The exhibition Safari unites two distinct photographic perspectives that, each in its own way, engage with photography’s documentary potential. Both approaches share a focus on everyday surroundings, yet the photographic intent diverges fundamentally. While Hake employs a classic documentary approach in her current work Fairplay, traveling through various cities, Schlüter photographs recurring daily scenes in his work Routine & Indifference and uses this initial material to alter his subjects through image editing. The exhibition offers a dynamic view that alternates between wide and focused perspectives on diverse urban spaces.
Fairplay
A work-centric society suggests a clear equation: performance leads to success. The logic of work promises social participation, self-fulfillment, and recognition, with no space for luck or randomness. The concept rests on personal responsibility—successes and failures are framed as “self-made,” attributed to one’s control, decision-making, and independence. Yet the vast array of factors that shape social status is often overlooked or disregarded. Each individual pursues unique paths, instincts, and necessities, achieving personal goals among others who seem like mere extras but are subject to the same societal expectations. Work and gambling, success and lottery, offices and game halls are isolated worlds. In her series Fairplay (2024), Caroline Hake captures these spaces as part of the urban fabric—found in city niches, by side entrances of train stations, or along highways and rest stops.
Routine & Indifference
Routine & Indifference
Routines anchor the day, guiding the consciousness from one task to the next. Against this need for structure, there exists a counterforce: indifference, born from the continual repetition of familiar scenes. Schlüter’s work Routine & Indifference (2024) reflects the fatigue and weariness that these routines evoke: half-sleep, daydreams, and a feeling of emptiness define the emotional atmosphere of this visual study. His lens falls on the same architectural forms repeatedly, yet they appear shifted, overlaid, disrupted, echoing the imposition of daily paths. Routine & Indifference visually mirrors social and spatial monotony, presenting a blurred view of foundational structures: photographing, erasing, painting over, and dissolving.
