Martin Brand
PORTRAITS OF YOUNG MEN

Mar 12 – Apr 21, 2011

»Portraits of Young Men« consists of a series of photo and video portraits which originated in Cologne, Dortmund and the Münsterland region between 2009 and 2010. Images of a total of approximately 170 people were made; of these, 40 video portraits – with their respective photographs – were chosen for the purposes of this work.

The portraits thematize different male-dominated youth scenes in public spaces and their everyday culture. The quiet 2-minute video sequences were made at different places where the youths gather. The corresponding photo portraits show a similar, but slightly modified image section due to the changed aspect ratio (video 16:9, photography 3:2).

In addition to the sociological aspects, the parallel presentation of photographs and video projection lets the work concentrate on the study of the different ways in which moving and non-moving images affect us and on the various possibilities of viewing them.

Due to their documentary character, both imaging procedures make a claim to represent their subject objectively and in a certain manner truthfully. Due to the juxtaposition of the two media – photography and video – this claim is questioned since they enable the viewer to take a different, specific approach to interpretation for each of the media and thus permit diverse inferences about the people who are depicted.

The images made in Dortmund originated within the framework of the RUHR.2010 project entitled “U-Westend”, initiated by the Museum Ostwall and the Technical University of Dortmund. The production partners in the Münsterland region were the Kunstverein Galerie Münsterland and the DA, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst with the media-art project “Hot Spots“.

The video portraits are presented as a single-channel HD video projection; the photographs as a series of C-prints. In addition, the latter are documented in a catalogue published by the Kunstverein Galerie Münsterland and the DA, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst. The two parts of the work, the photograph series and the video projection, can also be presented independently of each other.