Photography

#Shutup

© Harald Hund, June 2024

Censored post on Instagram. Meant as an allegory, Instagram refused the post as it allegedly shows sexual content. Quite fittingly instead, the gag-ball mask can be read as a metaphor for censorship.

Footnote: Around the time of the photo shoot, Kazakh opposition journalist Aidos Sadikov was shot in Kyiv on the same day that his last video about the Russian influence on Kazakhstan was published. One wonders how easily the arm of a regime reaches out into a land which is under war.

Food Containers

Photographs of 44 different casts, each 40 x 30 cm, © Harald Hund 2022

The series is about “archeological finds” which seem to be the remains of our society in the future.

Plastic food containers might, if they don’t dissolve in the oceans or otherwise, appear as fossils one day.

SSausage Dog

Two photographs, each one 50 x 73 cm, © 2022

A political allegory on a conservative party which chose to move far right to gain more votes.

After winning two elections in Austria, their messiah-like leader had to step down because of his involvement in corruption scandals which slowly started to surface in an investigation committee.

#worshipthemoney

Framed photograph, 70 x 100 cm, © Harald Hund 2019

 

a photographic work that was realized in public space and shows a man in a suit

kneeling in front of an ATM. The title already suggests the content of the work,

which can also be read differently. In the classic role model, the man was the breadwinner

of the family, but this is currently less and less the case due to changed gender relations,

neoliberalism, stagnating or falling wages, exploitative wage conditions, etc.

 

While women have long been in the workforce, more and more men are finding it difficult

to find a role for themselves and sufficient pay to support themselves or their families.

Quite a few also have problems finding their place in life.

 

© Harald Hund 2019

Future of the Past Revisited

Each picture ca. 90 x 60 cm

For this series, existing photographs from my Future of the Past series were combined with terms

that counteract the utopia of modernity. This is a reference to the fact that architectural forms alone

do not constitute a utopia, or that modernity, in which politics is still concerned with social balance

is a thing of the past.

 

 

лестници – Treppen

сковорода – Pfanne

булавка – Stecknadel

холодилник – Kühlschrank

строительные куьики – Bauklötze

Future of the Past 2012: Belgrade

Photo series since 1996, on Alu-Dibond, varying size, often 100 x 70 or 70 x 100 cm

The photographic series Future of the past is concerned with utopian-like buildings and ruins from the socialist past in ex-

communist countries. An end-of-time mood hovers over these images, the subjects of which seem to come from science-

fiction films. The photographs depict towers, housing and office blocks and closed down factories, buildings which earlier

seem to have embodied some belief in future prospects, be they social or economic. In their present, derelict state they appear to embody the utter failure of a social and political utopia.

Future of the Past 1998: Berlin

Photo series since 1997, on Alu-Dibond, varying size, mostly 100 x 70 or 70 x 100 cm

 

The photographic series Future of the past is concerned with utopian-like buildings and ruins from the socia-

list past in ex-communist countries. An end-of-time mood hovers over these images, the subjects of which seem

to come from science-fiction films. The photographs depict towers, housing and office blocks and closed down

factories, buildings which earlier seem to have embodied some belief in future prospects, be they social or eco-

nomic. In their present, derelict state they appear to embody the utter failure of a social and political utopia.

 

Future of the Past 2016: Albania

Photo series since 1996, varying size, mostly 100 x 70 cm, mounted on Alu-Dibond

 

The photographic series Future of the past is concerned with utopian-like buildings and ruins from the socialist past in ex-

communist countries. An end-of-time mood hovers over these images, the subjects of which seem to come from science-

fiction films. The photographs depict towers, housing and office blocks and closed down factories, buildings which earlier

seem to have embodied some belief in future prospects, be they social or economic. In their present, derelict state they ap-

pear to embody the utter failure of a social and political utopia.