Under Ground
2007
“The guard is down and the mask is off.”
Walker Evans
In this book Loredana Nemes’ underground portrait gallery has finally been published in its entirety. In part, it has already been presented to the public in diverse exhibitions. In the sequence of the photographs she creates relationships between single portraits and groups, enables dialogues to take place between people from different cities, crossing over national borders. The behavior is typical for riding on the underground; it seems to be a universally established pattern adopted by all the travelers of the whole world and is the reason why these photographs seem so familiar to us: leaning in the corner, totally self-absorbed, retreated to an own world, the eyes, lost in thought, look into nothingness, this sleepy state we know, it overcomes us gradually, brought on by the monotonous movement of the train – moments, in which we are “alone by ourselves”, unmasked and without our protective shields.
We know this situation all too well, with ourselves, with others. In these photographs we recognize ourselves. On the next trip on the underground we will remember these pictures and, perhaps, view our fellow commuters with very different eyes, perceive them more attentively and with increased fascination.
Karin Lelonek, 2007
Walker Evans
In this book Loredana Nemes’ underground portrait gallery has finally been published in its entirety. In part, it has already been presented to the public in diverse exhibitions. In the sequence of the photographs she creates relationships between single portraits and groups, enables dialogues to take place between people from different cities, crossing over national borders. The behavior is typical for riding on the underground; it seems to be a universally established pattern adopted by all the travelers of the whole world and is the reason why these photographs seem so familiar to us: leaning in the corner, totally self-absorbed, retreated to an own world, the eyes, lost in thought, look into nothingness, this sleepy state we know, it overcomes us gradually, brought on by the monotonous movement of the train – moments, in which we are “alone by ourselves”, unmasked and without our protective shields.
We know this situation all too well, with ourselves, with others. In these photographs we recognize ourselves. On the next trip on the underground we will remember these pictures and, perhaps, view our fellow commuters with very different eyes, perceive them more attentively and with increased fascination.
Karin Lelonek, 2007
Loredana Nemes – Under Ground
With a text by Karin Lelonek
German | English
23 x 23 cm | 112 pages | 100 photographs in Novaton printing
Hardcover in linen
Publisher: ConferencePoint, Hamburg
ISBN 978-3-936406-17-7