Dorothee Deiss
Dorothee Deiss is a German photographer that transitioned form medicine to full time photography, a process that included formal degrees in photography at institutions in Berlin. Like good doctors, Dorothee maintains a sensitive and empathic relationship with people that translates into images that bring forth presence to the subject while connecting the environment they live in or they are experiencing with subtle moments that are both causal but meaningful to perceive the relationship with the subject. Dorothee Deiss, was also selected as a top 50 finalist at the 2009 Photolucida Critical Mass.
The one thing I miss looking at her portfolios is a description to gain better understanding of the circumstances and the message of the series. In some series it is possible to guess what it is all about but in other the images leave you with the curiosity to understand more. The series “As if Nothing Happened” relates to the past legacy of the Berlin wall, a moment in history which physical hallmarks have been erased at large by the unstoppable force of a unified Germany.
Berlin is surrounded and traversed by 160 kilometres of former no man’s land and death zone, where once the Wall split the city. Twenty years after the Wall fell, there are only few traces left of what once had the most profound impact on the lives of so many people and their desperate hope to overcome this barrier. However, the Wall was removed, the fallow land surrounding it was transformed into built-up area and idyllic rural landscapes, and soon everyday life took over again. What we see there today and the stories that take place there are as perfectly normal as anywhere else – as if nothing had ever happened. Along the run of the historical border there now is a cycle track. Between 2007 and 2008 Dorothee Deiss rode this track dozens of times. – “As if Nothing Happened”
