Florian Hetz (DE)

Born 1985, Frankfurt, Germany
Lives and works Berlin, Germany

After a severe encephalitis put an abrupt end to his professional life as producer for theatre, Florian Hetz started to keep a visual diary to counteract the memory loss as an after-effect of the brain inflammation. He began documenting his daily life during the recovery. Gradually the process of taking diary photos shifted to creating photos that were based on his memories, or what he had to trust his memory was.

Much of the Berlin photographer’s work from that time zooms in on those memories by using the close up as a stylistic medium. By closing in on those seemingly normal every day moments and bodies, he elevates them and translates them into his very own hyper focused, visceral language.

During an artist residency at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles Hetz started to introduce landscapes and still-lifes into his work and began to engage with natural light. His second book “ZWEI” combines the clean, factual studio work from Berlin with the warm plein-air work from Los Angeles, and the juxtapositions create a dialogue between them.

And while his work still dissects the possibilities of the human body, he came full circle in 2020, when he started to concentrate again more on the diary photos. His new Book “AIKO” will be released at the end of 2021 and will introduce this body of work for the first time to the public.

Haut by Florian Hetz is supported by the Goethe-Institut