STEZAKER, John - The 3rd Person Archive

"John Stezaker has been collecting photographic city views from the 1920s and 1930s for thirty years. His interest lies in the people that were usually photographed by chance. In his "The 3rd Person Archive", he records hundreds of mostly stamp-size details. He describes the archive as a possibility to travel in time. For the viewer, these "miniatures", four-colour reproductions of the black-and-white originals, unfold an enormous imaginative power. One feels like a voyeur observing, in an uninvolved way, the fates and encounters of people in urban labyrinths, a surreal situation that is as disconcerting as it is fascinating." (publisher's note)