Nina Röder

A Little Deeper Than You Thought

Jul 08, 2016

Nina is a conceptual photographer and PhD student from Germany who combines performative acts with photography in order to recreate biographical stories, which reveal details that normally remain hidden in deeper layers of our memory. Her minimal and carefully composed images emphasize the expression of her subjects and make us focus on the story, creating in this way eloquent narratives that are very pleasant to observe.

First of all thank you very much for your contribution to our project. Can you please introduce yourself for us?

Hi! I’m Nina, I graduated with a Masters of fine Arts from Bauhaus-University Weimar with focus on conceptual photography. I am working as a visual artist and since 2012 as a lecturer in fine art photography at Bauhaus-University. Next to my artistic activities, I am a PhD student with research topic in performative strategies in contemporary photography. My photographic work exposes hidden structures of biographical stories in which I am combining aspects of the theatre and stage with the time-based image space of photography. I live and work in Weimar and Berlin.

How did you start in photography?

My first series called ‘Mutters Schuhe’ is a work about my mother’s youth. Since then photography is my tool to express my personal relationship with different dimensions of life.

What inspires your work?

My family and theories about brain research, psychology and determinism.

What is 'A little deeper than you thought' about ?

This series shows a poetic collection which deals with different aspects of the uncanny and unconscious, death, absurd biological phenomena and an ambivalent image of the male and female body. My figures are often related to forms of water, the origin of life, though dually visualising death within my morbid aesthetic. The physical interaction with the natural environment presents a performance and is inscribed in the photographs as an act of occupation. My images show a space in-between, where narrations and actions are indicated but are never completely legible. In their ambiguity they reveal a certain kind of poetry and mystery, a mood which can be found in German romanticism, in their longing for distance and escapism. The enigmatic states of mind in my photographs indicate moods which are present, but never concrete.

Who are your favourite photographers / artists?

Bas Jan Ader, Antoine d'Agata, Augustin Rebetez.

How would you describe your photographs in 3 words?

The “deeper” series: morbid, poetical, open.

When you are not taking pictures, what do you do?

Teaching photography, hanging out in bars, curating exhibitions.

What are 5 things you could absolutely not live without?

Love, Art, the sun & the sea, Rotkäppkchen.

If you could travel and stay in a place for one year, where would you choose to go?

Iceland.

Favourite songs / bands at the moment?

Wanda, Lianne La Havas, Cellophane by Sara Jackson-Holman.

What’s your favourite movie?

Its a video-installation with kind of short-movies: Manifesto - Julian Rosefeldt.

Who’s your favourite author?

Siri Hustvedt.

What’s your favourite season and why?

Spring - the smell

Gin, vodka or tequila?

Vodka.

Do you have any project in mind that could be a personal or professional challenge?

A project about my dead father.

Thank you very much for your time and contribution to analog magazine.

Thank you!

Hannah's work was featured on our Third Printed Issue published in 2017 that you can purchase here.