Oma Rosa (2017)
The photographs in this series show the empty house of my grandmother, who suffered from dementia, after she was placed in the care of a nursing home.
During my break after I completed professional training, I spent a lot of time with my grandma „Rosa“. We cooked, drank coffee and played games. It was a wonderful time with many precious memories. Everything was as I loved it as a child.
When I started this work, the current Polaroid company was still named „Impossible“. Just like my grandma’s memories and later my own memories of the house, respectively our time together, these shots will fade with time – this is one of the attributes of the medium integral film and the nature of all things. Since the photograph was taken, the first changes in the material have already become noticeable. A photograph is in itself equally a reminder of life (through the preservation of things at the time when a picture is made) and of transience in general (through the awareness that this state is irretrievably a thing of the past). Dematerialization is an active process, which can be associated with the vitality and cycle of life. In short, the integral film frames my concept perfect, due to its nature and the history of its use.
I displayed this work for the first time during the exhibition Deutsche Sofortbildfotografie at the Kunstbunker Bochum 2023.
