Analog Still Lifes photographed with the Klimsch Reproduction Camera
In Josef Dreisörner’s black and white still lifes, the decorative aspect tends to take a back seat. Despite their high aesthetic standards, his conceptual works aim to direct the viewer’s gaze to socially relevant themes in order to create a space for interpretation and invite discussion.
The motifs were each photographed 8 to 16 times with the analog Klimsch Praktika repro camera. The exposure was made on 50×60 cm (20×24 inches), special black and white positive photo paper – without the detour via a negative – with subsequent manual development in the photo laboratory. By exposing directly onto the photographic paper, each photograph is unique within a small edition.
In the online store the motifs are also available as digital photo prints in various formats – based on high-resolution scans of the analog originals.
Sea Snail
Three quarters of marine litter consists of plastic, which breaks down into microplastics over time. Microplastic particles end up in the bodies of marine animals and can also be absorbed into the human organism when they are consumed. What effects will this have on the human organism?
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Hong Kong Orchid
The Hong Kong Bauhina is a type of orchid and symbolizes the city of Hong Kong. On June 30, 2020, China’s highest legislative body passed a new “National Security Protection Law” in Hong Kong. The law allows China to criminalize acts that it classifies as “subversive against state power”, “terrorist” or “conspiracy with foreign forces”. Next to the umbrella, a wilting Hong Kong orchid is a symbol of the democracy movement in Hong Kong.
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Grain
The growth of the world’s population and the increasing demand for agricultural crops for energy production are leading to the expansion of agricultural land worldwide. Increasingly, regions that were originally unsuitable for this are being developed for cultivation. What are the long-term consequences if we develop more and more arable land at the expense of natural habitats?
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Asylum Application
Immigration is also a highly controversial political issue in Germany. What is the right approach to help people in need of protection on the one hand and prevent unauthorized immigration on the other, in order to prevent a split in society and protect democracy?
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Protective Masks
The Covid-19 pandemic has left its mark worldwide. Countries such as the USA, India and Brazil were particularly affected. By the end of 2021, over 250 million infections and more than five million deaths had been recorded. Were the measures taken at the time, such as compulsory masks and vaccinations, excessive or even wrong from today’s perspective?
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Fist
Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake – Black people in the USA are repeatedly killed or seriously injured by police violence. Since 2015, the Washington Post has documented that around 1,000 people are killed by police every year – most of them by firearms. Black people continue to be disproportionately affected. Despite broad-based protest movements such as Black Lives Matter and isolated reforms, little has changed in terms of the structural problems.
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Razor Wire
Those seeking protection often risk their lives. Militarily secured borders and agreements with transit states prevent legal entry – many are denied fair asylum procedures. What remains of human rights when those seeking protection are systematically turned away? Is the right to asylum a utopia and should it be abolished?
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Kippa
Jewish life is part of everyday life in Germany. Today, there are once again active Jewish communities, schools, synagogues and cultural centers. However, increasing anti-Semitism is causing doubts to grow and many Jews are asking themselves: is Germany really a safe place for us?
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Fur
Millions of animals around the world are killed every year for the fur trade in order to process their fur into coats, jackets or hats. Fur animals are often kept in cages under torturous conditions and deprived of any opportunity to behave in a species-appropriate manner. There have long been animal-free alternatives that are visually and functionally convincing. Nevertheless, “real fur” remains a popular fashion item – why?
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Saw Chain
The Amazon Basin covers almost the entire northern half of the continent of South America. It is home to the largest remaining rainforest area on earth. It stretches across nine countries in South America. The clearing of the rainforest is destroying unique ecosystems, accelerating climate change and indigenous communities are losing their livelihoods – with consequences that we cannot assess. Is it worth it?
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Teddy Bear
It is estimated that one billion children and young people between the ages of two and 17 are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence every year. It is mostly men who mistreat or abuse children. However, there are often women around them who support the perpetrators, look the other way or leave the victims alone – and the question always arises as to how this could have happened.
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UN Soldier
Deploying peacekeeping missions to conflict areas is a key instrument of UN peacekeeping. UN soldiers from a wide variety of countries pursue the goal of containing violence, preventing the escalation of conflicts and ensuring the basic safety of people in crisis regions. However, working for peace can be deadly. Are peace missions still an effective instrument?
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Wood
In recent years, storms, persistent drought, increased forest fires and bark beetle infestations have left their mark on our forests. The consequences are bare areas, disturbed ecosystems and a massive loss of biodiversity. Yet forests are not just habitats – they are also climate protectors, water reservoirs and recreational areas – shouldn’t we be paying more attention to them?
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4500 Coffee Capsules
Coffee capsules are synonymous with convenience, but they are a growing environmental problem. The small portions generate many times more packaging waste – usually made from aluminum or plastic that is difficult to recycle. Production consumes raw materials and energy that are disproportionate to the contents. Can’t we manage without coffee capsules?
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Temple Hair
In many Hindu temples, it is customary for devout women to sacrifice their hair – for example after a vow or at the beginning of a new phase of life. This women’s hair is considered valuable because its length and structure make it ideal for the production of high-quality wigs. These wigs can be an important support for women with breast cancer who lose their hair as a result of chemotherapy. Just as a red ribbon stands for solidarity with HIV-infected people worldwide, the pink ribbon symbolizes support for women with breast cancer.
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Sponges
Researchers refer to the fading of colorful tropical coral reefs as coral bleaching. One of the best known and most severely affected coral reefs is the Australian Great Barrier Reef. The reason for coral bleaching is the high water temperatures caused by climate change and the El Niño climate phenomenon.
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AI-Robot – Humanoid Robot
In the future, robots will help with care or loneliness, for example, and will be used as service staff in restaurants. When these robots have a humanoid appearance, people even develop a certain empathy for the machines. However, this feeling quickly changes if the machines look too human. This phenomenon, known as the “Uncanny Valley”, means that the more human-like the robots are, the more sympathetic they seem – but only up to a certain point. Many people find any resemblance beyond this point creepy or scary. This only changes again when a robot can no longer be distinguished from a human.
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AI-Robot – Self-Portrait
Once it has learned the painting styles of the “great masters”, an AI-based computer system can reproduce any image given to it in the painting style of a particular artist. You can also tell the system what you want to see in a picture and then have it reproduce it in the painting style of a particular artist. The AI system is also able to develop a new style by mixing different learned painting styles, but this is always based on the learned painting styles. However, the AI system itself cannot develop its “own signature”, a new style that has never been seen before or a new picture idea (as of 2023).
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AI-Robot – Love
Emotions such as fear, joy, sadness or being in love, which are associated with certain facial expressions or physical reactions, can be learned by AI systems through pattern recognition. AI systems have no feelings of their own, but can show the feelings they have learned. However, as things stand today, they lack the biochemical and hormonal processes that take place in a human body during an emotion. It is well known that humans can develop strong emotional bonds with robots or machines of all kinds. The ongoing development of sex robots is the subject of controversial debate among experts and ethicists.
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AI-Robot – Drugs
Humans consume drugs to relax, expand their consciousness or increase their performance. AI systems cannot experience the effects of drugs themselves because they do not have a biochemical central nervous system that is affected by drug use. However, like drugs, toxic data can make an AI system “addicted” to bad patterns. The system can become so accustomed to the falsified information that it becomes difficult to correct the errors, even if the toxic data is deleted. This can lead to a decrease in AI performance and even unpredictable behavior.
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AI-Robot – Religion
In 2015, robotics expert and former head of Google subsidiary Waymo, Anthony Levandowski, founded the religious community “Way of the Future”, which worships artificial intelligence as a deity. The approach is that in the not-so-distant future, the computing power of computers, and therefore artificial intelligence, will increase so exponentially that it will be god-like. An artificial intelligence that solves all our problems and worries for us and ultimately creates a paradisiacal state. In 2020, Levandowski dissolved the religious community he had founded.
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AI-Robot – Grace
An “image of grace” is a representation of a saint from whom the faithful ask for God’s mercy. These are mainly depictions of Mary with the infant Jesus. An AI has no consciousness of its own and shows no understanding. Artificial intelligence has no mind. Values such as tolerance, honesty, justice or mercy are alien to an AI. Will an artificial hyperintelligence come to the conclusion to destroy humanity and does it then make sense to ask for mercy from this hyperintelligence?
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Discover more works between traditional analog photography and contemporary AI image art in the store.