"Spiegel"

pigment-based inkjet print on Hahnemühle PhotoRag

In his series Things, Claus Goedicke photographs banal everyday aids - light bulb, adhesive tape, axe, eau de Cologne, blood preserves, pencils - and basic foodstuffs - bread, butter, egg, carrot, chicken leg. Things that are so natural to us that we hardly notice them. He shows the objects individually, frontally, symmetrically placed, in even light without shadows. In contrast to advertising photography, which uses similar means, the objects do not appear flawless or as good as new.
Their clear beauty results from their consistent functionality and traces of use. Flat, object-specific backgrounds, which in turn bear traces - creased, scratched, yellowed - enhance the plasticity of the objects. The charm of such things was demonstrated by Walker Evans in 1955 with his series Beauties of the Common Tool: "The hardware shop is a kind of unconventional museum exhibition for the man who responds to good, clear 'unshaped' forms".
(Schirmer/Mosel, 2017)