In the images of Dörte Eißfeldt (born 1950), nothing is as it seems, and nothing stays the same. Instead of merely depicting reality, she transforms photography into a medium of constant metamorphosis. With a delicate, poetic and tirelessly curious gaze, Eißfeldt explores the world, the human body and the photographic medium itself.
Image gallery
Grosser Flieger,1983
A snowball melts away in one shot, while in another it looks like a boulder or even a celestial body. Knife blades take on the form of megaliths, surfaces change their texture, skin appears metallic and then becomes brittle and porous in the next moment.
Eißfeldt repeatedly explores how photography questions itself, transforms itself and shifts the boundaries of perception.
The title of the exhibition refers to a quote by Eißfeldt in which she writes: ‘Photos are like whales that can carry entire islands.’ The exhibition gives space to this archipelago of islands – carried by the photo whales: islands of meaning, memory, similarity or the impression of a moment.
C/O Berlin presents a long-awaited, comprehensive institutional retrospective of Eißfeldt's work spanning five decades, featuring key works from her personal archive, large-format series, and previously unpublished and never-before-exhibited sketches, art books, and notebooks.
- Curated by Boaz Levin
- Supported by C/O Berlin Friends e.V.
