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    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Muss ja. Und selbst?"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Dividendenbuffet"
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    Muss ja. Und selbst? & Dividendenbuffet

    Artist Feature of Verena Brandt

    “Muss ja. Und selbst?” and “Dividendenbuffet” are examples of my ongoing documentary approach, which explores how people shape and are shaped by their surroundings, with an eye for the quirks and microcosms of everyday life.

    The first of these projects, “Muss ja. Und selbst?” is an untranslatable German response to the question "How are you?" It means something like "It needs to be. How about you?", often accompanied by a ‘sigh’. The project began in 2002 and has run through all of my photographic and artistic projects and commissions to this day. It is a continuous collection of strange but appealing situations in ordinary surroundings. I’m fascinated by this way of preserving the fleeting moment in photography. By combining these fragments of daily life, I tell a new, fictional story.

    “Dividendenbuffet” (“Dividend Buffet”), published in 2016, tells the stories of shares, right from Annual General Meetings (AGMs), a legally required yearly gathering between a company’s leadership (the board of directors and executives) and its shareholders. The project is like a ‘ticket’ to a microcosm where power and money meet the hopes and desires of ordinary people. A rip-off mentality dominates both on stage and in the auditorium. Yet there is also tradition, dedication and fan-like devotion. The AGMs are open to everyone, yet unknown to most. In theory it is about every single share; in practice, it is the major international shareholders who rule. These shareholders are not so much real people as economic legal entities. This world, this parallel existence, is a grass-roots democracy only in principle, and it is all about appearance. What is left for the minor shareholder is the stage, attention: a currency that seems more valuable to some than power and money. For more than a year, I, together with Nadine Schmid, attended the AGMs of large and small German stock corporations, mingling with the visitors.

    Fondament has selected Verena Brandt for the Instagram feature “Bildgespräche” (“Image Conversations”) within the collaborative project and open call "Ich seh' etwas, was du nicht siehst." In the frame of this Artist Feature, we've asked her some questions to lift the veil and reveal the backstory behind her series’ opening image.

    What do most people notice at first glance when they look at this image?

    The image has a very minimalist composition, so everyone usually sees what's obvious: a person looking out the window.

    What is something that people often overlook?

    The plant in front of his face goes unnoticed by many until they take a second or third look.

    Which detail is most important to you, and why?

    The composition and the hidden details of the face. I could have framed the man a lot closer, but this image isn’t (just) about him – it’s also about the space around him. This creates both a sense of calm and tension in the image.

    What reality does this image bring to light?

    From an emotional perspective: Some find the image funny, others find it sad. It can actually be either, both at the same time – or neither. From a formal perspective: The man is looking in one direction, even leaning slightly out the window. His gaze is focused; he isn’t letting his eyes wander – what he’s observing seems to be a bit further away; in any case, it isn’t part of the image, so it remains unclear. He is presumably not currently engaged in conversation or interaction; he is observing, and there is a distance – both between me and him and between him and whatever has his interest. But is he curious? Trying to get a better view of what’s happening outside? Maybe annoyed? The plant obscures his facial expression; he isn’t ‘readable,’ and his mood remains ambiguous. This is how the viewer becomes an (even more) essential part of the image.

    What do you hope people will take away after seeing this image?

    A viewer brings their own ideas, perspectives, imaginations, experiences, prejudices to an image. So, as with any image, but especially when it remains somewhat enigmatic, the viewer and their interpretation become part of the image. That’s why I’m always curious to learn what others see. And I like it when viewers realize that each image is widely open to interpretation and can and will be read quite differently by different people.

    DER GREIF
    Verena Brandt

    Verena Brandt (b. 1978, Hamburg) is a Berlin-based photographer and visual artist. She studied communication design and photography at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Her work has been featured by various magazines, shown at international photo festivals and awarded with renowned prizes and scholarships. As part of the Fünfzehn collective she also develops non-photography-based conceptual artistic projects and creates visual identities for cultural institutions on assignment.