A staged photographic series

EXIT

Exit and escapeGundolf Pfotenhauer

Leaving

The wish to leave.

EXIT began as a series of staged photographs about the wish to leave—to get away from a place, a situation or perhaps from yourself.

The pictures take place in an old building filled with dark corridors, closed doors, staircases and glowing exit signs. The women seem to be looking for a way out, but it is never clear what they are escaping from or where they are trying to go.

Woman holding a telephone in a dark corridor — EXIT–02

The Dream

A world like a dream.

Ordinary objects appear in unexpected places: a telephone, a television, a bird’s nest, a pair of scissors. They are familiar, but within these scenes they become strange and unsettling. Like objects in a dream, they seem to carry a meaning that cannot be fully explained.

The photographs do not follow a single story. Each one is a separate moment from the same imagined world. Together, they move between fashion, theatre and a dream from which there may be no simple awakening.

Two figures beneath an EXIT sign in a dark corridor — EXIT–03

Two figures staged at different levels of a corridor — EXIT–04

Signs and Objects

Woman in a red dress lying on a marble staircase — EXIT–05

Woman in black beside a bird's nest on a staircase — EXIT–06

Woman holding scissors within a circular frame — EXIT–07

EXIT is about escape, but also about the uncertainty that comes with it.

An exit can promise freedom, but it can also lead into the unknown.

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