Pola Sieverding

“A major part of the realization of my work happens outside or in laboratories, ” Pola Sieverding explains right away, probably to prevent us from being disappointed. Normally a photographer’s studio looks rather dry when compared to that of a painter’s - an assumption which certainly does not apply to Pola’s working environment!

She resides in a generous and beautifully maintained historic accommodation, located in an...

“A major part of the realization of my work happens outside or in laboratories, ” Pola Sieverding explains right away, probably to prevent us from being disappointed. Normally a photographer’s studio looks rather dry when compared to that of a painter’s - an assumption which certainly does not apply to Pola’s working environment!

She resides in a generous and beautifully maintained historic accommodation, located in an area where a painter’s studio would not easily be found. The working space itself is equipped with functional yet eclectic design furnishings and has an almost elegant appearance. Elements of her artwork and research are spread all over the place. Each and every corner, wall or table tells a story. Here is where the conceptualization takes place and ideas become concrete.

Pola Sieverding works on different projects at the same time. Besides photography she also does film and is presently collaborating with her brother Orson Sieverding on a sound project.

Her topic of choice are surely “bodies” and skin and continually shows how broad this spectrum can be, portraying sweating wrestlers, ancient torsos with “stone-skin” and the interaction between architecture and the body, as in her project Close to concrete.

http://braennen.de/cross-metropolis-machine-close-to-concrete/

The work of a photographer is lengthy and goes through many stages until it is finished. To bring some immediacy in her work - similar to drawing - Pola does Polaroid photos in addition to her large format work.

Pola Sieverding could work anywhere in the world, but somehow she favours the fragmentary, the ambivalence and the historicity of Berlin: “The counterculture of this city is what inspires me.”