“I have a passion for geometry, simplicity and contrasts. I like to play with light and shadow, to point out details,” says Berlin-based photographer Andrea Lohmann. “My favourite moments are coincidences and contradictions in the city: a bird leaving a dead tree or an evanescent cloud behind a fixed concrete wall.”
Further examples include a streetlight appearing through an empty road sign, set against a block blue skyline. These kinds of compositions might suggest surrealist paintings by the likes of René Magritte, who experimented with similar motifs in mind-bending ways: birds, clouds, buildings and glowing lights.
Yet Lohmann’s inspiration comes, primarily, from the built environment and its relationship to nature. “I’m fascinated with Brutalist architecture and travelled a lot around Eastern Europe to discover buildings and monuments of the socialist era,” the artist explains. In these images, such structures are abstracted: bathed in shadowy colour palettes of soft blues, pinks, purples and whites.
“It‘s a motivating challenge to find the right moment,” Lohmann says. “The angles of light and shade differ depending on the season and the moment of the day As much as the urban space suppresses nature, it has an important influence on urban photography.”
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
All images courtesy Andrea Lohmann.
