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Atlas of the Essence (2019-ongoing)

In the works from ‘Atlas of the Essence’, Lisa Hoffmann searches for new ways to talk about socio-political issues. Each work is composed around a theme and consists of between 300 and 1500 images, which she found in archives and through online research and social networks. Images that show the chaos, gaps and ambiguities inherent in traumatic events and their testimonies. Hoffmann has not only chosen the perspective of Western photographers, but also that of those directly involved.

In doing so, she breaks with the traditional concepts of news images that have become the standard since the Vietnam War. Hoffmann wonders whether a more intensive observation and study of an image can do something about the habituation and numbness we feel when seeing pictures of wars and disasters and can thus redirect our gaze to events outside our immediate surroundings.

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