The landscape in between of Michael Ackerman at the “Bieler Fototage 2009”

How impressive could be for one to know that somebody of the family has gone away from the own country to live somewhere else? Who knows when he is going to return. Through the years, it seems that it does not matter at all. I have been living in a similar situation regarding many of my family group: aunts, uncles, cousins, one of my brothers… me. Maybe it is just a natural disposition in the family. I realize just in my early adulthood that it has been normal for us. Nevertheless, it is a kind of condition that put every single person in a hairline, behind or in front of it, nearby. We could be many, but we feel alone the same way.

The work of the photographer Michael Ackerman “Departure” (Poland 1999 – 2009) reminds me of this condition. Together with the proposals of other six photographers, his photography will be presented in a simultaneous but not synchronized dia projection entitled “The Singled Person”. This project intends to offer a subjective reading of the relationship between the individual and its environment.

“My grandfather came from Poland. He left in the
1930’s and never returned. Growing up I had no
idea what that meant. And maybe I still don’t but
for the past ten years I’ve been in and out of this
land. Katowice, Krakow, Lodz. Warszawa and the
landscape in between. A sort of inheritance.“

“The Singled Person” (photographs by Michael Ackerman, Morten Andersen, Thorsten Kirchhoff, Peer Kugler, André Lützen, Hisashi Murayama and Filippo Romano) has been presented at the New York Photo Festival in 2008, and now is the turn of the City of Biel/Bienne, in Switzerland, to make it visible through its exhibition in different locations around the city. This project already makes me feel undeniable empathy.

Photo days “Fototage 2009”: September 4th – 27th.

For further information (only available in French or German), please visit:
http://2009.fototage.ch