Marcus Schaefer

“My work is not supposed to be a paradigm for scientifically „correct“ or „realistic“ photography, but that of art and aesthetics. I like the idea of „failure“, deliberately blurring clear outlines and putting various sections out of focus, using long exposure and unconventional lighting whilst applying diffuse and intangible photographic technics that don‘t necessarily end up showing the likeness of someone or something.

I attempt to get away from photography, to escape from banality and produce a photograph that would actually not look like a photograph. My intention is to make my work almost look like a hybrid form of a painting. There is a spectral nature of photography, which for me is undeniable and can have a dark, absorbing element to it. It is something between life and afterlife. I want to please that idea by allowing one form to merge into another, arresting all beauty, emotions and specifically the non-obvious and eventually capturing my individual interpretation of the real.

Besides my photographic practices, I also started expressing myself through moving images and charcoal drawings of various sizes.”- Marcus Schaefer