Anki sits on a bed at home in Hamburg, her tattooed back turned toward the camera.

INTIMATE PORTRAIT · APRIL · HAMBURG-STERNSCHANZE, GERMANY

HER OWN LANGUAGE

Drawing, tattooing, cats and antlers. Anki at home in the Sternschanze.

Anki’s apartment in the Sternschanze was full of her. Drawings, tattoo work, two cats, antlers on the wall. Nothing in there needed styling.

I had photographed her before, in another apartment. I would later photograph her wedding. This time I wanted to see what happened when she stayed inside her own world and I stopped trying to add one.

Pens, brushes and drawing tools arranged on Anki’s desk.
Anki draws at her desk in her Sternschanze apartment.
A black cat rests by the window as Anki reaches toward it.
Anki sits in an armchair surrounded by art and flowers.
Anki covers part of her face with a tattooed hand.
Anki looks down in a close portrait against a pale wall.Anki stands in her living room with a white cat in the foreground.
Anki holds her black cat close to her chest.

Anki painted as well as tattooed. Once I noticed that, the apartment made more sense. The drawings, the bodies, the things she kept around her. None of it felt separate.

She did not need a character for the photographs. She already had enough going on.

Anki faces the camera with both hands beside her head.
Anki sits in a bedroom, seen through a doorway and mirror.
Anki lies on the bed while a cat fills the foreground.
Anki lies on blue bedding, photographed from above.
Anki reclines on the bed and looks across the room.
Anki sits on the bed with one hand resting on her shoulder.
A close view of Anki’s tattooed hand, leg and torso on the bed.
Anki lies curled on the bed, her tattooed back turned upward.

At some point she told me something I had not known when I arrived. We kept photographing.

We did not turn the afternoon into a story it had never been. Nothing became a symbol. I just read some of the quieter frames differently afterwards.

Anki rests with her face close to the camera and one hand at her neck.
Anki lies on the bed with a cat watching from the foreground.
A lamp and framed drawing in a quiet corner of Anki’s apartment.
Anki sits on a bed at home in Hamburg, her tattooed back turned toward the camera.
Anki stands holding a deer skull with antlers in front of her body.
A cat looks past Anki’s tattooed arm in the foreground.
Anki sits on the floor with her arms resting around her knees.

The photographs move between drawing, laughing, lying still and looking straight back at me.

That is enough. Anki, at home, with the things she cared about.

Anki sits on a rug reading a book beside a low wooden chest.
A small book rests on the wooden surface of a chest.

Ready to write your own story?

Get in touch