Room Portraits
by Menno Aden

German photographer Menno Aden has shot a series of Berlin interiors from an unconventional viewpoint: looking down from the ceiling.

The Room Portraits include a bar, a classroom, a shoe shop, a supermarket, a car park and an apartment.

In each instance the camera was positioned in the centre of the ceiling to create an image that appears flattened and abstracted.

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Through challenging camera angles Menno Aden abstracts most familiar actual living environments and public interiors into flattened two-dimensional scale models.

A camera that the artist installed on the ceiling of various rooms takes pictures downwards of the interiors.

The resulting images lay out space in symmetrical compositions that look like assemblages stripped of any kind of objectivity.

The views into private homes and secret retreats bring up associations of the ubiquitous observation camera.

The notion of surveillance is systematically played out by the artist to hint at society’s voyeuristic urge that popular culture has made mainstream.

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• Interiors