Lars Nickel

Beletage – Reflections of a window washer

Lars Nickel doesn’t look for his subjects; they hire a window washer and get a photographer into the bargain. That is what makes these photographs seem so wonderfully normal and down to earth. They show who and what is behind the front door. Pictures, furniture, carpets, decorative objects – of course all these things say something about the people who live among them, but there is no attempt to promote a particular agenda, just ordinary curiosity about one’s neighbors.

But the photographs’ apparent matter-of-factness does not just happen by itself. Precisely the appearance of simplicity requires long experience and great technical skill. Light, distance, linearity – all aspects of the photographer’s craft. And above all: the eye contact between photographer and photographed, the trust that neither will do anything to harm the other. This can certainly be interpreted as a rejection of the current celebration of “baring it all”. In any case, I am not aware of any other contemporary portrait photography project like this one. 

Matthias Flügge

Art historian

Rector, Dresden Academy of Fine Arts