hauschild observes Sunday afternoon habits with a fine sense of irony. Ute Mahler shows us the vitality of the elderly; and finally Linn Schröder reveals the poetic quality of everyday life, recording this with evocative snap-shots.