Snapshot Ahlen Westfalen is a site-specific document of the residents of Ahlen. For this work, 55 residents of Ahlen invited me to their homes and posed for a series of staged snapshots. I then selected a set of photographs of each resident and digitally combined them to produce a slowly moving video sequence.

Snapshot Ahlen Westfalen looks at conventions within the photographic practice. The common- place phenomena of the snapshot is highlighted, for instance, where individuals pose to present themselves in their desired manner, or to present a ‘say cheese’ smile. The residents depicted also enact a diverse range of other emotional states which have also been used to create the sequences.

The work was installed in the Marienkirche in Ahlen on a large projection screen suspended high in the church’s apse. The selected posed ‘snapshots’ of Ahlen residents appear on the screen one after another in the manner of a slide show—except they are video sequences of one minute duration. The tempo of each sequence is slow and meditative, allowing for a concentrated view of the changes of expression and mood. The hyperreal qualities that result from the digital synthesis of like imagery punctuate subtle aspects of self representation.

In this work, the fixed nature of the photograph is transformed and brought to life—similar to a flip book of images—and aspects of the social landscape of Ahlen are revealed. The ‘private’ image is made public and available for intimate viewing.