Ricarda Roggan, Garage 4, 2008, C - Print, 150 x 197 cm, Edition of 3, courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Interview by Qimei Fu

Why do you choose photography as the media of your work?

It is just a tool. But I love it for its clear presence, simpleness, and the way to define parts of reality as a picture. I still use that old analog 8 x 10 "-camera for the sake of a slow and laborious working process.

Can you talk a little bit about Apparate? How would you describe this series?

It brought me back to earlier times, as I used to work as a projectionist. I always remember the feeling of sitting next to the projector in the warm darkness for hours. As long as the light is shining, everything is good. Listening to the sound of clatter and rattle, I often fell asleep.

As we worked with all the apparatus to take photographs, we also recorded the sounds. Every projector had a different sound. Now I am thrilled to have them on vinyl. Since that, I never had problems with falling asleep anymore.

Is it possible to describe the things that inspire you?

Always things "out of service". Still standing next to us, not yet thrown away, but somehow useless - seen from a practical side. If you just leave them alone, time goes on, and dust covers those things. It has something to do with a slowdown of time, a particular sort of silence around them. They lose every value and finally stop all chatter. And then, time is right to have another look at them, to recognize something essential.