CLAY PITS (2011-20)

The ground is slippery, the boots are getting heavier, the abstract surroundings confuse the senses. Pastel tones contrast with rich colors, soft forms border on abrupt edges, moist plasticity surrounds hard rock. Micro- and macrocosm intertwine.

Places where the diversity of nature shows itself are places of revelation. This includes clay pits.

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Shown as 'blank spots' on satellite imagery of the Westerwald, clay pits are the remains of a 250 million year old Devonian sea. Its sediments have folded into mountains over time, been eroded by subtropical rains in the Tertiary, collected in depressions, and were later overlain by volcanic basalt. When the surface layers are removed with excavators, the raw material clay is found. Minerals and metals lie between silicate layers in the clay, which makes for its immense color spectrum. The physical properties of the clay allow the rain, drought and frost to sculpt it before it is used. The tire and abrasion marks of the trucks and excavators add an abstract, anthropogenic dimension.

As a photographer, I am attracted to places that open up another dimension of experience nearby. Places where I put my mind aside and let an emotional experience of shapes, colors and abstractions come to the fore.