PETER BIALOBRZESKI - CASE STUDY HOMES

“Such is the power of photography: It conjures up other images, it allows the making of connections, it asks questions, it will bring about interpretations. I can think of countless ways to tie these photos in with issues, historical and contemporary. ‘Case Study Homes’ is one of those cases where this is better left to the viewers. [...] Humility. Maybe we can bring some of it back, and ‘Case Study Homes’ might just serve very well as a starting point.” Jörg Colberg, Conscientious

“For a second, Peter Bialobrzeski brings globalization to a halt and shows us, in his great photographs, what we usually do not see.” F.A.Z.

Case Study Homes is actually a sketchbook. Within the scope of a project in 2008, Peter Bialobrzeski photographed urban structures in Manila. A shantytown between two container terminals was supposed to be the site for a few photos. After slumbering in a digital archive until the fall of 2008 and following six months of research in Asia, the time came for the artist to view the material. This happened to coincide with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers Bank and the outbreak of media paranoia about a second global economic crisis. Although even before all of this occurred a connection could be established between these images and the photographs of impoverished rural Americans commissioned by the Farm Security Administration in the thirties, current events give Bialobrzeski’s works yet another dimension. Furthermore, they pay homage to the desire of people to make homes for themselves. The will to survive and creativity manifest in these dwellings made of the waste products of civilization.