Paul Kranzler
dal 8/10/2006 al 3/11/2006
Segnalato da
8/10/2006
Paul Kranzler
White Space Gallery, London
Land of Youth. Kranzler's photographs explore the aspirations of people living in tough economic conditions and the cultural tensions they face. His new series of portraits was taken in the classrooms of Stoke Newington comprehensive school in Hackney and are exhibited here for the first time.
Land of Youth
White Space Gallery is pleased to announce a new solo exhibition by exciting young
Austrian photographer Paul Kranzler. The exhibition will present a new series of
portraits of teenagers taken at a school in one of London's most deprived areas.
Also on show is a series of photographic portraits of Catholic youth in rural
Germany and Austria, previously exhibited in Austria and UK, as well as archival
photographs of Hitler Youth and portraits of Austrian teenage soldiers from the
1930s and 40s.
Kranzler's photographs explore the aspirations of people living in tough economic
conditions and the cultural tensions they face. His new series of portraits was
taken in the classrooms of Stoke Newington comprehensive school in Hackney and are
exhibited here for the first time.
These latest photographs represent a continuation of Kranzler's "Land of Youth"
series which is also on show here. In it Kranzler searches for intersections between
traditional rural ways and the modern international lifestyle among young people
living in the Krems valley, the Black Forest and the plains south of Berlin. One
youth wears a "Kylie, Britney, Christina & Pamela" T-shirt underneath his
firefighter's uniform. A dark-haired beauty poses in her fake Courre'ge dress on the
main road of a village. This series of black and white portraits makes it clear how
hard it is to leave behind the old rituals of village society, and yet how strong
the influence of television, video and the internet has already become.
Kranzler's main focus in "Land of Youth" is a young man named Thomas R. living with
his family in a small cottage in the woods of rural Austria. It is only from the
entire series and not from the single image that we can discover Kranzler's main
concern which, far from denunciation, aims at the visualisation of a reality where
beauty is found beyond standard aesthetics.
Born in Linz in 1979, Paul Kranzler's first social reportage was entitled "Land of
Milk and Honey", which in 2005 resulted in a solo exhibition at the Lentos Museum of
Modern Art in Linz, and a book published by Fotohof. The subjects of this series
were Toni and Aloisia, his elderly neighbours in Linz, whom he would visit to watch
television or chat before Toni was moved into an old people's home.
Paul Kranzler photographs act as social documents of life in a particular place, in
this instance, Linz and London, at a particular time. The pictures are stark, yet
compassionate at the same time, convincingly continuing the great tradition of
social realism in photography into the 21st century. "I am not interested in finding
out the details of the lives of people portrayed...I am not interested in
speculating about it. Yet somehow I have to come to terms with what I see."
Private view: Monday 9 October, 6.30 - 8.30 pm
White Space Gallery
St Peter's Church, Vere Street - London
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 11am - 6pm Sat, Mon open by appointment