Daniel Seiffert – Still 

Photo Editor: Anja Dinges

Images from a time of extremes. A constant emotional up and down between oppressively quiet walls. The noisy mood of a kindergartner, the chaos of homeschooling a second-grader. Nerves on the edge, a growing fear of losing one‘s livelihood. Emotional moments spent amongst tall pines in the backwoods of Brandenburg. Peace in nature. A privilege.

For the photographer’s older daughter, the most beautiful aspect of their second home in Brandenburg is the possibility of running around and shouting out loud. Nonetheless, she misses her friends and her teacher and fears she might never be taught by him again.

Back in the gray and narrow city of Berlin, the girls are escaping into the colorful world of fantasy. They imagine opulently decorated caves in which to lock up Corona and banish it from the world.

Watching them, Daniel Seiffert starts to think about the different fates of children, from the housing blocks of Berlin-Marzahn to the Greek Island of Moria. In the years to come, how will the experience of now shape our future daily lives? Will these images be the only remaining testimony of a time of crisis or will the virus continue to be a present and constant reminder of what holds us together at our core?

Daniel Seiffert was born in East Berlin, Germany in 1980. After receiving a Master’s degree in Political Science, Media and African studies, he graduated from Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Prof. Ute Mahler‘s class. His work has been widely exhibited, for example at C/O Berlin, ParisPHOTO and PhotoEspana. He received the C/O Talent Award, the Canon Award for Young Professional Photographers and a nomination for the FOAM Paul Huf Award among others. Seiffert lives in Berlin and works as a freelance photographer and picture editor on assignments and on personal projects. He is part of the artist collective Apparat.