Although the photographs of Nicole Ahland, Corina Gertz and Kris Scholz show the present, viewers feel reminded of the past. These works created in the context of their stays on Föhr as artists in residence force us to pause and ask ourselves questions about how we approach heritage, traditions and values.
Nicole Ahland, for example, who has already been our guest on Föhr multiple times, explores vacant interiors and buildings which appear to contain narratives inscribed within their walls and abandoned objects. She has aptly stated: “Rooms reflect our society”.
The photographer Corina Gertz turns her attention to women from Föhr dressed in the region’s traditional clothing in her series The Averted Portrait. The focus is on a view from behind, without the distraction of facial expressions, gestures or surroundings: elaborate hairstyles, the richly detailed embroidery of the shawls on their heads and shoulders, and the materiality of their skirts. This concentrated focus enables Gertz’s photos to develop a great sense of calm and to tell us about heritage, tradition and the changing practice of crafts.
Kris Scholz, a professor of fine-art photography at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences until 2021, deliberately chooses to work with historical paper-negative processes. His large-format landscape images in black and white accordingly convey a sense that we are being led into places from the past.
Fig: Kris Scholz, See 2, 2023, © Courtesy of the artist, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023