Benjamin's Myth

Tina Lechner // Bodies and Geometry : Photography Through the Looking Glass

Working with analog photography, Tina Lechner uses her camera as an instrument to explore identity, depict subjectivity and open our gaze to an apocalyptic vision of late modernity.

While the photos capture a strong surface—exploring fully the possibilities of black and white photography—the human body is coated and clothed, decidedly unsettled. Her figures suggest a sort of strange, science fiction-esque rebirth, undermining the cultural construction of femininity.

This work borrows from the conviction that humankind has lost control over its own creations. Even the female body—which has always been the nucleus of our images—has become a retro-futuristic sculpture combining elements of magical and cyborg identity. Today, we have blurred the line between the human and inanimate.

Lechner’s work is an enticing amalgamation of styles, techniques and cultural references, which combine to make her work original and striking. While her visual language refers back to the early 1920/30s, the aesthetic becomes unique through her personal modifications.

In the end, Lechner brings together the dueling discourses of photography—the art as an object and as an image—while cutting out the “either-or.” Instead, she embrace a fuller notion of “either-and” in realizing her vision.

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