Rotting from Within

Kircher explores identity, patriarchy, trauma and reconciliation in a diaristic project between Berlin and Turkey.

Rotting from Within refers to a feeling described by Abdulhamid Kircher upon the unearthing of his father’s history: the discovery of the generational trauma within the patriarchs of his family and the subsequent task of uncovering the artist’s self amongst the things passed down. Beginning at the age of seventeen with the reacquaintance of his estranged father, recently released from incarceration for selling drugs and attempted murder, Kircher’s self-led journey into photography coincided with a reflection on his past. Born in Berlin and fleeing to the USA at a young age, the camera provided an entry point for intimacy and familiarity with his father and his Turkish culture and heritage while fostering a deep relationship with the photographic medium and its possibilities.

Rotting from Within weaves a deeply personal, autobiographical thread with photographic vigour and candidness as we penetrate deeper into the psychological questions of identity, the glorification of violence, the myths of masculinity and the veil through which photography provides a mechanism to cope and understand the world. Kircher’s threaded visual voice speaks at the intersection of an internal monologue and a nuanced approach to documentary; through complex assemblages of portraiture, observation, archival documents, diaries and more, Rotting from Within contains visual webs of association within which Kircher captures the tension between speculation and reality, the inherent unknowability of even those closest at hand, and how we do not get to choose the life into which we are born.