Komm näher

About

Come closer to experiencing the darkest hour before a new beginning, in another person’s life. Be patient, generous, courageous and celebrate difference. Yearn for your birthplace and let it go. Be aware of social divisions, start searching, and say farewell, if necessary. Be free, undecided, joyful and look for connection.

Come closer!

An imperative whose meaning is at its strongest, given the present circumstances. An invitation to come near in times when we should avoid contact can help reconcile, but also provoke. Still, despite all our insecurities, we should meet, yearn for one another, be curious about each other and negotiate social norms together.

The participants in Ina Schoenenburg’s Ostkreuz School of Photography seminar invite viewers to discover 11 perspectives that speak of encounters, exploring personal biographies and social topics in art and documentary photography. The series is the result of a year-long exchange, during which the photographers came closer to understanding themselves and their fellow humans. 

Works by Kostas Beis, Jule Bräu, Laura Maren Knauf, Dominik Maringer, Matthias Merz, Frank Michel, Masha Pryven, Ph. Rudolph, Sebastian Schmidt, Tine Schmidt, Sabrina Weniger