Christian Boltanski - Life and Death

Christian Boltanski: Sans Souci (1991)

Boltanski's "Sans Souci" is a collection of photographs of people who died in Germany during World War 2, they depict these people enjoying everyday western life, often with their families and loved ones.  The piece draws attention to two main aspects: As a viewer, and as a consequence of the progression of time and memory, we do not know which of the dead were Jewish victims and which were Nazis - inviting us to contemplate the point of view that any human 'just like us' is capable of atrocities.  The images also draw on the poignancy of the contrast between life and death - we are fascinated by these images of life because we know these people are now dead.


"We just can't preserve things, or save them from decaying.  And that's what my early work is about: Preserving objects while being aware of their transient nature."
Christian Boltanski (Boltanski, Time. Edited by Ralf Beil. Hatje Cantz 2006)


When I first bought the wellies, I photographed them in a domestic setting.  I liked the ambience created by the light in this particular photo, and the narrative played out by the setting of the wellies by the door.  I have since placed the cast in the same position in recent photographs - I feel the combination of the two states of the object in the same place creates an interesting juxtaposition.

Original Wellies

Cast