Some Boarded up Houses, Chicago, 2013 - Joachim Koester
about this work
In his eponymous series Some Boarded up Houses (2009-present), Joachim Koester brings together Walker Evans, the emblematic photographer of the Great Depression, and Bernd und Hilla Becher, the masters of objective photography. Formally, the series borrows its language from the Bechers' famous "typologies": frontal treatment of the architectural element, taken from a high view point with the neutral light of an open sky, no human presence, etc. However, contrary to the Bechers and in line with Walker Evans' approach, the houses photographed by Koester are psychologically charged, haunted by the subprime crisis that saw millions of people lose their home.
Some Boarded up Houses (Chicago) was published on the occasion of his solo show The Place of Dead Roads at Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva in 2013 and echoes the exhibition itself with its wooden maze and atmosphere; described by Koester as “a prohibited space where ghosts can meet and where chance encounters are not excluded”.
