All images ©Thorsten Kirchhoff
Berlin based photographer, Thorsten Kirchoff got in touch a little while back and presented his body of work called Alibi that immediately struck a chord with me. This collection of eerie and enigmatic photographs are a brilliant example of the transformative potential of our everyday environment. Silent and secret, they suggest notions of interlude and aftermath since we get the feeling that something is about to appear in or has has just left the image.
Another reality slowly unfolds itself in Thorsten´s solitary ballad. The spaces he has photographed are often lacking in references to the formal bases of the city: history and geography are abolished. Perception roams freely and it is as though these images have sprung from the dark recesses of our imaginations and fantasies. He is clearly more interested in the atmosphere rather than any one particular object. Out of focus, grainy, slanted, full of movement and with sharp contrasts, these photographs are the result of a rapid gaze and weaken the idea of the place by the ephemeral way it is recorded.
The words he chooses to designate to his project are as follows:
"The pictures in the series, Alibi appear to be far removed from reality and present in a disturbing way. Time and place seem to disappear-the photographer moves through timeless and undefinable spaces. A space of interpretation as wide as possible emerges and the beholder is required to make up his or her own stories."Thorsten Kirchhoff was born in Thuine, Germany (1973). He studied Publishing in Leipzig and Photography at Fas in Berlin. He has worked as a book designer for different publishing houses including Powerhouse Books, New York and was also a member of Neonplus, a collective of photographers in Berlin. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions at the Konika-Minolta Gallery (Tokyo, Japan), Prg (Bern, Switzerland),Museum Neukolln, Fas and Neonplus (all Berlin, Germany), Phototrinnale Hamburg 2008 (Hamburg, Germany), Photomonth Crakow (Crakow, Poland) and more recently at the Inaugural New York Photo Festival 08 (New York,USA).
