Mental journey

Dagmar Keller – dear to me

04.12.2020
Dagmar Keller, dear to me, installation with three monitors, photographs from the series Shanghai as digital slideshow, 2018 / 2019, loan of the artist, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

While conversations face-to-face or on the phone and via letters once used to be the most common means of communication, now there are many more possibilities such as SMS, e-mail, instant messaging, and video chat. Communication today means a quicker public exchange, regardless of place and time.

The photographs of dear to me were taken during a stay in Shanghai. Dagmar Keller portrays people who communicate with their loved ones digitally. The private moment is transmitted into the unprotected, public space. In addition, passers-by involuntarily take part in the communication. As a photographer, Keller concentrates on these overlapping visual levels: The image of the counterpart turns into a double portrait, with also one’s selfie on the screen.

AK