Tell Him it is All a Transition

Joachim Froese

Tell Him it is All a Transition is a quote from a letter that Joachim Froese’s German grandfather sent home as he went to join the Eastern Front in 1944. The theme of transition carries as a leitmotif throughout this series, in which the artist has photographed his grandfather’s letters folded into paper boats.
Another inspiration is the Japanese story of the thousand cranes. In it, a girl named Sadako Sasaki falls ill with leukaemia after the atomic bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima. According to legend, she starts folding paper cranes, because anyone who succeeds in folding one thousand cranes is free to make one wish. Sadako’s greatest wish – to become healthy – goes unfulfilled; before she can finish her work, she dies from the disease.
With the distance of an immigrant, Froese connects the narrative threads and describes a small segment of European history in a powerful way. Numerous transitions also carry through Froese’s life. Born in 1963 in Canada, he grew up in Germany and emigrated to Australia in 1991. His main point of concentration as a photographer is on still life, in which he has developed an inimitable approach that includes references to art history.