DER GREIF
DER GREIF

Old news

Artist Blog by Jürgen Sobkowiak

The short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman inspired me to create the picture composition of the same name. The story is about a young woman who seeks relaxation in a summer house. As time goes by, however, the room with the yellow wallpaper increasingly frightens her. “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” said Sir Winston Churchill. I abstract this mutual influence in the composition Die gelbe Tapete. My cocoon is made of old newspapers. I deliberately chose old newspapers (from the 1950s) because contemporary newspapers usually only contain negative news from yesterday and no longer have any meaning. The composition won fourth place in the photo art competition Wort im Bild in 2022 and is also included in the book Wort im Bild - 100 ausgezeichnete Fotografien (Verlag Heyn).

Supported by our main online partner
DER GREIF
Jürgen Sobkowiak

I was born in 1970 in Würselen near Aachen and came to the photographic art late in life due to drastic life events. I was interested in art from a young age and was intensively involved in drawing, photography, and literature. At the end of the nineties, I taught myself photography through self-study, and in the following years, I concretized my own artistic language. From then on, I have worked on long-term photographic series that I develop over a longer period of time.