New collection: “Ent/Zauberberge”

I've added a new series called Ent/Zauberberge to the site. Created while on vacation in the Tyrolean Alps in July 2025 it's a reflection on man's relationship to overwhelming nature in general as well as on man's exploitation of the Alps in particular. The title is of course a pun on Thomas Mann’s famous "Zauberberg" and roughly translates to "Un-magic mountains" or "Disenchanted mountains". The accompanying essay was written in German because I want to write more in my native tongue.

Creating this series was also my way of grappling with my relationship to the mountains as holiday destination. I am decidedly more drawn to the sea as a vessel for my desires and fantasies. All the time in the Alps I could not help but comparing the mountains to the sea, I could not get rid of this dichotomy. It didn't quite help that I brought Thomas Mann's novel "Tonio Kröger" with me, a story about an artist who finds his spiritual home at the sea (and in the natural being). This beautiful quote from the book stuck with me through the summer:

„Die See ruhte träge und glatt, in blauen, flaschengrünen und rötlichen Streifen, von silbrig glitzernden Lichtreflexen überspielt […] des Meeres leichter Atem strich rein und frisch über alles dahin, […] wo hinter den Wolken die Sonne stand, lag auf den Wassern ein weißlicher Sammetglanz. […] Er genoß ein tiefes Vergessen, ein erlöstes Schweben über Raum und Zeit, und nur zuweilen war es, als würde sein Herz von einem Weh durchzuckt, einem kurzem stechendem Gefühl von Sehnsucht oder Reue, das nach Namen und Herkunft zu fragen er zu träge und zu versunken war.“

I guess the next vacation will lead us back to maritime places, so expect photos of run-down shacks on Nordic shores or ramschackle Irish cottages framed by flimsy, dangling power lines next year...