SubscribeJan von Holleben
Posted in Visual, Photography on November 23rd, 2007. By Ona Vinyamata.
[Detail of “Superman” by Jan von Holleben]
Jan von Holleben is a 30 year old South West German very attached to Berlin and London, where he studied photography. Today, his work is widely published in magazines and books and he has had solo exhibitions in London, New York, Berlin and Paris.
“Dreams of Flying” is probably Holleben’s most popular and personal project (ongoing from 2002) for the connection he establishes with his parents (a cinematographer and a child therapist) and his own kids (his models), but also because the author himself becomes in it a kid again and makes of an image a game where the subject, the object, the photographer and the viewer play together. This may have something to do with the entertainment society we live in, where everything becomes a game, but that’s another story for another day.
“I believe that through playing you can learn most of what there is to learn in life. ‘Don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a game’, but afterwards, once the game is over, take it critically and understand what happened. For me that works really well.”
The photographs in this collection show an imaginary world where perspective opens a huge door of possibilities: Holleben shoots the pictures from the zenith and creates a scene pressed to the floor as if taken from the front. With this simple and genius technique everything seems possible: capturing the crossing of the desert on the back of a dog, the deep ocean searching for lost treasures or long magic jumps with a best friend. Holleben makes our deepest dreams come true.
Dreams of Flying has received more than two hands full of exciting awards. Amongst them the “highly commended” by the Photography Festival in Hyeres, France, an IPA Award in the US and the highly regarded Kiyosato MoPa Award in Japan. The “Dreams of Flying” series has been published in a limited edition of 500 books and was launched in London just before Christmas last year.
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