"Siedlung“ (2007)"

The youth centre I work in is in an area of high-rise flats on the outskirts of Leverkusen. The young people who visit the centre come mainly from under privileged immigrant families. They experience daily the tense relationship between their parents’ culture and the demands of German society.

What’s missing is trust: Trust in the often religiously defined values of their parents on the one hand; trust in the values of German society and the German education system on the other hand; and above all: Trust in themselves. Lack of self confidence leads to the striking of poses: Rapper clichés, ghetto mien, stereotypical swagger.

Of course there are also faces behind these poses. My concern photographically was to capture these faces. As I know many of the young people for years now, I have been able to build up a sort of trusting relationship with them. For this reason they didn’t have to prove anything to me in front of the camera. They could relax. These photos do not show any poses or any set up scenarios. They just show the people and their environment.

The portraits are contrasted with pictures of the area in and around the flats, the social environment of the youths. The exposures form a dull and dreary picture but are objective and matter of fact, not condescending or accusatory: Even a dull and dreary environment can be home and living space. The inhabitants fill it with life.