Purple Brown Grey White Black. Living while Dying

Daniel Schumann

Purple Brown Grey White Black. Living while Dying Daniel Schumann Today, many people have no concrete concept of death and what it means for them. It has become a taboo topic. In curative medicine, for example, death is treated like an anomaly, its ultimate inevitability ignored. At the same time, our life expectancy is increasing steadily, and old age is experienced more and more as a period of frailty, illness and loneliness. As a result, most people die in hospitals, on the sidelines of society. To me, it seems urgently necessary for people to face the issue of dying and death and develop an acceptance of the transitory nature of life. Because only those with a personal, real-life image of death are equipped to deal with the final phase of life with a minimum of fear – some may even be able to free themselves from fear entirely – and say goodbye in peace. My work seeks to make death visible, with all the pain and suffering that fatal illnesses entail, but also with the certainty that a final farewell in dignity is possible. I want to show death as something common and tangibly ubiquitous in the real world. My project shows people living in a hospice over a period of one year. People come, people go. Some stay longer, others shorter. The course never follows a straight line. The seasons change, the light changes, the colours change. The people live their lives, become weaker, die. Some of them get to know and like others in the hospice. For the individual, the story of life always ends with death. For others, for family members, for people outside this experience, life goes on. People die. People are born.

2 | 25

Ulrike H. | 17th February

3 | 25

Ulrike H. | 17th February

4 | 25

Wolfgang Petersmann | 23rd February

5 | 25

Ulrike H. | 23rd February

6 | 25

Margarete Hagemann | 28th February

7 | 25

Wolfgang Petersmann | 15th March

8 | 25

Ulrike H. | 24th March

9 | 25

Margarete Hagemann | 7th April

10 | 25

Wolfgang Petersmann | 30th April

11 | 25

Ulrike H. | 13th June

12 | 25

Hildegard Köhler | 5th July

13 | 25

Hildegard Köhler | 7th August

14 | 25

Ulrike H. | 7th August

15 | 25

Horst Kloeters | 25th August

16 | 25

Horst Kloeters | 25th August

17 | 25

Horst Kloeters | 30th August

18 | 25

Wolfgang Petersmann | 19th September

19 | 25

Wolfgang Petersmann | 25th November

20 | 25

Ulrike H. | 19th December

21 | 25

Ulrike H. | 19th December

22 | 25

Plates 3

Ulrike H. | 17th February, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

4

Ulrike H. | 17th February, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

5

Wolfgang Petersmann | 23rd February, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

6

Ulrike H. | 23rd February, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

7

Margarete Hagemann | 28th February, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

8

Wolfgang Petersmann | 15th March, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

9

Ulrike H. | 24th March, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

10

Margarete Hagemann | 7th April, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

11

Wolfgang Petersmann | 30th April, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

12

Ulrike H. | 13th June, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

13

Hildegard Köhler | 5th July, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

14

Hildegard Köhler | 7th August, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

15

Ulrike H. | 7th August, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

16

Horst Kloeters | 25th August, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

17

Horst Kloeters | 25th August, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

18

Horst Kloeters | 30th August, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

19

Wolfgang Petersmann | 19th September, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

20

Wolfgang Petersmann | 25th November, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

21

Ulrike H. | 19th December, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

22

Ulrike H. | 19th December, 2008, C-Print, 60 x 60 cm

23 | 25

Daniel Schumann lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany 2012 – 15 Studies: Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany 2011 – 12 Studies: Photography, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, United States 2003 – 10 Studies: Photography and Media, University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, Germany Grants and Awards 2011 Fulbright Scholarship, United States 2010 Foreign Artist Award, China Pingyao International Photography Festival 2010 2010 Grant by the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany 2010 Best Photo Books of the Year-Award, Photo Espana, Spain 2009 German Photo Book Award 2010 (shortlisted) 2009 New York Photo Award 2009 (shortlisted) 2008 Erstwerk Award, Bielefeld, Germany 2008 F/Stop-Award, Leipzig, Germany Selected Exhibitions 2015 Die Große – Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany 2014 International Orange – Labor Ebertplatz, Köln, Germany 2014 Contemporary German Photography – China Pingyao International Photography Festival 2014 2013 Face to Face – Städtische Galerie Iserlohn, Germany 2012 Ik M/V – Museum Het Dolhuys, Haarlem, The Netherlands 2012 Wir sind die anderen – DZ Bank Art Foyer, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 2012 Prinzessinnen und Fußballhelden 2012 – Goethe Institut San Francisco, United States 2011 Wij zullen doorgaan – Museum Het Dolhuys, Haarlem, The Netherlands 2011 Purpur Braun Grau Weiß Schwarz – Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany 2010 Prinzessinnen und Fußballhelden – China Pingyao International Photography Festival 2010 2009 Purpur Braun Grau Weiß Schwarz – Lindner Schidlowski Gallery, Münster, Germany 2009 Darkside II – Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland 2009 Elisabeth und Wilhelm – F/Stop, 3rd International Photography Festival, Leipzig, Germany 2008 Purpur Braun Grau Weiß Schwarz – Hartmann Gallery, Vienna, Austria 2008 Purpur Braun Grau Weiß Schwarz – F/Stop, 2nd International Photo Festival, Leipzig, Germany 2006 Bauhaus Labor – Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany Books 2013 2010 2009

International Orange, Kerber Publisher, Bielefeld, Germany Prinzessinnen und Fußballhelden, Kehrer Publisher, Heidelberg, Germany Purpur Braun Grau Weiß Schwarz, Kerber Publisher, Bielefeld, Germany 24 | 25

Daniel Schumann Märkische Straße 42 40625 Düsseldorf Germany Mobile +49.171.1225626 [email protected] www.daniel-schumann.com

© 2014 Daniel Schumann