Fotohof edition 2015
Design and edit by Stefanie Moshammer
21.5 x 27.5 cm, 112 pages
57 color plates
hard cover with embossment
offset print with added post card
€ 35
Special edition: book + signed print € 220
ISBN: 978-3-902993-13-7
â€The glimpse, the cringe
the luck, the suck,
the highs, the strife,
the hunt, the numb,
the scrap, the trap,
the slaps, the excess,
the poise, the joys,
the yesterdaysâ€.
S.M.
This project appears as a synthesis of various olive-grey shades of a single night : a night in the city that embraces every night — alive, pulsing and fluttering: Las Vegas.
The contents of the book seem to be as if they were dumped from a drawer of an arid Nevada motel— flesh and feeling are tied together. The author, absorbed by empathy, forces us to engage with the glazed reality of her protagonists: the sandy desert backgrounds, the chaotic dance of neon, humour, tears, glitter, violence and camaraderie.
Environments exude emotions, such as pain, misery and awkwardness.
Human portraits don’t have a specific connotation, yet, through their vividness, are able to reveal features that can transform a face and a body into a genuine character.
The constant use of a flash does not flatten the image — even if it is always the protagonist. Rather, it functions in a way as if probing the walls of a cave: walls close to one's fingertips, yet almost incomprehensible. The eye of the photographer — moved by a powerful and emotional scenario — translates the bitter and rough stories into sweet and smooth images.
Stefanie explains the title by saying “I see Vegas as a male person: one I dealt with and confronted myself. Being in that city is like getting to know and experiencing somebody. She is the opposite pole — the antithesis. She is me, and all the other women shown in the series.â€
“And the rest is rust and stardust.â€