Dialogue

© Holger Groß

As busloads of people from all over Germany are discharged at the largest consumer fair in the world, politicians are inside browning roulade for the public, and Holger Groß aims his camera at the influx of visitors to the event.

Year after year, every 200th German will come here, to this place.

Most of his photographs show the faces of senior citizens and how they have been shaped by their lives in Germany; they could be your own father, your neighbor, your colleague, your best friend. The people look familiar to us. There is little that is contemplative or peaceful about them. As visitors to the fair, it is difficult for them to absorb effects and impressions from the event, which seem to overwhelm them. A distorted image of their being is revealed.

Holger Groß presses the camera button, capturing these troubling moments and lending his images elements of timelessness and universal tragedy.

The pictures don’t illustrate exceptional situations. They tell of life, of everyday existence, which deposits itself in our souls. The images lack anything special that would allow us to distance ourselves from them. Rather, they throw us back on ourselves. We face our own ruthlessness in dealing with one another.