To take a photograph of an object or a specific site confirms not only the existence of itself, but also of its maker/s. In that way photography seems to be a practice of self-affirmation of the human kind. Something comforting lies in the idea of us having been here before, being here now and going to be here in the future. Photography can calm us down through providing evidence of our being by images.
The 3 vessels photographed in black and white by Anja Ronacher are white-ground Lekythoi. They are a special kind of pottery that had been used in funerary rites in antique Greece. The photograph of the Lekythoi is taken in today’s arrangement of display at the Art History Museum of Vienna.
The street-views of Avenida Bolivar photographed in colour by Hannes Boeck show houses representative for the building activity in Lima in a modified style of European Modernist Architecture practiced as from the 1950ies.
Both artists work in analogue techniques and handle the procedure of the enlargements in the darkroom themselves. In charge of all aspects of the reproduction process they are providing evidence in the utmost individual perspective and interpretation of course. Existence is proofed as well as that there is no inherent truth in an object or architectural style itself, but a meaning and purpose in the way of using them – or photographing them. Thus exposing practices of self-affirmation of the human kind at different times and places.