edcat – Kleinstadt

Front Cover, image source: Artphilein Library

Publisher Note

An empty square in a small town: almost devoid of people, and those who are there are either very old or very young. There are no sights to see, only empty storefronts, slow decay, and if you are lucky a touch of morbid charm. It is the kind of place that you only come to by chance, and you are compelled to ask yourself: Who is here when I am not here? and why? According to the definition of the Imperial Office of Statistics in 1887, which is valid in Germany to this day, a small town (Kleinstadt in German) has between five and twenty thousand inhabitants. Ute and Werner Mahler chose to investigate the demographic phenomenon of small towns in their fourth collaboration. Starting in 2012 they traveled around Germany in a small car with a large camera and a supply of black-and-white sheet film in search of images that document the atmosphere, attitude, and spirit of these places.

Photobook