Deutsches In Deutschland

A body of work undertaken from 2020 to date. The project is composed of images from daily life, friends, family, travel, urban and natural landscapes.

Deutsches in Deutschland consists of a large body of 10x8inch (25x21cm) photographic prints that are designed to sit side by side in congruence. The photographs have mainly been shot between Germany where the artist lives, and Ireland, where the artist is from.

The project is a register of personal surroundings, an archive of the elements that compose one's experience. The family, and moments of movement, both literal and conceptual are used as a tool to begin to highlight the still image's ability to reference time. The photograph's ability to freeze time is also its ability to accentuate time passing. This experience is somewhat unique to photography, a parallel that can only be mimicked or explained by the written word or moving image. Attempting to understand the position of the photograph/photographic print in an age of hyperimagery.

The work has a particular emphasis on the technicality of analogue photography to ground it within the limitations of its practices, and its monosyllabism. Attempting to speak about the strengths or weaknesses of photography by using the dialogué of the 10x8 inch print. Building a conversation between the images that is greater than the sum of its parts.

A large emphasis is placed on the theory of a “national camera” and how photographic styles are influenced heavily by country or region. Research has been gathered that attempts to disseminate what an Irish ‘style of photography’ is. It is a country that falls between regional styles but is heavily influenced by the British humanist/documentary styles that came through the Newport School/David Hurn. The project attempts to understand this style and reference a more German aesthetic of photography, which has begun to influence the photographer through the technical understanding gained from living within a stricter culture and system.

On living between two places or moments. How the home, or a family or a style may change. On becoming 'German things in Germany/Deutsches in Deutschland'.