Between city and countryside, between being a child and being a woman: for their project "Mona Lisas of the suburbs" Ute and Werner Mahler photographed girls in transition. They have selected thirty of these portraits for a book that can now be ordered in our OSTKREUZ-Store. © Ute and Werner Mahler/OSTKREUZ
To produce the body of work, the Mahlers spent three years traveling across Europe, meeting their "Mona Lisas" in Liverpool, Minsk, Florence, Reykjavik and Berlin. Going to the suburbs, they waited for girls that had something mysterious and timeless in their faces. They portrayed them in their own surroundings, between buildings and meadows, but with an equipment used mostly in old photo studios: a plate camera, a black cloth, a tripod and a stool with a head rest. The girls took a seat on this stool and hinted at a smile, just like the model in the famous Renaissance painting.
The first "Mona Lisas of the suburbs" were shown as part of the OSTKREUZ exhibition "The City. Becoming and Decaying". The book published by Meier and Mueller contains a new and expanded selection of photographs and a text by architect and author Wolfgang Kil. Its print run is limited to 500 copies. In addition, there will be an edition of 50 copies with an extra print, and a limited edition box of 30 copies.