Susanne Huth. Poesie

Susanne Huth has worked with the art book medium on a number of occasions. In her book titled Poesie, published in 2010 by Fotohof Edition Salzburg, she takes the observer in search of the East Germany of her childhood. Her search comprises photographs of architectural details of the Magdeburg-Nord housing development as well as sweet reproductions of the poetry album of her childhood. The art book combines romantic childhood memories of leafing through an album of poetry with a more detached look at the all-too-real and virtually unchanged housing estate. Rather than strictly depict architectural details Huth prefers to use her photographs to reproduce a child’s view of life, gazing for instance out of a window, along a stairwell, at letterboxes, over fences and into corners. The camera revisits the places that have remained indelibly stamped in her personal memory, whether it’s a gym, the fence surrounding a kindergarten, the journey to school, or the playground clock. The panorama of interaction between architectural space and romantic recollections and dedications evokes a new and poetic album of memories. Indeed, memory is the precipitate which crystallises within us out of the flow of images, excerpts and fragments, settling ultimately into a new mosaic. So while Poesie is a deeply personal and situational document, it easily translates to many other places and locations.

Elke Tesch