"Save the Itter valley"
A series of 28 photographs (since 2014, in progress)
The Itter valley on the north-western edge of the Bergisches Land is a narrow band of idyllic countryside but also surrounded by urban areas and industrial estates of larger cities such as Wuppertal, Solingen and Hilden. The Itter stream meanders through here on its way to the Rhine and flows near Benrath Castle.
An essential tool of photography is exclusion for the purpose of concentrating on the essential through cropping. In the series of pictures shown here, it is excluded, faded out, how close the newly developing industrial areas around the valley have already come and how nature is being pushed back. The focus is on the special rhythm of nature, the unique light that the valley slopes, hills and plants reflect here. The voluntary citizens' initiative "Save the Itter Valley" has set itself the task of preserving the nature of the Itter Valley.