Local Newspaper
2007 / 163 digital prints mounted on aluminium / 10" x 14" each
Each of the 312 people mentioned by name in a single edition of a small Hamburg newspaper were traced, contacted and asked if they would allow us to visit them at their home or workplace and take a photograph to record the meeting.
People mentioned by name in the newspaper ranged widely from intentional subjects such as the politicians involved in a scandal, to the journalists and photographers who made the reports. We met a string of solicitors who had placed adverts for their services, people off the streets who gave an opinion on a story, and people looking for partners in the personal ads. Most of the people we talked to had no idea that their name happened to be in the newspaper that day.
The photographs are exhibited anonymously, hung in the order in which they were mentioned in the newspaper. People who did not answer the phone or who were unwilling to be visited are represented by numbered blank spaces left on the wall in the installation.
Local Newspaper was commissioned by and exhibited as part of Wilhelmsburger Freitag, curated by Britta Peters. Made in collaboration with Hamburg Kartierung at the Galerie Fuer Landschafts Kunst with Till Krause. Super-assistance: Ricarda Koeneke, project manager: Victoria Sanchez. Many thanks to Till Krause, Christiana Schmidt, Susanne Hueners, James Price, Ben Clayton, Rudi and Julian from Leolab, Claudia Pittelkow, Thomas Bressau and all the hundreds of people who participated in and helped to realise this project. Supported by the Galerie fuer Landschaftskunst, IBA, Olympus and Kulturbehoerde der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg.
