Photography Exhibition - Ina Schoenenburg, Of All the Black and White

The German photographer Ina Schoenenburg is concerned with the psychology of human interpersonal relationships. Her pictures seem familiar and outlandish at once. With her camera in her hand, she studies existential and social settings that affect our lives.

The photographic installation by Ina Schoenenburg features excerpts from four different image series: Flashback, Blickwechsel, Portraits & Schmale Pfade.

Despite this, the photographs on display all appear “related” to one another. The images question humans’ perception of reality, as well as the external and social impacts affecting this relationship or casting new doubt on it.

The photographer depicts a free and easy life, as well as journeys that stray from the familiar path. She documents the dark side of human expectations and the limits of a reality that is both objectively defined and subjectively perceived. Finally, she unmasks the errors of judgment and ignorance of today’s society with regard to inconvenient and uncomfortable truths that call into question the system and its functioning. Ina Schoenenburg’s images feature strong individual stories, alongside weakened destinies in danger of succumbing to reality.

Born in 1979 in Berlin, Ina Schoenenburg lives and works in Berlin. From 2008-2005 she studies architecture at TFH Berlin. Then from 2012-2009 she studies photography at Ostkreuzschule in Weißensee, Berlin, and supports her final thesis “Blickwechsel” with Sibylle Fendt. Since autumn 2016 she is member of the Ostkreuz agency.

The exhibition is part of the new photographic season 2017 – 2018 by Clervaux – cité de l’image

The relationship to reality is marked not just by opposites but by subtle nuances. The unambiguous opposition of black and white gives rise to a vague inkling: there is more, something more complex, different shades. Contemporary photography makes no exception, both in its artistic mission and in its documentary approach.

The first rupture occurs on the surface, before travelling down to deeper levels and layers. In the window of the photographer’s eye, everything is alive, the foreground as well as the background. Like waves rolling into one another, nuances merge together in favour of the uncertain, in favour of plurality. Blurring the borders. Everything shining in the light. Everything shimmering in the shade.

The new season of photographic images is based on multiple truths, straddling day and night, capturing the entire range of black and white colours.