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The concept of Perception

 

Fantasy, in my opinion, is one of the strongest powers we humans can develop. At night, in dreams, we are largely delivered to fate of the stories in which our subconscious directs. But during the day, we are allowed to direct by ourselves and can go to every imaginable place in the universe. Even to places that go far beyond what we call reality. The power of fantasy is virtually inexhaustible, because everyone can, in principle, create, destroy and experience everything that he/she/it wants. Theoretically there are no limits ... only those that we set ourselfs.

 

As children, we have all too easily plunged into our self-made adventures. Sometimes a simple carton was enough and you had an eerie cave full of monsters, a fortress to defend, a vehicle to travel to unknown places, or whatever came to your mind.  Not to mention the great stories you could experience with the help of the actual toys and outdoors in nature.

 

In the course of growing up, we are supposedly gradually losing access to this world. At the latest in school we are going to become indoctrinated for success. On one hand it makes kind of sense, because life takes place in real society. But it means that we no longer use the power in our heads for exciting adventures.

Sure, life gets more complex with each passing year of life and it takes our whole mind not to “drown”.

And here is also an important point in the whole story: Through our profession, our environment and the all-encompassing advertising a pressure is created. A performance pressure. We stand in competition with our colleagues, friends and acquaintances. Because they can possibly afford better and more beautiful things than us. And only those who are successfull and have money, reaps recognition.

 

Under these aspects it's all too easy for our colorful fantasy world to change into a gloomy prognosis of the future, filled with fears of failure. When we spend the nights awake, our heads filled with the most abstruse "what-if" scenarios.

But the fact that our brains are longing for this colorful fantasy world can be recognized by the desire for culture. Music, books, films, paitings and events, just to name some forms of art, kidnap us from the dreary everyday world.  

 

In my time as a stuntman at an Action Open Air Theater, I was proud to be part of an ensemble and kidnap both, children and adults, night after night to a completely different world. Being able to enchant people for a few hours and letting them forget everything else is the biggest reward for me.

However, you can’t buy food from it. ;-) But the recognition by the applause at the end of the show fills me with indescribable satisfaction.

 

When the show ends, usually the audience begins to divide into two groups; adults and children. While adults often simply look back at the show and talk about what they liked best and least, children start to fantasize about the story of the show. In their minds they become the seen heroes and anti-heroes and relive history. Or even better, they rewrite them and create a completely new piece of art.  

Actually, as adults, we don’t lose access to our imagination, but we are only too happy to be guided by the direction of others.

Of authors, directors, actors, etc. There is nothing wrong with that, but I have something against it if the power of our own imagination is “abused” only to live everyday worries and otherwise to only follow the direction of others.    

And that's where I want to start with my photos of the series "Perception". Of course I am the director of these pictures. But I only deliver for a moment, an emotion, a thought, a portal, if you want to say so. Because I just want to provide the access point to a fantasy story, a story that develops out of the motive, in the mind of the beholders.

 

The character of the images was created by the filters of the camera, not by post-processing at the PC. A handful of shots was straightened out or cropped a bit.

 

As a lover of gloomy atmosphere, a large part of the images is located in this spectrum. It's probably because of my grandfather's many scary stories during my childhood. ;-)  But you can also find photos in the "Perception" series, which look as bright and colorful as if you were wandering around the world with a psilocybin-soaked view.

But in the end these are just pure information about the pictures. What really matters are the stories around the pictures ... stories in which the beholder takes over the direction.