Satellite Voices

Munich

Noémie Stegmüller

May 1, 2012

The experimental photographer talks about how she moves between a poetic aesthetic and social issues

• Text by Christine Bierhals

Portrait by Daniel Mayer

Noémie Stegmüller's pictures impress with a certain stillness. The indefinable forms, surreal places and abandoned fun fairs that appear in a sensible colouring are not only documentary photography, but also innovative artwork. We speak to the Munich based experimental photographer about her haunting work.

Satellite Voices: What was the first creative thing you ever made?
Noémie Stegmüller: I started working with photography when I was really young - I think I was about 12-years-old. Both my parents are photographers, so I grew up with cameras around me all the time with a black and white darkroom at home which I stared using myself early on, developing and printing my own photographs which I took of my friends and family.

SV: How do you describe your artwork?
Noémie Stegmüller: Since then my photography has developed a lot but I am still using manual cameras for my work and photograph on film, which is an important aspect of my photography. One focus is the emptied space. Locations which are strongly marked in their function by the masses, are observed and documented at times in which the functional giver (person, consumer, car) are absent.

By additional picture alienation through different analogue and digital technologies and the frequent use of the panoramic format, I strengthen the visual effect and the connection of the viewer to the picture. These transcend between poetic-aesthetic aspects and social and critical questions. In most of my work people are absent - and if they are the subject of my photographs they are abstract.

SV: Which project are you working on at the moment?
Noémie Stegmüller: I am working on a few new ideas at the moment but they are still in the process of developing so I don't want to talk about them just yet.

SV: What’s your dream project?
Noémie Stegmüller: That's still a dream.