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It’s Like This
It’s Like This
April 1, 2017
© Frank Schinski
The exhibition ‘ist doch so’ (It’s Like This) with photographs by Frank Schinski opens at the GaF in Hanover on 5 April 2017. The event starts at 19.00, and includes an introduction by curator and cultural journalist Peter Lindhorst.
For his solo exhibition of over 40 colour photographs, Frank Schinski selected the heading ‘ist doch so’ – it’s like that. The title reflects the subtle and seemingly unspectacular style the photographer has developed in previous projects, such as Weltgericht (Last Judgement), Transit Stills and Der erste Arbeitstag (First Day at Work). The meaning of his chosen title is subtly different from the phrase ‘it is how it is’ – suggesting a resigned acceptance of an increasingly complex and crisis-laden everyday reality – nor does it have the ‘that’s how it is!’ certainty of classic reportage photography, which seeks to present the viewer with explanations in the form of snapshots and key moments. Schinski’s imagery, by contrast, is marked by the artist’s experience that “it is through photography that the world explains itself to me.”
As an unobtrusive participant, Schinski captures areas that are off-limits to the public: the assembly line in a VW factory, the changing rooms of a football club, an actor’s theatre dressing room. With his camera, he investigates the essence of everyday situations – from the demeanour and attitudes of his usually anonymous protagonists, to the moods and atmospheres of a deserted space. He thereby replaces the sequential narrative and the thematically self-contained reportage with a visual essay that represents a work in progress. The stringently formal compositions and artful use of colours give his images a staged appearance which belies the fact that they are photographic documents – and that is precisely what draws the viewer’s gaze back to a reality we ought to rediscover time and again.
Born 1975 in Prenzlau, Germany, Frank Schinski was raised in a small village close to the German-Polish border. He is a member of the Ostkreuz Photographers Collective. Now based in Hanover, he works for magazines such as Geo, Stern and Focus as well as a range of commercial enterprises.
Further details at Galerie für Fotografie Hannover and Frank Schinski
For his solo exhibition of over 40 colour photographs, Frank Schinski selected the heading ‘ist doch so’ – it’s like that. The title reflects the subtle and seemingly unspectacular style the photographer has developed in previous projects, such as Weltgericht (Last Judgement), Transit Stills and Der erste Arbeitstag (First Day at Work). The meaning of his chosen title is subtly different from the phrase ‘it is how it is’ – suggesting a resigned acceptance of an increasingly complex and crisis-laden everyday reality – nor does it have the ‘that’s how it is!’ certainty of classic reportage photography, which seeks to present the viewer with explanations in the form of snapshots and key moments. Schinski’s imagery, by contrast, is marked by the artist’s experience that “it is through photography that the world explains itself to me.”
As an unobtrusive participant, Schinski captures areas that are off-limits to the public: the assembly line in a VW factory, the changing rooms of a football club, an actor’s theatre dressing room. With his camera, he investigates the essence of everyday situations – from the demeanour and attitudes of his usually anonymous protagonists, to the moods and atmospheres of a deserted space. He thereby replaces the sequential narrative and the thematically self-contained reportage with a visual essay that represents a work in progress. The stringently formal compositions and artful use of colours give his images a staged appearance which belies the fact that they are photographic documents – and that is precisely what draws the viewer’s gaze back to a reality we ought to rediscover time and again.
Born 1975 in Prenzlau, Germany, Frank Schinski was raised in a small village close to the German-Polish border. He is a member of the Ostkreuz Photographers Collective. Now based in Hanover, he works for magazines such as Geo, Stern and Focus as well as a range of commercial enterprises.
Further details at Galerie für Fotografie Hannover and Frank Schinski
© Frank Schinski
© Frank Schinski
© Frank Schinski
© Frank Schinski
© Frank Schinski