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shop counters

2004 – ongoing

series of 90 photographs – from 5 continents
syria 2004, cuba 2006, spain 2007, morocco 2007
sri lanka 2017, zanzibar 2018
2023 peru and bolivia, supported with a travel grant from the stiftung kulturwerk
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Counters are offers: What is on the table is on display and is sold. Wherever it is climatically possible, the counter marks the boundary between inside and outside. Inside are sellers, outside are buyers, in between are the goods. Regardless of culture, gender, economic form, politics and religion, counters are a central tool of trade, an interface for supply and demand. As an ensemble, counters are also an equally old and fascinating architectural theme.

Since 2004, Cologne-based artist Anja Schlamann has photographed store counters with a large-format analog camera on five continents: in Syria, Cuba, Spain, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Peru and Bolivia. Here the centuries-old presentations of spices and delicacies, there the spontaneously placed staple foods and spare parts: The tables bear the responsibility for daily (survival) life as well as for cultural added value. And behind each table are the vendors, facing the camera. Anja Schlamann deliberately attracts their attention.

The result is a comprehensive ethnographic-sociological documentation. The diversity of the global store counters encourages reflection on similarities and differences. In Anja Schlamann’s stringent collection, the counters also present themselves as visually seductive offerings for the eye.

Some of the photographs in the series have been purchased by the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. Four photographs from Syria received an award at the European Architectural Photography Prize 2005.
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exhibition view 6.10.-24.11.2024 in the art spaces of the michael horbach foundation