Background information, content
"The series 'Unter Wasser' (Under Water), published as a photo book, is both a radical break and a consistent continuation of Hans-Christian SCHINK's previous work. Known for his perfectly balanced, large-format photographs, in this project he makes a change in his photographic method and gives free rein to controlled chance. The setting is biotopes in Germany's most water-rich state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: lakes, ditches, and so-called "Sölle". These bodies of water were mostly created by the retreat of the ice sheet at the end of the last ice age and thus mark the beginning of the very civilization that the German photographer so dissects in his photography. For this Hans-Christian SCHINK worked with an underwater camera, but without diving. So he could only guess what would have been visible through the viewfinder. Unknown, almost archaic landscapes reveal themselves in the smallest of spaces. His poetic images deceive us about the actual proportions; an enigmatic miniature world with a partly sculptural character opens up. The theme of 'Under Water' is also a larger one than the small biotopes initially suggest: the relationship between man and nature. The worlds under water cannot be separated from those above ground, for they are also marked by agriculture and climate change. This ties into one of the leitmotifs in his work, that of socially determined topographies." (© Hartmann Projects, 2022)
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