Book Review: Unverbunden by Sonja Trabandt
Berlin-based photojournalist Sonja Trabandt’s new photobook, Unverbunden, exposes the fallacy in our modern perception of human nature. Through a series of photographs produced between 2005 and 2012, Trabandt reveals how interconnectedness is a nonessential need based on deep-rooted hormonal desires. Our selfish inclinations condemn the human race to an unavoidable unverbunden— an unconnectedness which, in itself, sources a deceitful connection amongst a distressed mankind.
Trabandt’s work directly reflects her impressions of, and interactions with, the bleak tendencies of human nature. Non-subjectivity and theatrics are concurrent themes throughout Trabandt’s exploration of documentary vs. fiction photography, revealing the ostentatious nature of many supposedly objective images. She develops a complex structure of emotion and reality in these comparisons, and for the viewer, an apprehensive view into the irrational behaviors of man.
The images in Trabandt’s book, published by EinerBooks London, boast a raw, animalistic nature. A blurry depiction of a wolf chasing two terrorized deer is paired with a naked couple fleeing in panic, or perhaps in embarrassment, from the assaulting eyes behind the camera. Another set captures a delicate moment- glowing sunlight streaming through sheer, delicate lace drapes- and affixes it with a man resting against an inflatable female doll, his forearm slightly crushing the latex leg beneath it.
These insightful combinations generate a juxtaposition between the organic occurrences in nature and the erratic courses of human performance. Through the primitive and instinctual actions of non-human entities, Trabandt shares the inevitable disconnect amongst man, and in turn the unity it formulates.
Text by Kate Marin
All Images are select spreads from the featured book, they are presented in chronological order
