Portraiture - Selection

It is the prerogative of the stranger to contemplate things instead of dealing with them. (Rudolf Arnheim)

These selected portraits I took in 2 villages in Ukraine from 2005 - 2008. They are part of an ongoing series.

Klaus Mähring's working method follows a long and important tradition in photography. Especially the work of Edward S. Curtis on the native people of North America springs to my mind. Like Curtis, Mähring travels with a comprehensive studio and darkroom and sets up a "photographer's camp" in the places he visits. Although he remains an outsider, he demonstrates that he is bringing himself and all he knows into the project.
Mähring's portraits depict nobody in particular. They are a catalogue of calm encounters with people who seem just as astonished at looking at us as we are touched by looking at them. It is this carefully facilitated dialogue between "cultures" that make us stop and look at Mähring's work in fascination; and if we look long and well enough, we inevitably begin to ask questions about our own lives, our "culture" and its dubious quest to proselytize the world. There is a lot to learn from these portraits and much to remember. (Gerhard Stromberg)