The work Silbersee started with a rumor – that a factory of photographic materials in Germany released such amounts of chemicals into a lake that one could develop photographs directly in it. For this reason it is referred to as Silbersee, German for Silver Lake. The name, Silbersee, is an unofficial pet name given to a reservoir near the Wolfen Filmfabrik. It derives from the fact that silver compounds are used in photochemistry and darkroom materials. However, there is neither silver in this body of water nor is it a lake, but rather an abandoned lignite mine – Grube Johannes, a remaining hollow of the opencast mine south of Wolfen into which wastewater from the Wolfen film factory was discharged. Mining pits like this were perfect for the toxic residues from industrial production.A close and convenient disposal option for unwanted byproducts from the manufacturing of photographic materials.

In this project we use photography, video and graphite drawing. The interplay of these mediums raise thoughts about the properties of photography, such as the moment a picture is taken in relation to the time it takes to draw, the mechanical versus the handmade, the unpredictability of the aged photographic material in relation to conscious decisions in drawing, the precision in factory production versus the unpredictability and consequences of emissions in the area.