Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin - Artists (in alphabetic order)

Niina Vatanen - Grey Diary

Grey Diary

Gallery TAIK

Niina Vatanen: Shot, from the series Grey Diary
2008 © Niina Vatanen / courtesy Gallery TAIK
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The installation Grey Diary, by the Finnish artist Niina Vatanen, documents a photographic detective story the search for what remains of a deceased person. In her case this gives rise to a multifaceted but at the same time fractured portrait of her stepfather, who died unexpectedly, coupled with a multilayered meditation on the absence of a human being.

Vatanen photographs documents like postcards, calendar pages and a map belonging to her stepfather, showing places where he used to dwell. Here the significance of the picture is measured not by the aesthetic sensation, but rather and above all through the personal recollection which builds on it. A simple clearing in a wood can in this way be highly charged with significance. The role played by photography in this connection has been evoked by Roland Barthes in the following way: Looking at a childhood photo of my mother, I say to myself, She will die and I shudder [...] at a catastrophe that has already taken place.