Erasmus Schröter

At the End of the Future. Portraits From the Series 'Komparsen'

Erasmus Schröter

Serious and full of longing, their eyes gazing into an imaginary distance, the women seem to be searching for a lost future. Erasmus Schröter doesn’t stage his models; rather, his complex series Komparsen (Extras) focuses on creating universal portraits of average, provincial, middle-aged people. Schröter finds his subjects in the files of extras registered at various theatres in his hometown of Leipzig. The women appear in their favourite clothes; Schröter chooses only the settings, usually nondescript areas such as an abandoned fairground.
For a moment, the photographs place average people and bit players at the centre of attention, turning them into protagonists. His women appear at once glamorous and strangely alien, their ambivalence expressed in a combination of pride and melancholy. In the background, one discovers the fading colours of bygone days in East Germany, conjuring memories of a vanished society. Schröter succeeds in creating an impressive interplay between staging and photographic documentation.