Lone Stars

This series is an exploration of the concept of „the other“. The unbeknown fellow citizen, the stranger. It is inspired by an analysis of the societal climate in 1950s America. A decade characterized by contemporary anxieties like paranoia, hysteria, confusion and distrust. It was the era of McCarthyism, based on randomly accusing people of being communists and alien others, fueling social fears of domestic subversion and infiltration. In my series I photographically pick up on the fact that people in 1950s America were told by their government that those alien others would appear like normal, ordinary people, featuring many human characteristics. Yet in reality – so the population was made-believe – these outsiders were emotionless, soulless and dehumanized invaders, trying to penetrate and destabilize society. I set out to create contemporary candid street portraits entailing this ambiguous duality; people with unequivocal human traits yet simultaneously appearing deprived of emotion and humanity.