Already as a young girl I learnt that water can be used for more than showering once a week.
In my grandfather’s workshop leather was made soft in water and supple to form orthopaedique shoes and aids e.g. It was done in a concentrated process that fascinated me. But the mechanics never let me come close.
My first attempts at swimming were commented by my father: „Water has no beams“, a typical german proverb. I became a good swimmer and learned to control my diving into the water. My respect for the water’s hardness grew while I was an ambitious diver: a woolen sweater was meant to protect me against the hard impact to the surface. But water as well protected me like a magic cap of invisibility: it let disappear everything, the joy, but also the embarrassment, when a dive failed.
Later water grew important to me in a different way.
Water is patient, it accepts everything that immerses in it. Something that is not fastened sinks to the ground and remains there until someone remembers it, searches it and brings it back to the surface.
Water surprises me with every movement: I see colours, I hear it’s sound, I can smell and taste it. The water’s interaction with light, wind, storm, rain or snow, with lightness or cloudy skies in spring, summer, autumn and winter, in hot or cold weather, you will never see an identical repetition; reflections keep moving, I cannot hold or focus them.
Studies
Professional experience
Photography
Already as a pupil I was fascinated by artistical photography and started my creative work. A friend of the family taught me the basic knowledge and sold me a used Leica camera that became a permanent challenge to me.
As a student I continued photographing and wrote articles for the „Frankfurter Neue Presse“.