TIMO STAMMBERGER: ‘UNDERGROUND LANDSCAPES’
“Underground Landscapes” by the Berlin based photographer Timo Stammberger depicts subway tunnels of cities such as Berlin, Dortmund, New York, Philadelphia, Lisbon or Stockholm. These tunnels are part of large, well-branched mass transit systems, which are used by many people on a daily basis, playing an immense though hidden role in the life of today’s metropolises.
«By calling these underground scenarios “landscapes”, I links them to other urban infrastructure like the “Autobahn” (the Highway), sharing the similar, purely functional purpose. However, for most passengers on their way through the underground of cities, the tunnel environment creates only one picture: a dark, black something, passing by the window. The French anthropologist Marc Augé writing about “Non-Places” says that space of the non-resort creates no particular identity, and no special relation, but loneliness and similarity. Based on constructivism and due to my previous work as a graffiti artist, I experience and show the subway tunnel as a “Place”. The tunnels gain identity through my photographic interpretation of the various carefully chosen subway systems.»
© Timo Stammberger