"Alm-öhi, Berlin"

pigmentbased inkjet print on baryta

signed (pencil) on verso

A man with a long white beard emerges from a thick cloud of smoke, his arm stretched out wide, almost as if he were conjuring something or pointing in an invisible direction. His eyes are closed; his face appears almost euphoric, as if, for a moment, he were completely absorbed in his own experience. Behind him, the specific situation remains only fragmentarily recognizable: parts of a machine, other bodies, and objects dissolve into the smoke. The strong black-and-white contrast makes the smoke almost glow and, at the same time, places the figure in a field of tension between reality and appearance.
The image exemplifies Benita Suchodrev’s intuitive working method. Her photographs arise from immediate encounters and observations in various social and cultural spaces, without following a predetermined narrative or chronological order. It is only during the subsequent editing process that unexpected connections and possible meanings emerge. Suchodrev is interested in the unpredictable and contradictory aspects of life: beauty and the grotesque, intimacy and distance, vulnerability and strength, the everyday and the enigmatic. Thus, this image, too, moves between document and allegory, between the visible and the mysterious. The depicted scene remains open – it leaves room for associations without committing to a single, unambiguous narrative.
(Benita Suchodrev, translated with DeepL)