Gras

Erik Steinbrecher photographs people lying and sleeping on the lawns of parks in big cities. He approaches them up to a certain distance and clandestinely takes his pictures. He creates photographically highly ambivalent atmospheres held in suspension. On the one hand, he shows overwhelmingly vulnerable intimacy in public space and the provocation of this publicly displayed intimacy. On the other hand, he creates urban landscapes of great calm and harmony, in which the human body seems for once close to nature and, at least for a moment, submerged in it. “The sleeper is pure. Nothing touches this figure. It transports itself across its own space, its own time. The sleeper is always innocent.” (John Miller, The Cave of Human Beings)