Up to sample (2012-13)

Technique Folded book pages
Dimensions 13,5 x 10,8 cm, framed 30 x 30 cm each / 30 part series
Photos Bernhard Hosa

The series Up to sample is based on reflections on a medical and empirical view of the individual, of people as the object of scientific studies in general. In particular the cycle refers to a book entitled "Das Gesicht des seelisch Kranken" [the face of mental illness] published in 1967. It contains a collection of photographic portraits, each compared to a description of the "diagnosis" and a characterization of the disease syndrome. "Das Gesicht des seelisch Kranken" is an example for the influence of physiognomy, the problematic idea that physical features can enable one to draw conclusions about the human characteristics, on the medicine of the 20th century. Referring to de-individualization and determination of the individual the single full-page portraits are folded to a smaller size using a consistent, invariable system. This process transfers the faces into unrecognizable fragments.