22 July 2014

For some time Peter Granser has been carrying out projects that fit neatly into the dominant trend in contemporary documentary photography: stories of groups of people, pieced together out of faces, places and objects that speak of the collective identity embodied in the individuals. But Granser’s gaze goes further. He is always in search of the absurdity lurking within normality and his photographic anthropology often ends by revealing the loss of identity on the part of those individuals, crushed by the context in which they live. The disappearance of the sense of harmony between place and private existence is the main theme of his latest work, J’ai perdu ma tête, which documents daily life in a psychiatric clinic in the North of France. The settings of the clinic and the objects scattered around its rooms accompany portraits of the patients, reflecting a feeling of belonging and a kind of community life that photography may not be capable of expressing, as it is only able to show us the silence and the distance from a world that cannot be understood from outside. J’ai perdu ma tête is also a book published by Edition Taube.

Peter Granser, J’ai perdu ma tête
Robert Morat Galerie – Schauraum Berlin
Berlino
5 luglio > 4 ottobre 2014

Peter Granser, Still 01, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Still 03, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Still 07, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Still 04, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Still 12, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Group on a Bench, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Portrait 06, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Portrait 07, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Clay figures 01, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Clay figures 02, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Clay figures 03, J’ai perdu ma tête.

Peter Granser, Clay figures 05, J’ai perdu ma tête.