High on Hope

Ben de Biel

The exhibition “High on Hope” creates a portrait of photographer Ben de Biel’s and his friends’ youth; intimate images tell a story of growing up in a small West German city in the 1980s. In search of their identity, they experiment with art, music, and drugs. Between intoxication and rebellion, an interstice arises that anticipates their move to the big city; brief moments of release are found in the discovery of sexuality and new forms of cohabitation. Not everyone manages to get away, and not every escape is successful, but the images portray this transient limbo state, when the future still seems wide open.