Frank Berger - Traffic Assistants

Frank Berger has developed a photographic method which can be described as a gesture of insistence. He produces extensive series of photos of certain settings, in particular street scenes, that depict variations of similar, mundane constellations in almost identical framings. Shot in high-resolution on reversal film, the pictures do not capture a “unique moment”, but rather insist on the workings of the “optical unconscious” of photography. This artist book brings together the series Traffic Assistants (Shanghai, 2008) and Theseus & Kentaur (Vienna, 2007). Human figures are shown in what appear to be opposing contexts: as the heroic subjects of artistic representation and touristic contemplation at the Vienna Museum of Fine Arts, and then again in a Chaplinesque choreography of assistant policemen in Shanghai trying to control the local traffic. Thanks to Spector Books (Leipzig).

320 pages, 24 x 31, slipcase containing two books, Spector Books (Leipzig).