Cologne Salvation
Das Kölner Heil
Power and Rituals of the Roman Catholic Church in Cologne. The hermetic and hierarchic world of the clergy of the Cologne Cathedral is marked by merit and mercy, by sorrow and hope, by sin and salvation. The pictures analyze and document the power structures of an autonomic system of salvation, surviving seemingly untouched by all developments of our century. Photographs from 1986 to 1996. Das Kölner Heil is part of the cycle Power and Ritual.
"Seen from its theological meaning, the term „Heil“ defines the essence of all religion, in that it pinpoints one of man’s most existential experiences: that of „Unheil“ or evil. Out of this experience grows man’s subsequent longing for „Heil“, or salvation, in the sense of redemption. Mankind and the saviour, salvation and harm, sin and deliverance. Around this very basic underlying structure of opposites, there is grouped, in every religion, a very fine-woven network of different factors, necessary in order to attain redemption..."
Vintage gelatin silver prints, different formats from 24x30cm up to a size of 106x160cm, sig., stamp., notes, 1990-2004
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