“No Longing for the Past” - Photographs by Nicole Woischwill

By Ulla Büchner*

Dancing, white molecules were the starting point for “No Longing for the Past”, the new work by photo artist Nicole Woischwill.
Snow as a natural element in the interplay of time and chance. Snow as a metaphor for standstill, deceleration, peace and silence.

Four years ago, during the pandemic, the photographer began experimenting with the crystalline white. She placed individual black and white photographs from different times, cities, narratives, new and old photos in the snowfall. The artist photographed her pictures a second time. Snow-covered and framed by the random facets of frozen water: from delicate powdery-sugary to cardboard-heavy and hail-like; from spotted white on the “Glassy Man” to the ice floe, beneath which she placed the “Cloudy Sky”.
Snow became a natural filter for photos that already existed: animals, still lifes, street scenes, portraits and feathered birds of all kinds. The photos were given a second sensuality.

Putting things in a different context—that is one of the strengths of photo artist Nicole Woischwill. Dresses floating through the air for fashion shots or Knut, the polar bear, staged as a star in starry, luminous spots. In her work, the Berlin-based photographer combines photographic craftsmanship, imagination and a constant curiosity about her own abilities. Surprising herself is what drives her photographic art.

Snow covers for a brief moment. Then it melts.

Leaving behind traces of impermanence. Photography captures the moment that is lost in the next instant. A snapshot. Each photo in the series is an artistic trick, a dual moment. The pictures subconsciously evoke something you think you know. But then it remains vague and irritating.

In her exhibition “No Longing for the Past”, photographer Nicole Woischwill invites viewers to reflect on time and transience, nature and chance, and to create their own spaces in time.

This year, the photo series “No Longing for the Past” received the Honorable Mention from the jury of the 22nd Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Women Photographers in the Black & White Series category.

Nicole Woischwill (born 1976 in East Berlin), photo designer, studied fashion photography with Sybille Bergemann and was a master student of Arno Fischer for five years. She co-founded the artist group “position4” and the gallery for contemporary photography “exp12 . exposure twelve”. Nicole Woischwill works exclusively with analog photography with a focus on portrait, cinematic and experimental photography.

*Cultural and Media Scientist.

Supporting program: Artist talk on November 16, 2024, at 4 p.m. with art historian Julia Rosenbaum and Nicole Woischwill.

Vernissage: October 11, 2024, 7 – 9 p.m.

October 12 to November 17, 2024

Gallery in the Kulturhaus Karlshorst

Treskowallee 112, 10318 Berlin
At Karlshorst S-Bahn station | S3
Mon-Sat 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Closed on public holidays.