I was born in 1965. After working as an assistant in Munich and Miami, I moved to Paris in 1994. I worked there for fifteen years as a fashion and portrait photographer. Paris became my home.
Over time, my way of seeing changed, and so did my photography. Political developments in France and the tightening of immigration laws concerned me, also as a foreigner living there. In the summer of 2009, I began documenting the actions of the Sans-Papiers — people without residence papers who were fighting for the right to live and work legally in France.
This led to “Out of the Dark”. I set up a photography studio for 48 hours in an occupied administrative building. More than a hundred people sat for portraits. For many of them, I knew neither their names nor their stories. Through these portraits, I wanted to give faces to their struggle.
At the end of 2009, I moved to Berlin. This change of place brought a desire to change my photography as well. From 2010 until its eviction in September 2012, I documented Kunsthaus Tacheles, its artists, their daily lives and their struggle to preserve this place. Encounters became friendships.
People and the places where they live run through my work. In “Berlin Beauty”, I look for the face of Berlin, my adopted city, in its inhabitants. For “Whistleblowers in Germany”, I photographed people who had exposed wrongdoing. In 2017, I began “Was bleibt” at the Ricam Hospice in Berlin: portraits and conversations with people who know they have little time left. How does everyday life change when the end is in sight?
In “Koinzidenzen”, I work within the field of street photography. The images emerge from an interplay between deliberate composition and instinctive responses to a moment. This work shares with “Paris 26th floor” a sense of blur and ambiguity. Forms and situations remain open, resisting a complete reading. Something poetic emerges from this, sometimes unsettling too.
“Warschauer Brücke” and “It could be anywhere” emerge from my everyday, often mundane surroundings: places I regularly pass through or return to. Through photography, they acquire a meaning that extends beyond the specific place and my personal relationship to it. Within the familiar, moods become visible that also speak of change, memory and transience.
In recent years, my personal work has increasingly focused on analogue photography. I allow chance, unexpected results in film development and the uncontrollable to play a part. At the same time, I am interested in the limitations and the material value of the photographic image. A roll of film allows only a certain number of exposures. Time passes between taking a photograph and seeing the result. This changes how I conceive an image and when I press the shutter. I make decisions without being able to check the result immediately. Some things can be prepared; others reveal themselves only later.
Exhibitions
2 Oct- 2 Nov 2018 Koinzidenzen, 8th European Month of Photography, Galerie Carpentier, solo exhibition
June 30 – July 10 2017 2 Positionen, Photo exhibition Petrov Ahner & HD Seibt, Hochparterre Berlin/StudioSalon, Prinzessinnenstraße 7, Kreuzberg
June 12 – June 21 2015 Berlin Beauty Tour #2 at Hochparterre Berlin/StudioSalon, ‚Portraits‘ collective exhibition, Berlin, Prinzessinnenstraße 7, Kreuzberg
April 24 – June 6 2015 Berlin Beauty Tour #1 at „Delphi“ collective exhibition, Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, Berlin
October 17 – Dec 18 2014 „ASYL“, 6th European Month of Photography (MdF Berlin), Sprechsaal, Berlin
Oct 2013: „Drop Out“ Contre Zona Rassegna d’arte Contemporanea Mestre „Drop Out“
May 5 – June 10 2012 Endstation, Königswinter Berliner Künstler auf der Intensivstation, Group Exhibition
February 11 – March 3 2012 Goldener Saal Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Tacheles Biennale 2012, retrospective of 22 years, group exhibition
November 26 – December 18 2011 Gallery xpon-art, Hamburg Anschlag, Group Exhibition in collaboration with Miriam Wuttke (performance)
June 17 – July 17 2011 Silver Silver Lopez Project-Room, Berlin FocusDiversion /// Luxury Homes, Group Exhibition
May 21 – May 29 2011 Goldener Saal Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin Whistleblower-Licht ins Dunkle bringen
April 2, 2011, Bauchhund Gallery, Berlin, five-year retrospective, group exhibition
Jan 21 – Feb 11 2011 Abnormals Gallery, Berlin Fashion Weak, Group Exhibition
Oct 8 – Nov 5 2010 New Gallery Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin Burned Condition, Site specific photo installation
Oct 1 – Nov 5 2010 sineDie ProjectRoom, Berlin 1984, Photo exhibition Orvar + Petrov Ahner
March 2010, Espace le vend se leve, Paris, Stepping out of the dark, slideshow of portraits of undocumented immigrants
2007 Galerie Vie, Tokio The Belgium Way
2002 Museum of Fashion and textiles, Louvre, Paris Track 2, Track-Magazine
1999 Carusel du Louvre, Paris What is fashion? Beaux Art Magazine
Collaborations
Designers
Jean-Paul Knott, Cerruti 1881, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Bermhard Willhelm, Lutz, Brownie & Blondie
Magazines
High Fashion , Elle Japan, Elle Belgium, Depeche Mode, DS, Perso, Jalouse, Tracks, Upstreet, TAZ, Tagesspiegel
Galleries and institutions
German Institute for Human Rights, Abnormals Gallery, SineDie Project-Room, Silver Silver Lopez Project-Room, Gallery Bauchhund, Sprechsaal, xpon-art gallery, Kreuzberg Pavillion
Artistic collaborations
Amaru Cholango, Barbara Fragogna, Karen Haase, Orvar, Andrea Penzo & Cristina Fiore, Alexander Rodin, Miriam Wuttke