tausend morgen

personal project

With the aim of photographing the demographic change in Brandenburg, a sizeable area of mostly countryside surrounding Berlin, I came to Lindenberg, a village of just under 400 inhabitants. To my surprise, the people showed me neither abandoned houses, nor empty stores or incomplete bus timetables. Instead, they showed their ducks, their stables, their living rooms, their birthday parties, their pub, their forest and their fields. So I followed them. In their everyday life and rituals, I found a richness and a sense of calm.

A universe is tucked away in a small space, a miniature version of the whole of humanity, a sliver of life that the mind is able to grasp fully, which is refreshing. This coexistence and survival of the community hovers in a delicate balance and due to its size is in very noticeable constant change.

The small store is gone these days, as is the bank. Some families have moved into once empty farm houses, a few people have died. Children grow up, become adults. The photos offer a glimpse back into a present that we now call past. Isn’t that also demographic change, but without the attributes labeled relevant by outsiders. Tausend Morgen captures these fleeting moments without nostalgia or regret, but with wonder, curiosity and compassion for the honest humanity that is generously allowed to unfold in front of the camera.

Tausend Morgen was created with the support of the European Journalism Fellowship of the Freie Universität Berlin and is part of the 2016 Master Class with Ute Mahler and Robert Lyons at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin.