“Who sees who first? The picture me? Or me the picture? Between me and what I see there seems to be some kind of echo.”
Pictures Follow Me contains a selection of roughly one hundred photographs by Gabrielle Strijewski, taken in Palermo in Sicily, in Olhão in Portugal, as well as in Paris, Berlin, Venice, Los Angeles, and lesser known places, between 1980 and 2019. From the themes and locations of the pictures, sixteen independent stories have emerged, which are summarized in the book in shorter or longer picture sequences. The photographs tell stories about cities and architecture, about people, places, and situations – about moments in suspension and the spiritual state of her characters.
From the text by Gabrielle Strijewski:
“THIRTEEN METRES OVER THE HORIZON –Where do we start our journey? It was my very first picture – taken from the roofs of Olhão, a small harbor town in Portugal – which triggered off a whole series. I was simply hypnotized by the roofscapes in front of me and the almost sur real objects on them.
People dressed in black were sitting from morning to evening in my favorite café. Long black limousines pulled up on the square out front, bringing coffins covered with flowers, which were carried through the open doors of the church opposite.
The high church tower was the ideal place to look over the rooftops of Olhão. My first visit started off with a generous donation to the priest and ended with his blessing for my ascent into the higher regions of his sanctuary.
And so I went on knocking on doors of strangers, surprising the astonished and often sleepy-eyed inhabitants with ‘pastéis de nata and flowers, hoping to have a look around their rooftops in return. Half Olhão got to know me this way. It was my entrance and my ascent into a private upper world.”
Gabrielle Strijewski lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. After Das Palermo-Projekt (2008), Pictures Follow Me is her second book published by Kehrer Verlag.
Gabrielle Strijewski :Pictures Follow Me / Photographs 1980 – 2020
A photographic journey to sixteen places in Europa and USA
Text by Gabrielle Strijewski Designed by Gabrielle Strijewski Softcover
18 x 23 cm
240 pages
100 color ills. English, German
ISBN 978-3-86828-983-1
Euro 39,90
