Shooting Stars

The subject of this work is the identity of individuals in context with tourism and its implications. People “documenting” the setting mostly don’t really take part but are mere ghosts in these alien surroundings. The main concern is the own representation in places loaded with meaning and connoted with culture, exotism, romance and leisure (such as monuments, landscapes, landmarks, etc). These sites have been photographed and reproduced innumerable times and therefore are part of our general knowledge and personal photographic albums. On the one hand does the ongoing reproduction of the very same subjects reinforce images of prefabricated ideas and rarely describes real circumstances. On the other hand the individual experience is literally flattened to an image, since the sole purpose lies in the post-experience of showing and proofing one's presence on-site via pictures. For many years I took pictures in frequently visited locations around the world. By cutting out the posing and shooting figures and superposing the „sceneries“, the individual experiences become disputable. With new electronic devices the perception of the real became even more unreal, since the beholder is not looking at the main attraction anymore, but sees him/herself through a screen with the object or scenery in the background. Diversity shrinks into one single image/layer and at the same time every picture of this work could still be defined as a representation of an individual journey. We are all influenced by pictures of these specific sites and constantly contribute as posers and shooters to its endless reproduction. As beholders we recognize them despite the layering, as a part of our knowledge and identity and hence can’t withdraw our participating.