photography

From our studio to your wall

To a certain extent, over the past year, we were all living through similar experiences. Believe me, I did not anticipate putting together this online sale and reach out to you for a second time.

But here we are. From next week on we will be allowed again to sit outside our favorite cafes and bars and enjoy a drink in the sun together with our friends. Nobody knows how long this will last. Let’s hope for the best.

Nevertheless, Covid has entered our lives, more than we would like. I had a show barely anyone has seen (the Kunsthalle was closed most of the time) and Ishita spent way too many hours with Zoom calls, including for a prestigious residency in the US she was unable to attend.

Editioned prints, framed prints, drawings, paintings, and mixed media works are for sale. Please check out the listings.

This year Ishita and I decided to organize this sale together. Please do have a look at the pieces we both selected from our shelves and drawers to make them visible for you. Online sales are not our usual business and there is no shopping basket involved! If you are interested in purchasing one of our artworks, please do get in touch with us, talk to either Ishita or me, ask questions about shipping and payment options or make any suggestions.

In the meantime, we hope everyone is well and send best wishes to all of you,

Ishita Chakraborty and Thomas Kern

Soyons tous quelqu'un d'autre - Let's all be someone else

It is more than a year ago when I announced the decision by the Office for Culture of the Canton Fribourg to award me with their bi-annual Photographic Research of Fribourg. That’s a long time for a project “right in front of your doorstep” which is also not quite true, for each meeting, portrait or encounter involved 3 hours of a train ride or drive with the car. Since my submitted project left almost everything open, apart from the fact, that I wanted to meet people, in their homes and photograph them, it became kind of endless - and the appearance of Covid-19 didn’t make it easier. For some months the project came to a complete standstill.

Selecting and sequencing the portraits with the book designers of atlasstudio.ch in Zürich.

Selecting and sequencing the portraits with the book designers of atlasstudio.ch in Zürich.

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Photocopying, shuffling, cutting, glueing - making a first dummy.

The project is an experiment. There is no subject other than to meet random people, they should not represent anything else than who they are. That sounds simple and easy - isn’t that like every portrait we are looking at? Needless to say, I don’t think so. The only clear parameter I had, was the territory of the Canton, the people I was going to meet had to be inside it’s boundaries. How would I find these people? After all, these days things have become complicated. Simply chatting up someone in front of the local grocery store, asking if it is fine to accompany him or her to their home, where we then would have a drink, sit down and do the portrait - I don’t think so.

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The photography part ist done. I made about 60 portraits over the course of a year. Some of them did not make it into the book and the selection for the exhibition will be even tighter.

Also, for most of the year I kept working on a series of drawing, collages and objects. They are conceptually connected to the photographs - visualizing aspects of my work which is not reflected in the portraits itself. Questions of the territory, the landscape and the relationship of the individual and within a society.

The show is scheduled to open on Friday 20 November 2020 at the Fri-Art Kunsthalle in Fribourg

The show is scheduled to open on Friday 20 November 2020 at the Fri-Art Kunsthalle in Fribourg

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“The drawings are an attempt to create an environment in which the portraits are placed. They visualize questions around territory, the landscape and the relationship of the individual within society.”

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Enquète Photographique Fribourgeoise

Ich freue mich auf diese Arbeit von der ich nicht sicher bin, wohin sie mich führen wird. Seit langem wieder einmal etwas vor der Haustür. Das habe ich immer als schwieriger und anstrengender empfunden. Aber ich freue mich auf die Herausforderung, die vielen Begegnungen und die daraus entstehenden Geschichten. Zu lesen, sich hinsetzen, sich ein paar Gedanken machen und diese aufzuschreiben hat sich wieder einmal ausbezahlt.

Freiburg, 3. Juli 2019

Medienmitteilung

Die zwölfte "Fotografische Ermittlung: Thema Freiburg" wird sich mit den unauffälligen Menschen unseres Kantons befassen

Die Jury betraut Thomas Kern mit der 12. Ausgabe der "Fotografischen Ermittlung: Thema Freiburg". Sie hat sein Projekt unter den 22 eingegangenen Bewerbungen ausgewählt. Der Aargauer Fotograf wird sich in seiner Arbeit mit den unauffälligen Menschen in der heutigen Freiburger Gesellschaft befassen. 

Nach der Ausschreibung der 12. "Fotografischen Ermittlung: Thema Freiburg" hat das Amt für Kultur 22 Projekte aus der Schweiz und dem Ausland erhalten. Die eingereichten Projekte wurden von einer Jury geprüft. Diese bestand aus den Fotografen Nicolas Savary und Matthieu Gafsou, Ivan Mariano, dem Direktor des Museums Murten, Romano Zerbini, dem Direktor der Photobastei Zürich, sowie Philippe Trinchan, dem Vorsteher des Amts für Kultur des Staates Freiburg (Präsident). 

Nach mehreren Beratungsrunden fiel der Entschied der Jury auf das Projekt "Begegnungen oder Gespräche unterwegs" von Thomas Kern. Thomas Kern, der in den vergangenen Jahren als Fotograf vor allem international gearbeitet hat, wird eine offene Serie von Porträts unauffälliger Menschen in der heutigen Freiburger Gesellschaft fotografieren. Es handelt sich dabei um Menschen, die wir zwar täglich sehen, aber oft gleich wieder vergessen – Menschen, die aus unserem Gesichtsfeld verschwinden, deren Eigenschaften, besondere Merkmale oder Fähigkeiten schwer zu beschreiben sind. Das Ziel dieser Porträtserie ist, ein tief empfundenes, in der Gegenwart fest verankertes Zeitdokument zu schaffen. Das Ergebnis dieser 12. Ausgabe wird in einer Publikation und in einer Ausstellung präsentiert.

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