German Prison Cells

Jürgen Chill's photographic series zellen is the closest you'll ever have to come to being inside a German prison cell. As if suspended from the ceiling above these tiny spaces, Jürgen's bird's eye perspective is applied to 9 different in-use cells across several German prison's.

He said in an interview "My photographs are most like a map of the prison cells; like a Google Earth view of a landscape. I try to communicate information about the individuals that have to live in perhaps the smallest possible space for habitation that a person can have - without showing this person himself. Personal and functional items are all accommodated in the tightest space.

I’m interested in how a person arranges personal and functional items in their small cell. And what kind of person can it be [based upon the visible evidence]? Is it possible to get a “picture” of a person by having a view of his private space? It’s a view and perspective that you normally would never get of these cells. So it is not really “real”, more a scenery set or something similar."











Source: juergenchill