Schmetterlinge in Bewegung

Schmetterlinge in Bewegung [German for Butterflies in Motion] is a visual research and personal examination on one of the most aestheticized objects of all times: the butterfly. Besides the fascination to work with a subject that has almost become the cliché of a banal photograph itself and common denominator for a beautiful subject, butterflies also symbolise change, transformation and metamorphosis as well as beauty in destruction like no other living being throughout cultures.

Created during the first Covid lockdown in 2020 – a sudden state of collective change, global turmoil and unforeseeable disruption - Schmetterlinge in Bewegung plays with the symbol of the butterfly as incarnation of the current status quo. When a usual approach is to seek for the calm moment in the midst of chaos, Schmetterlinge in Bewegung embraces to capture the beauty of chaos and impetuosity while being forced to stand still.

Consequently the conscious attempt to capture the butterflies in motion embraces the fact of not knowing where the subject decides to go next, not knowing how the situation is going to unfold. Incapable of making decisions, impossible to direct a butterfly or consciously compose a frame, being forced to stay put, wait and solely observe. A visual embodiment of beauty and romance within an unpredictable, rapidly unfolding and somewhat cathartic moment in time.