THE STATE I AM IN

In 'THE STATE I AM IN' I approach the complex topic 'inner security' both on a personal and on a sociopolitical level. It is a conceptual body of work that encompasses elements of documentary, portrait and still photography. I aim to illuminate aspects of the field such as surveillance, fear of 'the other/ed', aspiration, an inner shelter, state authority, isolation, containment, demarcation and the diametrically opposed relationship between freedom and security. My motivation during the process of working on the series has been to discover how society behaves and changes in face of an asserted, diffuse threat. I'm contrasting these visual examinations with abstractions that adumbrate the feeling of inner security. I have visited places which are connected to the subject matter, such as the Security Academy Berlin, the law enforcement fair 'Enforce Tac'. I also visited the erstwhile Stasi Prison where I portrayed former inmates and fragmentarily photographed the surface of the rubber cell. I arranged the portraits according to the way they are dealing with their grueling past. By leaving out visual information I underline the arbitrariness with which the concept of an enemy is being designed.