NICKNAME AMBY
Kolkata, India, since 2025
»Nickname Amby« explores the history and symbolic significance of the Hindustan Ambassador as a reflection of India’s social, political, and environmental transformations. Since its production began in 1948 in Uttarpara near Kolkata, the Ambassador was present for decades – as a government car, family vehicle, and yellow taxi – shaping the cityscape, soundscape, and everyday life of Kolkata. In my work, it is made tangible through a recreated model Amby, photographs of the last surviving taxis, and staged interventions in public space – documenting the changes in daily life and urban experience.
AS MOTHER MADE IT
West-Bengal, India, 2025
»As Mother Made It — Colonial Interventions in the Indian Kitchen« presents traditional Indian kitchen utensils, whose everyday function is playfully altered within the framework of the project. These interventions refer to the colonial reshaping of Indian cuisine during British rule, which adapted culinary practices to European norms. A well-known example is curry, whose modern form has been strongly shaped by these colonial influences. The title and aesthetics of the project initially evoke familiarity and tradition, yet the dysfunction of the objects tells a different story, turning the kitchen into a space where colonial traces become visible.
ZILT & ZOUT
NETHERLANDS, since 2025
The ongoing photographic long-term project »Zilt & Zout« explores the connections between nature, culture, and the history of the Netherlands. Each image invites viewers to decipher the symbolic meaning and take a fresh look at Dutch history. The portrayed woman functions as a timeless narrator, whose interactions with the sea, beach, and dunes reveal deeper connections to Dutch identity and societal change.
THE OTHER SIDE OF REALITY
Serbia, 2024
In 1960s Yugoslavia, artists had notable room for creative exploration, a period now seen as an independent expression of modernity. Among others, the Serbian artists Milan Popović and Aleksandar Lučović Lukijan created surreal and metaphorical works. Today, a government strongly oriented toward nationalism challenges freedom of expression, while nationally oriented and religiously connoted art is promoted. »The Other Side Of Reality« engages with this context through the re-staging of selected works by Popović and Lučović Lukijan, the focus of the project.
Info »The Other Side of Reality« PDF
TITO'S DESK
Serbia, 2024
Undoubtedly, the elaborately decorated desk of Josip Broz Tito, which is now on display at the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, draws all eyes – a symbol of political power and a testament to the complex history of Yugoslavia. In the image I staged, a young woman in local folklore attire looks through the large glass window at the desk from outside. The scene opens perspectives on cultural identity, the handling of cultural heritage, and the role of history in shaping national and political narratives.
STRICLTY NO POSTING - FACES OF THE OPPOSITION
Serbia, 2024
The democratic stability in Serbia is increasingly threatened by the autocratic tendencies of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) under President Vučić. Restrictions on freedom of the press and expression, political persecution, and pressure on the opposition are widespread. Even in Novi Sad, opposition posters are often damaged or torn down, reflecting political repression.
Info »Strictly No Posting« PDF
TYPOSPHERE II
since 2023
»Typosphere II« is a reflexive, playful examination of works of contemporary and modern art and applied design, which deals with the object of the typewriter in a variety of ways, often with ironic overtones. Portraits of artists who use the typewriter as part of their creative processes are also part of the series.
TYPOSPHERE
India & Europe, since 2023
»The Revolution will be Typewritten« says a manifesto that opposes different forms of digital appropriation. In fact, the typewriter is also experiencing a revival, comparable to other analogue processes and production methods. What is understood in parts of the world today as a conscious decision to decelerate qualitatively, is sometimes still an everyday reality in other contexts where using a typewriter is part of daily work. Within this field of tension between slow media and everyday reality the project »Typosphere« is located.
THE LAST DROP
India, Purulia, 2019/20
»The Last Drop« addresses the problem of water availability and distribution and the role of women in this context in rural regions of West Bengal, India. Within the family system, responsibility for procuring water falls to women and girls, whose daily work often involves traveling significant distances to collect water from local wells.
TRACKING GANDHI
India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Europe
2014-2019
The exhibition and book project »Tracking Gandhi« traces the locations in India, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Europe that mark significant milestones or turning points in Mahatma K. Gandhi’s private and political life.
KRISHAK
India, West-Bengal, 2018
Millions of smallholder farmers produce the majority of all food on very small plots of land. This stands in contrast to the parallel development of increasingly large, energy- and resource-intensive farming systems, which are promoted worldwide through open markets and subsidies.
In West Bengal, rice is still often harvested manually. At first glance, the rapid economic dynamism of India may not be immediately apparent here. The photographs clearly depict the daily working conditions in rural areas and convey an image of traditional rural ways of life, while simultaneously highlighting the complexity of global issues: How can sustainable agriculture be achieved within the tensions of ecological and social demands?
DAILY CONSTRUCTIONS
India, Kolkata, 2015
The globally established format of the TV daily soap is also extremely popular in India. The scenes in these series usually play out in the characters’ private living rooms, which are installed as permanent set constructions in the film studios. The furnishings of these living spaces can be seen as a mirror reflecting the tastes of India’s aspiring middle and upper class. The furniture and décor have a referential value and are a depiction, in a monotone, accentuated form, of contemporary tastes in interior design and modern-day lifestyle trends.
Info »Daily Constructions« PDF
LOVE COMES LATER
India, Bangalore, 2015 (with Marlene Apmann)
Arranged marriages remain a common form of matrimonial union across many social and regional contexts in India, with different models of partner selection—including so-called love marriages—coexisting and sometimes shaping wedding practices across families and communities. Among urban middle-class communities, there is an increasing trend to stage weddings as elaborately orchestrated social events. Large halls or temporary marquee structures are transformed into carefully crafted, set-like environments, distinguished by an opulent, status-oriented aesthetic. For affluent families, the creative and financial scope of such celebrations is virtually limitless.
BAHAK
India, Kolkata, 2012
»Bahak« is the Bengali word for carriers. They carry heavy loads and perform physically demanding work, often under considerable strain. For several weeks, I set up a temporary studio at the roadside and invited some of the carriers to pause briefly so I could photograph them individually, removed from the urban environment and the otherwise constant flow of the streets.
BOOKS FOR SALE
India, Kolkata, 2009
Unfazed by predictions of the end of the printed book in the digital age, the volumes pile up in Kolkata’s university district, home to one of the country’s largest book and publishing centres. The appreciation for the printed book is clearly visible, particularly when looking at the street stalls, which seem to give each work its own place
Publication »books for sale« PDF
TERRITORIES OF THE SELF
India, Kochi, 2014 &
Austria, Klagenfurt, 2015 (with Johannes Puch)
Children look for secret hiding places, places that offer the possibility of retreating from the world when they want. These are places with their own laws, where intimacy and privacy are allowed, free of rules and other people’s expectations. At some point you take up your place in the world and the hideouts become childhood memories. But sometimes we want these shelters back—the more public our lives are, the more we move in worlds that are strange to us, the less space we have for inner retreat caught up as we are in the demands of daily life.
Info »Territories of the Self« PDF
Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2015
Territories of the self, Ramesh, Kochi, India, 2014
Manfred Bockelmann, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2015
Oliver Welter, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2015
Richard Klammer, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2015
ABWESENHEITSNOTIZEN / NOTES ON ABSENCE
Germany, Austria, 2004-2015 (with Karen Weinert)
The photographs from the long-term project »Abwesenheitsnotizen / Notes on Absence« show places associated with well-known individuals, which today are open to the public as museums. What’s left when nothing’s left? Moving the contents out of these workrooms and living spaces creates an empty space that directs the viewer’s gaze towards ‘points of uncertainty’, raising questions about loss and permanence in the contemporary world and the place of posterity within it.
TERRA INCOGNITA
Germany, 2004 (with Karen Weinert)
The photographic work »terra incognita« shows five views of period high-rise buildings in Dresden and Leipzig, and ostensibly follows the formal criteria of serial photography, as characterized by the so called Becher-School. Upon closer examination, however, we notice a violation of this modus operandi. Appeals were made to the residents of the buildings to participate and campaigns were carried out, the results of which can be seen on the house facades.
WHH 17
Germany, 2004 (with Karen Weinert)
The work »WHH17« consists of twelve photographs of the inside of a high-rise building. The title is the name of a type of building, a prefabricated concrete slab building from GDR times. The photos show empty rooms, which constitute the living space and kitchen area. In GDR times, when these buildings were new, they were highly sought after, but since German reunification they have been increasingly characterized by a sense of vacancy. Individual clues to the previous tenants can still be found in the empty flats, which are clearly identifiable as East German new builds from the 1980s, not least because of their standardized glass cabinets [Hellerauer Glasvirtrinen], which was highly typical of the period.
DDR - MUSEALE ANSICHTEN / GDR - MUSEUM VIEWS
Germany, 2003-07
The GDR has become history. After German reunification, many East German families hoping for a different, better lifestyle discarded their daily household items as bulk refuse. A good decade later, these items are housed in specially created museums, giving a picture of everyday life in the GDR. These interiors never saw any actual living. The photographs are images of constructed spaces, in which a seemingly neutral picture of the past has been created, with no reference points in the present to challenge its objectivity.
INNERE ANGELEGENHEIT / INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Germany, 2009
The project »Internal Affairs« is a photographic work about the former Ministry for State Security pre-trial detention centres in the GDR. Today, slightly more than half of the once seventeen pretrial detention centres have been made into memorials or stand vacant and are accessible to the public in their disused state. This allows us to get a comprehensive insight into the penal system of a past political regime.
STRANGELAND / FREMDESLAND
Germany 2006/07
The photographic series » Strangeland (Fremdesland)« focuses on villages on the former inner-German border which were “erased”, the inhabitants expelled and their buildings demolished. However, the place names remained, on maps and in the GDR postcode directories.
TO THE FILES / ZU DEN AKTEN
Germany, 2010
When does a state ever collapse? In the last two decades, since the demise of the GDR dictatorship, a broad and intensive field of research has opened up. The research that is done is mainly based on archive material, which is stored by various institutions. How do these places look, these rooms where the GDR is stored by order of the state?
IN THE MIDDLE OF OVER THERE
Germany, 2006
Since German reunification, the emblems of the former GDR – flags, medals, certificates and uniforms – as well as all kinds of products for daily consumption, have become interesting propositions, either to be put on show in various exhibitions, private and otherwise, or to be reused in some new context. The continued survival of these symbols and objects has something to do with promoting identity – not so much a cherishing of the GDR and the substance of its political system as with a feeling of belonging to a certain culture. This work shows that, even if there has been a complete change in the political system, the GDR is taking a long time to say goodbye; it is a roundabout journey of leave-taking and one that most probably also has many wrong turnings ahead.
"DDR-Museumsgaststätte" Tutow, GER, 2005
INHERITED STONES - PRORA
Prora, Germany, 2002
The »Seebad der Zwanzigtausend«, was built as a gigantic holiday complex. The structure, which is over four kilometres long, was never completed. Initiated by Adolf Hitler, this monumental complex, which still stands to this day on the Island of Rügen, represents visible proof of the long-term failure of the fascist strategy of mass propaganda. The national socialist was to be made to feel small by the scale of his surroundings, while simultaneously feeling important and part of a great whole. This illusion of significance covered up the individual’s total insignificance, which was unmasked through the terrible reality of the Second World War.
Info »Inherited Stones - Prora« PDF
INHERITED STONES - NUREMBERG
Nuremberg, Germany, 2001
To this day, we Germans are confronted with the following: »What to do with the buildings of the Third Reich?«, some of which are simply too huge even for the displacement solution of blowing up; as well as the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Thus, even in democracy, it remains what it was under National Socialism: a place for mass events. The reflection of the past in the present remains important. My work offers space for this. The deserted images create space for a historical debate about the potential for the seductiveness of masses, but also for the necessary substantive and political prerequisites.
Info »Inherited Stones - Nuremberg« PDF
ARCHITECTURE OF LISTENING
Germany, 2004
Concert shells, unusual and rather little-noticed buildings that serve as a stage for musical performances outdoors and are often located in parks and promenades, are the central subject of this typological photographic observation.
Fredenbaumpark Dortmund, Germany, 2004
Binz, Germany, 2004
Planten & Bloom Park, Hamburg, Germany, 2004
Wilhemshaven, Germany, 2004
Westfalenpark Dortmund, Germany, 2004
Hamm, Germany, 2004
Mönchengladbach, Germany, 2004
Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 2004
Zoo, Wuppertal, Germany, 2004