Ob wir wollen [If we want]
Photo series | 2010
Funded by the Women’s Promotion Fund
Growing up as the youngest of three sisters, Nora Ströbel was strongly influenced by her relationship with her siblings. In this series of portraits, she attempts to find out what this life-long bond between siblings looks like. In the process of taking the photos, not only did she discover the relationship between her siblings but also between them, herself as the photographer and the camera. As soon as the camera was pointed at them, they altered their appearance. They assumed poses, which they themselves were largely unaware of.
The pose was the result of an image that they had so frequently projected onto their own bodies that they began identifying with the image both physically and mentally. No matter how hard Ströbel tried to make the pose not appear as such, it was always recognisable as a construct. The result is a compromise between how the models wished to be represented on camera and the photographic intention of producing a portrait series on the relationship between sisters.