My little sister 2009 - 2010

»Sie ist meine Schwester und trägt ein Messer. Sie sagt, in der Schule sei so was besser.« (She is my sister and she carries a knife. She says that in school it might save her life.) This line of what was probably the only hit the band Spectacoolär ever had comes to my mind whenever I take pictures of my sister. My friend Ursel repeatedly sang it to me when I talked about my sister. That was seven years ago. My sister was sixteen then and I was twenty-five. Last year she reproached me that I was not taking pictures of her anymore. So I proposed to make a series of portraits of her over a longer period, one picture a week. She liked the idea. In June my sister was in a rehab clinic because she was suffering from a depression and an eating disorder. I came to visit her every week and each time took one picture. They soon became something like a mirror to my sister. She was very shocked to discover how sad she looked on them. So for me it’s like if the perspective moved between us. It’s not only about my sister, but about our relationship as well. We did continue our work for one year after my sister left the hospital, taking a picture every week. The pictures are arranged chronologically. The changing of the seasons, summer to winter, is manifest in the photographs. The pictures I took of my sister are intentionally unspectacular.