pictures out of a garbage can
After photographing with the van, which Jochen Dietrich and I had to return to its owners, it became very clear to us that we needed another huge camera. But which box or tin was big and black? - A garbage can!
We bought two different garbage cans. A small round one and a larger one on wheels, both perfectly black and ideal for negatives of approximately 50x70 centimeters and 1x1,2 meters.
We started photographing in our city, still depending on a laboratory close by for developing the films. We kept on working together and finally exposed seven sheets of film to the light of our city.
Working with these garbage cans, we realised the problem of what to photograph. We were still driven by more pictorial sights and thinking less about concept, such as using the standard places where a garbage can would stand - beside a house or close to traffic. Although we recognised it resulted in a short portfolio in our university's magazine, "Diagonal", and in a German magazine, which placed our work right next to that of famous German photographers like Struth, Ruff and others.
