SeaFruit

In 2003 Christian and Helga von Alvensleben already began collecting “attractive” refuse washed up by the sea whilst they were working on the photographs of olive trees.

The fascinating thing about this decomposing and weather-worn waste is that these objects, devoid as they now are of all designated purpose, appear to evolve stunning aesthetics precisely through their character of decay. In a way it is – akin to the still life style of the 17th century old masters of the Dutch school – about a contemporary memento mori, a modern warning that one should always be conscious of one’s own mortality.

And also the exactitude of the photographic reproduction, capable as it is of showing the most tiny detail, has its optical analogy in those very same Dutch masterpieces.