Long-time fans of electronica, André Giesemann and Daniel Schulz decided to combine their love of the German techno scene and photography in a joint ongoing project. The pair began collaborating in 2009 on Vom Bleiben, which features ghostly images of the insides of clubs after the ravers have left.
Their images, taken on a large format camera with a 75mm lens, seek to record the emptiness of these spaces just after the club nights have ended – “the moment when the traces of the event become visible”, says Hamburg-based Giesemann.
“Most of these clubs we know, and have experienced. In a way, this series is like an archive of clubs for me and Daniel, who is based in Berlin, since some of the buildings aren’t around any more. Sometimes they only exist for a while as temporary spaces.”
In these images, the harsh light, made even more intense by the long exposures used by the pair (sometimes of several minutes), reveals the debris from the activities of the night before. Used beer bottles overflow on bar tops; discarded cigarette packets lie strewn across the floor; DJ booths stand empty. “When the clubs close, we enter the battlefield that has been left behind,” say the pair.
“The moment before everything is put back in order exists only for a short time. We always photograph at the same moment – between the end of the night and when the room returns to ‘normal’ – using the ‘cleaning’ lights that come on. We always shoot just one picture since the routines of the clubs’ staff and chaos mean it’s often not possible to take a lot of images… We’re always looking for interesting rooms and clubs. It’s a fascination for us.”
Find more of André’s work here.
First published in the June 2014 issue. You can buy this issue, and more, at the BJP Shop.
