Macht Liebe

What can a body be and what is it allowed to be? The bodies in Anne Morgenstern’s pictures undermine any categorization. Sometimes they are sensual, sometimes brutal. At times they are alive, at times they turn into objects. They are bodies that are in control and controlled by others. They are always irritating. Like the photographer’s gaze, which is as unsparing as it is tender, they take on different characteristics and roles.

In an interplay of form, color, and materiality, Morgenstern combines photographs of human bodies with those of objects. In doing so, she relates them to one another and gives them new meaning. Bodies as we think we know them are deconstructed and embedded in new contexts. This raises questions of gender and identity that demand a second look. Morgenstern not only demonstrates great sensibility in her images, but also demands the same quality from us.

Macht Liebe is a highly political book, an appeal to allow ambivalences and to see each other anew.