Always available will be my entry in the Carl Zeiss Digital Culture competition. This photograph is about connection and disconnection in the human being. On the one hand we hold on to (archaïc) traditions and a warm touch is indispensable for a healthy life, on the other hand we lose a lot of time, and ourselves partly, in a web of connections with others that are always available through colourful applications on ice cold machines, or maybe not at all. (Don’t we all want to be read and acknowledged, without reading and acknowledging ourselves?)
Devices on the edge of the photograph: technology is a peripheral phenomenon, the human being (holding hands in the center of the photograph) is at the core.
No heads: no matter how much you make yourself known, you feel (slightly) anonymous on your device, you are confronted with anonymity; no facial expressions that can say more than words or can change the meaning of uttered words.
Black and white clothing and tradition (marriage) with book (opposed to devices): emphasizing the contrasts at play such as registering yourself versus anonymity, committing versus fleetingness.
