"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well…"

When I saw the first pictures of this location, I knew a) I had to go there and b) I had to do something completely different. These rooms immediately reminded me of a dark, surreal wonderland. Then I looked at the rabbit mask, which I had bought but never used before. Immediately I had ideas in my head… Alice… dark wonderland… a rabbit… that was a perfect combination for me and so my imagination ran wild.

Next i was looking for a partner in crime to accompany and follow me through the rabbit hole into this strange, dark world. Fortunately I could convince Nadine that a rabbit mask is not as stupid as she thought at the beginning and so she accompanied me there. The shooting was combined with a nice tour together with Philipp. Even though we visited other interesting locations, this wonderland (an abandoned hotel) was my absolute highlight and we had so much fun there. So many rooms were waiting for us to discover and use them as a fantastic backdrop for our ideas. 

I felt almost overwhelmed by all these fantastic, different rooms and the countless possibilities to create exciting pictures. I had to focus very much and unfortunately could not realize all my ideas. But I am so proud of what we have put together in a relatively short time. And who knows, maybe we can get there one more time and crawl through the rabbit hole into our dark wonderland again. So I would likely have a bit more time to have a closer look at the location itself too, because of our two shootings (with and without rabbit mask) there wasn’t much time left the last time.

Almost under the roof we found this small hidden toilet and of course the rabbit sat down on it. The pictures are a bit different from the series, but I think they are wonderfully weird and pretty cool. For me it is always important to be open to new ideas and to take pictures outside the general concept. Nadine also had many ideas for poses and it was a very rewarding and wonderful teamwork. Creativity, a common goal, commitment, teamwork and lots of fun – that’s how I like to work.

Three of my favourite pictures from this series have already made it in two exhibitions, "Antumbra – Absence and Shadows" in Berlin and "Sluice Member Show" in London. That made me so happy and maybe the rabbits will get another chance to hang on the wall in a nice exhibition or find a new home.

Note: This is a repost of a blog post i shared in 2019 on my old website. I think my new blog is a much better place to store my thoughts and stories that I have written down over the last few years.