In 2010, as part of a two-person exhibition at a gallery in Hamburg, I created a portrait series of Hamburg's red-light scene, titled SHOW. This series was a pivotal part of my artistic exploration into subcultures. At the same time, my fellow artist, Stefan Strumbel, was delving into the concept of 'Heimat' (a German term for homeland or a sense of belonging). Through interactions with locals, we learned that the red-light district and its community had their own unique understanding of 'Heimat,' which inspired both the series and the concept of the exhibition.

For several weeks, I immersed myself in this world, primarily following the daily lives of working girls. In exchange for their time and access, I offered to take photos that they could use for their own communication purposes. This mutual exchange led to a rich, insightful series.

In 2020, I revisited and reinterpreted this series for another exhibition at Galerie Evelyn Drewes in Hamburg. The show focused on 22 artists' interpretations of eroticism in photography, with some pieces bordering on the line of pornography. My series for this exhibition was inspired by the classic development process in analog photography, involving contact prints and test strips. I deliberately altered the motifs to create abstract images with significantly reduced explicitness. The series also played with contrasts in size and focus, featuring petite-sized triptychs - reflecting the sensor size - and heavily cropped images blown up to large dimensions.

Working Period:

2020