Annegret Soltau

In todays (23rd November) lecture we learnt

about evidence related photographers. These portrayed the theme 'Evidence' in a range of ways, from Personal Identity to a Rubbish Tip. I found this interested as it shown me many aspects of the theme 'Evidence' and made me consider many ideas for my chosen thread of the theme 'Evidence'.

One Photographer that interested me from todays lecture was Annegret Soltau who has a collection of photographs called 'Personal Identity'.

This photographer explains her work as "The series shows a search for biographical traces in self-portraits with sewn-in original documents" - http://www.annegret-soltau.de/en/galleries/personal-identity-2003-14

Annegret Soltau sewn her own personal important documents into self portraits. Which include a selection of self portraits in a 'todays' style of a passport style photograph, and she sewns documents such as birth certrificate and bank documents into the faces of the photographs. One main aspect that i found interesting is that this collection of photographs will never end until Annegret Soltau dies. The reason for this is the photograph explains that "The conclusion to this series will be a collage including my death certificate, to be put together by one of my surviving family members". I like this idea that the collection is never complete, until a sad event such as death occurs.

I liked this photographers collection as it isnt using photographs Annegret Soltau has taken herself of herself, it is her photographing a manipulated photograph of herself. Also it has a similarity to Martina Barcingalupo's collection where the photographer photographs the subject but in the editing stage removes the face of the subject and replaces it with a white box. This perceves the idea that the viewer has to read the photograph from other aspects of the subject other than their face, as the face is the usually the boldest and first viewed part of a photograph if it is just a portrait.