Zhili Byli

Biographie

André Lützen, born in 1963 in Hamburg, studied visual communication at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Academy of fine arts) and at the International Center of Photography New York. André Lützen has received various awards for his work, which has been shown in numerous exhibitions such as the Haus der Photographie/Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, the Krefelder Kunstmuseen, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Noorderlicht Photo Gallery Groningen, at the New York Photo Festival and at the Photo Espana.

Présentation

As a sequence “Zhili Byli” (Once upon a time...) combines images of contemporary living and housing conditions with a series of portraits of residents from the city of Arkhangelsk. The city in northwest Russia is plunged into freezing temperatures for eight months a year, sometimes as low as 40 degrees below zero. The climate makes for an extreme contrast between indoor and outdoor life. Inside pre-fab buildings or wooden houses residents have created cave-like havens of intimacy and comfort where they spend most of the year, while the world on the outside seems strangely neglected.