Lost In Transition

In Heimat, his last collection of photographs published by Hatje Cantz, German photographer Peter Bialobrzeski (*1961) gave us pictures of his homeland that showed it in ways it had never been seen before. PHOTO International deemed it “one of the most beautiful and significant photography books this year.” Yet, even before that, Neon Tigers, Bialobrzeski’s critically acclaimed exploration of Asian mega-cities, had made him a frequent topic of discussion on the international photography scene.\nIn his new project, the photographer examines the transformation of urban wastelands, many of them located on the peripheries of cities. The photographs were taken in more than twenty-eight cities and fourteen countries—including Hamburg, Dubai, New York, Singapore, New Delhi, and Kuala Lumpur—and portray the phenomenon of the transition from old to new, from the familiar to the abstract. These images are as seductive as nineteenth-century Romantic paintings, but their apparent beauty is deceptive. As in his earlier works, Bialobrzeski masterfully explores the limitations of the documentary image.