At first glance, the series of photographs entitled Portraits does not fulfill the viewer’s expectations. There seems to be nothing to see, at least not a portrait in the classical sense. However, if you take a closer look – if you examine the first superficial perception – your own facial features unfold on the shiny black surface. The viewer sees him/herself with more or less surrounding space or even people present.
The portrait exists in the respective form only for the moment in which one sees oneself in it; in the next moment the supposed emptiness returns – or there is another person in the picture. The classic hanging of the pictures (known as “Petersburg hanging” or “Baroque hanging” in the jargon) as well as the formal simplicity of the pictures point to a certain generality, namely that everyone is portrayed in them per se – those who have the fleeting experience directly on site as well as those who remain invisibly concealed in them.
Jeanette Pacher