READING KIERKEGAARD

2002

10 x 8 plate camera / 5 min exposure time / image size 10 x 8 inches –

Hand printed in 2002, silver gelatine paper as triptych of 30×24 inches, (unique)

edition of 8, size 25,5 x 20 cm / 65 x 50 cm

Berlin 2002, setting up the large-format plate camera.

Reading texts of Søren Kierkegaard. Releasing the camera’s shutter for an exposure of five minutes – Reading the text for precisely the duration of the exposure. Kierkegaard’s philosophical understanding of time as something that must be lived existentially – in the act of reading during the exposure past, present, and future merge.

The plate camera, which captures the reader and Kierkegaard’s texts so precisely, virtually draws the past into the picture whereas the reader embodies a moment of the present while reading.

The resulting image is the future and reveals itself only later.

The crispness of the camera lens is depicting the text crystal clear and the viewer is drawn in.