Finally I can hold it in my hands, the Mischpoke, the wonderful collection of images and texts by Alexandra Wehrmann. With texts by, among others, Johnny Bauer, Phillip Holstein, Sven-André Dreyer, Katja Vaders, Andreas van der Wingen, Half past selber schuld and many more. It's a huge pleasure for me to participate in this great project.
Alexandra about her book:
“Shortly before the idea for this book came about, Markus' mother died.
On a Tuesday in November. After her death, the slides surfaced. Pictures that exist in many families - and yet something was different. Due to a coincidence in the form of floodwaters that spilled into the garage where the pictures were stored, the motifs had become alienated. Presumably due to substances brought along by the flood. These substances, dissolved in the water, had drawn wild color gradients on the photographs, which now ran across faces, making details unrecognizable, but sometimes almost appearing like frames.
The slides held a tremendous fascination for me from the very first moment. Because they told stories. Stories of wild cellar parties, of traveling in caravans, of summit crossings, of cold buffets. From parents, from sisters, from uncles, aunts, grandmas, grandpas, cousins. The idea quickly came to add texts to the slides. So I sent the garage finds to several dozen people. To authors, poets, journalists, but also theater makers, comic artists and painters.
I asked each of them to choose a motif and write a text of whatever kind. The only requirement: it should be about the topic of family in the broadest sense. Many of those addressed picked up the ball and sent me their contributions.
A selection of what was sent to me can be found in this book. None of the contributions have anything to do with the lives of the people in the slides, nor were the writers committed to the truth. (…)”
