Yield

Jan Lehner’s (b. 1983, German) first book Yield consists of pictures that were taken on a day to day basis; often in passing and without a defined purpose or final format in mind. And yet, they all share a common underlying thread. The five or six years they span marked a period of great personal changes and challenges for Lehner—the obvious and universal one: a pandemic sweeping the planet, stopping everything in its tracks; others of a much more intimate nature, such as the birth of a child, the illness and loss of a parent, and personal hardships and their recovery.

While none of this is spelled out explicitly in Yield, grief, love, fear, hope, despair, and their related nuances all find their echoes layered in images that often represent small moments of respite during a measure of turbulence. It is in this backdrop that the book takes its title with its dual meaning: that to surrender in the face of overwhelming challenges often allows one to emerge holding, and knowing, something new. The book contains a poem, in German, written by writer and poet Theresa Patzschke (b. 1987, German), with an English translation.