Recently I shot some photographs in a local physical education studio. This is an assignment for the Fotoacademie: photograph an abstract subject (e.g. nostalgia) in a single space.
While discussing my work in class some commented that the photographs felt “cold”, because the space was uninviting and the subject ghostlike. That the images provoked a sense of uneasiness, of not feeling at home. Others were even transported back to their days as a child and felt the insecurity about their bodies and motor skills so ruthlessly exposed in the phys ed studio. Even though nostalgia means longing for the past (the past being something nice) for me the phys ed lessons at school were mostly not much fun because I could hardly compete in the physical domain being short and relatively powerless. By concentrating on old details and showing the little girl as no longer there as such (being transparent, like a memory) I wanted to evoke a feeling of times past, make the viewer think about a long time ago when they were little. Hoping that would bring out nostalgia for most. Some of my current classmates had fond memories of the physical education lessons. Nostalgia indeed…
Big thanks to model Nynke and to the local gymnastics club for lending me their studio. Thanks!
The series will be printed on Hahnemühle fineart paper soon as a limited series of 5 (+ 1 AP), signed and dated on the back. Contact me if you want a print!
